{"id":28542,"date":"2025-07-22T11:42:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T11:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/28542\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T11:42:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T11:42:13","slug":"cinderella-story-last-seed-ty-dillon-sneaks-way-into-nascar-bracket-challenge-finals-racing-for-1m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/28542\/","title":{"rendered":"Cinderella Story: Last-seed Ty Dillon sneaks way into NASCAR bracket challenge finals, racing for $1M"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cinderella story continues. Ty Dillon<\/a> entered the NASCAR<\/a> In-Season Challenge as the lowest-seeded driver at No. 32. He\u2019s survived all the way to the finale for a chance at $1 million next weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s left a slew of veteran wheelmen behind. Dillon has defeated Denny Hamlin<\/a>, Brad Keselowski<\/a>, Alex Bowman<\/a> and John Hunter Nemechek<\/a> on his way to the final round. Now, the No. 32-seed will have one final test. Ty Gibbs<\/a> is standing in the way of a gigantic upset during Year 1 of the In-Season Challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels good,\u201d Dillon said, regarding reaching the finals, via NBC Sports<\/a>. \u201cYou know, I have been the underdog for a long time now, just battling my way to try to get opportunity. Eventually you get comfortable in fighting from behind and people underestimating you.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to say that we lucked into it this far in. I am proud of the way we have run. We haven\u2019t been a dominating car, but we have been a pain to everyone around us. That is all we can do \u2014 put pressure on them and execute at the right time and that is what we have done.\u201d<\/p>\n

While he\u2019s not setting the world on fire \u2014 Dillon finished P20 at Dover, one spot ahead of Nemechek \u2014 it\u2019s been a story fans have rallied behind. The veteran wheelman has had an uneven NASCAR career, but winning the In-Season Challenge could change everything for him. <\/p>\n

Will Ty Dillon finish the job in Indianapolis? <\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a fun story for fans and media members to follow. Fellow drivers aren\u2019t exactly impressed with Dillon\u2019s run though. Veterans like Denny Hamlin<\/a> and Kevin Harvick<\/a> have taken some shots at the Kaulig Racing driver over the past couple of weeks, believing that Dillon has been lucky throughout to this run.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs he in the finals? You know what that tells me though \u2026 Had I got past Atlanta how easy was my trip going to be to the finals? Where\u2019d he finish? 20th?!\u201d Hamlin stated, regarding Dillon\u2019s finish at Dover this Sunday. \u201cListen, I\u2019m rooting for him personally, especially as the worst seed, right? But I think at Indy, he\u2019s gonna need some help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally, Hamlin proclaimed he\u2019ll be rooting for Gibbs to defeat Dillon, but that\u2019s to be expected. The duo are teammates after all. Still, it\u2019s giving off a bit of hater energy for the Welcome, North Carolina native. <\/p>\n

Ironically enough, Indianapolis is one of Ty Dillon\u2019s better tracks in the Cup Series, so there\u2019s a real shot he could end up as the winner of the inaugural NASCAR In-Season Challenge. Time will tell if he can best Ty Gibbs, but he\u2019ll certainly have the lion share of fans behind him in Indiana next weekend. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cinderella story continues. Ty Dillon entered the NASCAR In-Season Challenge as the lowest-seeded driver at No. 32.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[425,99],"class_list":["post-28542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}