Ty Gibbs makes pledge to Ty Dillon after winning $1M NASCAR In-Season Tournament prize

Ty Gibbs defeated Ty Dillon in the Ty vs. Ty matchup in the Final Round of the inaugural NASCAR In-Season Challenge. Gibbs finished 21st in Sunday’s Brickyard 400 — seven spots ahead of Dillon — to claim the $1 million prize.

As Gibbs said after the race, $1 million is a lot of money. So much, that he’s going to donate $10,000 to a charity of Dillon’s choosing.

“It’s great,” Gibbs said, via Nick DeGroot of Motorsport. “Want to first say, all glory to God. And, $1 million is a lot of money so I’m going to donate $10,000 to whichever charity Ty Dillon wants to give to. It’s his choice.”

Gibbs, though a six seed, was far from a popular pick to win the tournament. He picked a good time to have some impressive performances, compiling three top 10s in the five tournament races, including a runner-up finish in the Chicago Street Race.

Ty Gibbs handles Ty Dillon in Final Round of NASCAR In-Season Tournament

While Gibbs got the more favorable matchups on his way to the Final Round, Dillon had to go through a host of established names. The No. 32 seed (last) in the tournament, Dillon eliminated Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Alex Bowman and John Hunter Nemechek. This was his Cinderella moment, and he made sure to make the most of it with his trash talk and zingers along the way.

But at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, his good fortune ran out. He sustained nose damage off a restart stack-up in Stage 2, eventually falling three laps down.

“Disappointing, obviously, but things like that happen and you can’t predict everything,” Dillon said. “That’s what has been so cool about this In-Season Challenge for everybody. I just hate that we didn’t get to give them a run for it there. Don’t think they would say as a team that they had the best day either. I think if all things are equal and we don’t knock the nose off on that restart, we are probably sitting in a pretty good position to put some pressure on him and race him out pretty solid.

“The first half of the race, we were OK, and then we had a bad run there at the end of Stage 1. So, I think we were going to be able to get the car back right and challenge him, but it just didn’t work out that way and it’s disappointing.”