SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Sunday’s (July 27) Brickyard 400 will serve as the grand finale to the NASCAR Cup Series’ inaugural In-Season Challenge, and Ty Dillon — the 32nd and final seed of the tournament — only has to finish ahead of Ty Gibbs on Sunday to earn $1 million for Kaulig Racing in a Cinderella story for the ages.
“This is a run that I don’t think I could have ever expected, based around something totally unique to our sport. I’m beyond grateful for what it’s done for me and the race team and our sponsors,” Dillon said in a Saturday (July 26) press conference.
But for Dillon, a 33-year-old veteran with more than 250 Cup starts under his belt, it’s not the money he’s after. Instead, he’s stopping to smell the roses and chasing memories that will last a lifetime.
“We’re so appreciative that we have something so cool like that for something new in the middle of the season, but for me, money doesn’t change your happiness,” Dillon explained. “It makes you available to do some more fun things, but my true happiness resides in just having fun with my kids, sharing moments with them, but also sharing moments with the race team.
“And the moments that we’ve been provided through this in-season tournament have been bigger than anything I’ve been a part of.”
NASCAR is a competitive, cutthroat sport that requires excellence and non-stop improvement. The work doesn’t end outside the racetrack or shop, and time can fly by before you ever realize it’s gone.
“You can realize you never had fun because you were so worried sick about your next opportunity in the next race or being the best,” Dillon recalled. “You can look back and not remember anything. I’ve been lucky enough to stick around where there’s been years that you look back and you’re like, ‘I don’t remember one highlight from that year because I was so in my own head and so worried about everything going on.'”
Those nerves are long gone for Dillon. He’s taken the last five weeks of the In-Season Challenge in stride, and he’s basked in every single moment that he can. The $1 million prize would be a fantastic haul, but losing wouldn’t make or break his month. The experience alone has made him rich.
“So I guess growing older, being around a lot longer, I feel like coming into this thing I’ve already won and we’re on house money,” Dillon remarked. “Just because of the moments and memories that we shared, the growth we’ve had as a team, the confidence that we’re all building in each other and the future that’s right in front of us.
“The money would be great, the trophy would be awesome to show around and (to) have some more one-liners for everybody if we do this thing first, but the things that (the challenge) has already provided for our race team, for our sponsors, have been enough. And hopefully this is just the beginning of it.”
But make no mistake: Dillon is hungry to win it all. And if he and Gibbs were bumper-to-bumper on the final lap with a million bucks on the line, what would he do to get by?
“Ask Alex Bowman.”
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Find Stephen on Twitter @stephen_stumpf