{"id":83273,"date":"2025-07-22T13:26:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T13:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/83273\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T13:26:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T13:26:09","slug":"nascar-raises-eyebrows-makes-late-change-to-in-season-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/83273\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR raises eyebrows, makes late change to in-season tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ty Dillon<\/a><\/strong> and Ty Gibbs<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0are preparing for the finale of the inaugural NASCAR<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0In-Season Challenge, and they believed they were racing for a cool $1 million. However, the sport\u2019s decision makes through a wrench into that idea on Tuesday. <\/p>\n

After many originally thought the money would go directly to the driver, NASCAR clarified and took some wind out of fan\u2019s sails \u2014 the money will go directly to the owner, per FOX\u2019s Bob Pockrass<\/a>. It\u2019s not like it doesn\u2019t make sense, but that\u2019s not what many were led to believe about the In-Season Challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cUpdate: NASCAR says the $1 million for the winning driver will go to the owner,\u201d Pockrass noted on X, formerly known as <\/a>Twitter. \u201c\u2026 I believe when the in-season tournament was first announced, the understanding of many in the garage was that the $1 million would go directly to the driver. But NASCAR says it will be paid to owner just like the purse (and depends on driver contract on how much driver gets).\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, the teams, Kaulig Racing (Dillon) and Joe Gibbs Racing (Gibbs) could opt to pay out their driver with the money. Still, it\u2019s a shocking development that it seems like many weren\u2019t made aware of over the course of the last month and change. <\/p>\n

Perhaps the news ruins a bit of the excitement heading into Indianapolis this weekend. Regardless, Ty Dillon and Ty Gibbs will be fighting throughout the afternoon in Indiana, no matter where the million goes for the winner. <\/p>\n

More on the inaugural NASCAR In-Season Challenge <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Ty Dillon<\/strong>\u00a0entered the\u00a0In-Season Challenge as the lowest-seeded driver at No. 32. He\u2019s survived all the way to the finale for a chance at winning that whole thing.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s left a slew of veteran wheelmen behind. Dillon has defeated\u00a0Denny Hamlin<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0Brad Keselowski<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0Alex Bowman<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0John Hunter Nemechek<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0on his way to the final round. Now, the No. 32-seed will have one final test against\u00a0Ty Gibbs<\/strong>, who\u2019s standing in the way of a gigantic upset.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels good,\u201d\u00a0Dillon said, regarding reaching the finals, via\u00a0NBC 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ty Dillon and Ty Gibbs\u00a0are preparing for the finale of the inaugural NASCAR\u00a0In-Season Challenge, and they believed they…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":83274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[1406,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-83273","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-nascar","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114897117697760483","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}