After weeks of bracket chaos, upsets, and surprises, the in-season challenge comes down to the most unexpected final: Ty Gibbs vs. Ty Dillon. One is the young phenom in top-tier equipment. The other? The journeyman nobody expected to make it past round one. And now, somehow, we’re here.

• Ty Dillon at the Brickyard? Believe it or not, it’s one of his best tracks
• Ty Gibbs has the car, the pace, and the hype—but will that be enough?
• Dillon has an Xfinity win here, and his worst Cup finish is 21st. Coincidence?
• Is this the start of a Cinderella story or the final chapter?

It’s the most improbable finale yet. On paper, Gibbs should run away with it. But Dillon’s form in the challenge—and his quiet history at Indy—says don’t count him out. Stranger things have happened in NASCAR. And at this point? Why not Ty Dillon? Let us know who you’ve got in this Ty vs. Ty showdown. Will it be a legacy launch or a legacy upset?

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Justin Haley, driver of the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Media Availability Quotes:

What does racing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway mean to you?

“Yeah, this is obviously my home track. Gainbridge has a large presence here, as well. So, yeah, just an important race for our team. Hopefully we unload here fast in practice and can put on a good show. So, yeah, obviously important for me. I grew up racing here — not racing here, but watching a lot of the Indianapolis 500’s. We have a strong relationship with Gainbridge, who’s been one our main sponsors this year. So, yeah, I’m excited to get going here. It’s always good to be home.”

How would you describe the season so far for you and the No. 7 team? What are the boxes you’re trying to check as we get closer to the end of the regular season here?

“I think it’s just been interesting. I mean, that’s really all I can think about when I think about our season. Obviously, I feel like at the start of the season, we were pretty good, and then the car chief and crew chief change happened. We kind of went through a section through May and June where I thought we were pretty decent; had good speed but just caught up in a lot of incidents that kind of tanked us back in the points.

But again, I feel like anytime we got into an incident, it really wasn’t our fault. It was just a bad stretch. So, yeah, we’ve kind of tried to climb back through the metric and have decent days. I feel like we’re coming off two okay finishes right there inside the top-20. I feel like we’ve had good speed, but just trying to find our groove again. Obviously, it’s been a pretty difficult season, in general, with where we are in the points standing and kind of what we’ve gone through. Definitely not what I expected when I started in Daytona, to go through all we’ve been through. But just trying to find a little bit of silver lining and get some good finishes by the end of the year.”

How old were you when you first came to Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and what is your first memory of this track?

“Yeah, I’m not sure. I know I skipped school a few times. I was definitely in elementary school. My parents had some friends that still live right here, not but a quarter mile away. We used to stay at their house and used to watch a lot of Indy 500’s — come up here for Carb Day, all the practices and spent a lot of time here watching the INDYCAR’s.

I’m not sure if I ever came to a Brickyard, but yeah, I would say I was pretty young… probably six or seven. I knew it was before I started racing. I started racing when I was nine. So yeah, spent a lot of time here; had a lot of fun with it. I enjoy coming here.”

It’s been a tough season so far. What’s your outlook going forward for the rest of the year and trying to get things back on the right track for yourself and the team?

“Yeah, I mean, I kind of hit on that earlier. It’s just been interesting. I’m not really sure why or how I’ve gotten to this point. But yeah, it was tough, obviously losing what we lost and just trying to find our footing after that.

I feel like we have speed. I feel like there’s been weeks where we show a lot of promise, and a lot of those weeks we got caught up in someone else’s mess. So yeah, we’ve kind of climbed back up the metric. I feel like we’re in a good spot here for qualifying. I feel like the past two weeks, we’ve had decent speed. We had the fastest lap at Sonoma. Unfortunately, it took us a day-in-a-half to get there to be the fastest car. But yeah, it’s been fine. I feel like it’s just been difficult. Not what I expected at all, but just trying to find a little bit of speed and get some finishes.

I’m glad to have (Michael) McDowell on my side. He’s been a big part of this year and helping me. He’s been an awesome teammate. Can’t say enough about Michael and what he’s done for our organization and our team.

So yeah, I feel like we’re okay. We just got to get a little bit better.”

Practice was cancelled yesterday and moved to today. Does that change your approach to practice today with the shortened time and the boxes you check to get ready for tomorrow?

“Yeah, it certainly does. I feel like that’s kind of hurt us, too. I’ve been trying to find a feel that I haven’t quite found yet. We had some packages we wanted to run through yesterday to try to hopefully find that feel and get translation from the simulator. So yeah, we kind of had to go with the package and stick with it today. And tomorrow, obviously with the shortened practices that we normally have, you really can’t do much to it.

I was kind of looking forward to yesterday. I know we brought some extra people to try to run through some more changes on my car and figure out something that I liked. I mean, I’m confident that it’ll be fast. Hopefully I have a good feel for it and we’ll be all right.”

You mentioned that this just hasn’t gone the way that you expected it to go from when you started at Daytona. What have you learned about yourself and the guys who are still around you on the No. 7 team throughout the course of this season? Also, what has Michael done specifically to help you out throughout the course of this season?

“I think Michael (McDowell) is just like a good glue guy, right? Like he just, I feel like, ties up all the loose ends that there might be and just kind of brings everyone together.

So yeah, just having teammates like him. I relate to him a lot like I did AJ (Allmendinger), right? Like just a figure that’s been around and seen it all. He just has a good overview perspective on maybe where your team’s at, where your car’s at or where you’re at as a driver. I’m living in it and trying to do it all, but having a neutral figure like Michael who is just there for your best interest has been a big help.

So yeah, I’m glad he’s taken me under my wing, and obviously I’m fully supportive of him and his team, as well. If it’s at 5 a.m. when we’re hitting pickleballs at his house or if we’re hashing it out in a competition meeting about something, he’s just been a great human being.”

GM PR

Tonight’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Indianapolis is likely going to lead to penalties for Richard Childress Racing driver Austin Hill. It appeared that Hill right rear hooked Aric Almirola and caused both drivers to wreck. Now, RC himself is commenting on the situation.

What isn’t going to help Austin Hill is how he reacted on his radio after being held for five laps by NASCAR. Hill went on to finish P34 by the time the race finished, one spot above Almirola.

Richard Childress was asked about the situation. He came off as defensive and stood up for his driver.

“I’ll be in bigger trouble than I already am with NASCAR, period,” Richard Childress said when initially asked about the incident. He then weighed in after being asked if Austin Hill should be suspended.

“Hell no. They didn’t do a damn thing to the 2 car [of Austin Cindric] when they, he wrecked Ty [Dillon] and admitted to it,” Childress said, via Dustin Long of NBC Sports. “Drove him in the right rear and wrecked him at COTA. It’s who you are. We’re a blue-collar team, they give us trouble all the time.”

Richard Childress is always going to stand up for his drivers. That’s just how it is. But Austin Cindric was penalized for his right rear hook on Ty Dillon at COTA. Some felt it wasn’t enough, but he was penalized 50 points and received a fine.

Richard Childress sticking up for Austin Hill

There are serious consequences at stake for Richard Childress and Austin Hill. If NASCAR finds that this right rear hook was intentional, they are going to throw the book at Hill, and they should.

He is a driver who not only has a past of questionable decisions, but one that stood up in front of the entire series and said he was going to be a good example of how to race. Today, he threw that all out the window when he wrecked Almirola.

If NASCAR suspends Hill for a week or two, that’s going to sink his chances of an Xfinity Series championship. It could also be the first time we see a driver in the three national series lose all playoff points for the season. That is the punishment for an unexcused absence from a race, and a suspension via penalty is not a valid excuse.

Richard Childress doesn’t think his driver should be suspended. I get that. But NASCAR is likely going to feel a lot different. Hill has to get his act together. This is not when you need to make these mistakes and poor decisions. All of his hard work could go out the window. Hill has won races, and he has playoff points. A suspension takes all of that away.

Today, JR Motorsports got its 100th win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and Dale Earnhardt Jr. was in attendance to witness it. A very popular win among race fans. Connor Zilisch went out there and took it at the end of today’s race.

Connor Zilisch has won five races this season. He is starting to make it look easy out there. Late race situations are nothing for Zilisch at this point, or it at least seems that way.

In the last nine races, Zilisch has four wins and no finishes worse than P5. Dale Earnhardt Jr. knows he has a special driver behind the wheel of the 88 car.

“Yeah, I was, uh, a lot of people to thank,” Dale Jr. said after the race on The CW. “But he [Zilisch] did a good job, man. Just awesome driving to him. We got some help from Sam on the back straightaway. Just a good little driver. Hey, these races are tough on your heart. Up and down, up and down. 100 wins for our team. That’s a big deal. I know my sister and everybody’s very emotional, and we’re going to enjoy this one.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was asked what he thought at the end when Zilisch temporarily lost the lead. What was that like? Well, it wasn’t fun. But he had the right driver for the job.

“Oh man. He’s a hell of a driver,” Earnhardt continued. “You know, he just went up there and got it back. We’ve got great race cars, a good race car underneath him to do what he needed to do. So, it takes a lot of us and want to thank the engine shop. Hendrick Motorsports engine shop, that’s what wins races in places like this and at Dover. So, thank y’all for all the hard work, they’ve worked hard this year. And all the support we get from HMS, it’s important to our performance.”

While Connor Zilisch won, it could have easily have been Justin Allgaier. The 7 led the most laps, 37, on the day. However, an incident with Kyle Larson late ended Allgaier’s hopes of a victory. So, Zilisch picked up the pieces and delivered the 100th win to JRM.

When Dale Earnhardt Jr. goes to sleep tonight, he will have 100 wins to his name as an owner. What an accomplishment for that organization.

A rash of ill fortune finally caught up with William Byron.

When he crashed out of last Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Dover Motor Speedway—through no fault of his own—the 31st-place finish cost him the series lead.

Byron now trails Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott, a model of consistency this season, by 16 points. Three-time winner Kyle Larson, another Hendrick teammate, is third in the standings, 38 points behind Elliott.

For his part, Byron relishes a battle that’s staged within the same shop.

“I think it’s great,” he said. “I think it’s a really good thing, because it’s elevating all of our programs and elevating the importance of this part of the season.

“It’s obviously always important, but when you have three of us going for it, it’s like, ‘OK, it’s going to take your best for the next five weeks.’ I look at it like it’s going to give you more of an idea of what the Playoffs are going to be like.”

Before the Dover race, Byron had held the series lead for 17 of 20 weeks, but only one finish better than 27th in the last five races has proven costly. That streak has been unlucky enough for Byron to acknowledge he might have been “snakebit.”

“You could definitely say that,” he acknowledged. “I try not to use the ‘luck’ word a lot, but if you look at Atlanta and Dover and how we got crashed, I mean we just got run over from behind. Like, I check up for the wreck, and not everyone does.

“So I guess in those two instances you could say that definitely we weren’t in control of those two results… It’s just part of the nature of the schedule and the way things play out.

“We’ve had top-five speed everywhere, but the results haven’t been there every week. Chicago was definitely on me in practice (a clutch issue), and Pocono was also on me in qualifying, and unfortunately those race results weren’t there. Then other things happened, but yeah, I think it’s still within reach—we’ve just got to do it.”