Gibbs, JGR take in-season tournament prize at Indy

Ty Gibbs and Joe Gibbs Racing claimed the $1 million prize from the NASCAR in-season tournament in an anticlimactic finale at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Gibbs finished 21st in the Brickyard 400. He qualified fifth.

He and the No. 54 team took the prize over Ty Dillon and Kaulig Racing. Dillon, like Gibbs, was never much of a factor and then fell out of contention after falling multiple laps off the pace when his Chevrolet suffered nose damage in an accordion effect incident on a restart. He finished 28th.

“It’s great,” Gibbs said. “One million dollars 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.”

The five-week tournament began at EchoPark Speedway (Atlanta) with Gibbs seeded sixth. He was matched with Justin Haley in the first round and advanced with a 14th-place finish over the 23rd-place finish Haley earned.

In the second round, on the streets of Chicago, it was Gibbs versus AJ Allmendinger. Gibbs defeated Dillon’s Kaulig Racing teammate as he finished second to Allmendinger's sixth.

The third round was at Sonoma Raceway, where Gibbs took on Zane Smith of Front Row Motorsports. Gibbs finished seventh and Smith finished 27th.

In the semifinal at Dover, it was a battle of Toyota teammates between Gibbs and Tyler Reddick. The two ran near each other all afternoon, with Gibbs prevailing with a fifth-place finish over Reddick’s result of 12th.

“We had a fast SAIA Toyota Camry; didn’t end up where we wanted to in the end,” Gibbs said. “We just lost track position and was out of the way to win the race, had to play it a little bit safe.

“Thank you to TNT and NASCAR for this opportunity. It’s awesome to win it.”