Gilliland struck with luck to win NASCAR In-Season Challenge

Todd Gilliland and Front Row Motorsports are $1 million richer.

Gilliland claimed the prize Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway by defeating Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney in the In-Season Challenge. He finished 24th. Blaney, however, was not far behind in 26th.

It was a crash off a restart with 42 laps to go that swung fortune in Gilliland’s favor. Blaney was tagged by John Hunter Nemechek in Turn 3 and could not overcome the damage to catch Gilliland.

“It feels really good,” said Gilliland. “Obviously, we wish we ran a little bit better than 24th today, but we did what we had to do. Really, that was the name of our game all the way throughout this challenge; we just barely skated by. We were obviously a bit lucky, but we still stuck out these races. We did the best we could, and luckily it was good enough, just barely, every single round.

“It’s a big prize. One million dollars going to the team. That’s just massive. Our team deserves it. They all ramped up and worked extremely hard, so I’m just super proud of everyone for what they’ve done. Hopefully, we can keep building on this and the intensity that we’re able to achieve.”

Gilliland had been outrun by Blaney until the crash occurred. Blaney qualified 13th and had the track position, but after qualifying 36th, Gilliland was buried in the field.

But he did not want to know how the two were running in comparison to the other unless something noteworthy happened. Blaney being in a crash was that moment, and Gilliland saw it in front of him.

“I saw the bright yellow [car] spinning up top, and I thought that was at least a chance for us,” Gilliland said. “I was very surprised how fast he still was after that. He was right on my bumper. There was one car in between us, but fairly close for the last 25 laps or so.

“It was nerve-racking for sure, but it’s great to feel those nerves racing for something meaningful, and it was cool. I think my team deserves this, for sure.”

Gilliland defeated Spire Motorsports drivers in the first two rounds with matchups against Daniel Suarez and then Carson Hocevar. He then defeated two Hendrick Motorsports drivers in the third and fourth rounds with matchups against Alex Bowman and Chase Elliott.