Cinderella’s glass slipper fit for at least one more week in the inaugural running of the NASCAR In-Season Challenge.
No. 32 seed Ty Dillon received the free pass ahead of the double overtime restart in Sunday’s Cup Series race at Dover Motor Speedway, allowing him to sneak past No. 12 seed John Hunter Nemechek for a spot in the Champions Round at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Dillon finished 20th, just one spot better than Nemechek, who was the first driver one lap down in 21st. The Kaulig Racing driver is just 160 laps away from a $1 million payout and the completion of an unlikely — and almost near-improbable — journey toward mid-season lore.
Here’s where we stand after Dover and before next Sunday’s Brickyard 400 Presented by PPG (2 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, IMS Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
MORE: Dover results | Check your bracket
Dover Motor Speedway winner: Denny Hamlin fended off Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chase Briscoe on a pair of overtime restarts to notch his fourth win of the 2025 season and his second in a row at the “Monster Mile.” While the 44-year-old’s win didn’t affect the In-Season Challenge, it’s ironic because Hamlin, the No. 1 seed in the tournament, got knocked off by Dillon in the opening round at EchoPark Speedway (formerly known as Atlanta Motor Speedway).
Hamlin finished fourth at the Chicago Street Course, which, following the same path that Dillon did, would’ve propelled him past Brad Keselowski. To the same tune, Hamlin finished 20th at Sonoma Raceway last weekend while Alex Bowman finished 19th, meaning that under the right circumstances, we easily could’ve been discussing the now 58-time winner as a finalist come Indianapolis.
Who advances to the finals: (6) Ty Gibbs and (32) Ty Dillon.
Both semifinal matchups couldn’t have been much tighter. Ty Gibbs battled with fellow Toyota driver Tyler Reddick, who both ran inside the top 10 for much of the afternoon. On the other side of the coin, both Dillon and opponent Nemechek ran inside the 20s for a majority of the event, going a lap down early on and scampering for an opportunity to receive the free pass, which Dillon successfully did in the waning moments of the race.
While his run in the In-Season Challenge is over, Nemechek certainly made his mark. The Legacy Motor Club driver finished sixth in two of the three seeding races (Pocono and Mexico City), earning the No. 12 seed as the entire organization has continued to make strides in the summer months. He certainly didn’t dominate the first three rounds of the tournament, finishing no better than 15th, but showed that a survive-and-advance mentality (and maybe a little family trash talk) is the recipe for success.
So, who’s going to win the first edition of the In-Season Challenge? Safe to say it’ll be Ty.
Who’s up:
Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Big picture, Ty Gibbs is more focused on making the Cup Series Playoffs and earning his first career victory, but it’s safe to say that the In-Season Challenge has helped turn his 2025 season around. Gibbs finished fifth and gained some late separation on Reddick in the closing laps — despite both pitting for tires at Lap 388 — to punch his championship ticket at “The Brickyard.” Since the seeding races began at Michigan International Speedway seven weeks ago, the 22-year-old hasn’t finished worse than 14th. With five races remaining in the regular season, Gibbs sits 52 points below the cutline.
JGR competition director and former Hamlin crew chief Chris Gabehart has helped guide the team in recent weeks (in addition to crew chief Tyler Allen), and since the calendar flipped to June, Gibbs has made up 11 spots in the championship standings (27th after Nashville to 16th after Dover).
Who’s down:
Tyler Reddick, No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota. Reddick did a nice job of wiping three difficult seeding races (best finish of 13th at Michigan) to finish no worse than sixth in the first three rounds of the In-Season Challenge. But lady luck ran out for the 29-year-old at Dover as Reddick faded to 12th in the closing laps despite spending much of the race inside the top 10. He beat Gibbs off pit road shortly after the red flag for rain at Lap 388 and restarted ninth, but ended up going the wrong way as Gibbs used the two overtime restarts to his advantage.
It’s not the In-Season Challenge that Reddick would’ve liked, but the No. 45 team is heading in the right direction on the doorstep of the playoffs.
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