There are plenty of ways to earn $1 million in NASCAR.
You can win the Daytona 500. You can dominate a playoff race. You can sign a contract with one of the sport’s powerhouse organizations.
Or, if you’re Todd Gilliland, you can finish 24th.
That sounds completely backwards because it is. Yet that’s exactly what happened Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where the Front Row Motorsports driver claimed the second NASCAR In-Season Challenge despite never threatening for the race win.
And for the second straight year, NASCAR’s summertime bracket tournament managed to make a battle deep in the field just as compelling as the one at the front.
Normally, once the leaders settle into their rhythm, nobody pays much attention to the cars running in the 20s. On Sunday, however, one of the most fascinating stories wasn’t who was chasing Corey Heim. It was whether Gilliland could stay ahead of Ryan Blaney long enough to cash a seven-figure check.
Gilliland entered the five-week, 32-driver tournament as the No. 25 seed. Blaney, the No. 3 seed and a former Cup Series champion, looked like the overwhelming favorite after finishing no worse than 11th through the first four rounds.
For much of Sunday’s race, that’s exactly how it looked.
Then NASCAR reminded everyone that favorites don’t always get fairy-tale endings.
On Lap 120, Blaney made contact with John Hunter Nemechek entering the corner, damaging the No. 12 Team Penske Ford and forcing an unscheduled trip to pit road for repairs. Suddenly, the favorite was buried in traffic while Gilliland had an unexpected opportunity.
“I saw the bright yellow spinning up top, and I thought that was at least a chance for us,” Gilliland admitted. “I was very surprised how fast he still was after that.”
Fast enough to make the final 25 laps miserable.
Gilliland slipped backward after restarting 15th while Blaney charged through the field despite the damage. The margin between them continued to shrink until every position became worth thousands of dollars.
When the checkered flag waved, Gilliland crossed the finish line 24th. Blaney finished 26th.
Two positions.
That was the difference between winning the tournament and wondering what might have been.
For Blaney, there wasn’t much consolation.
“He apologized and said he didn’t mean to do it,” Blaney said of his post-race conversation with Nemechek. “Still happened though.”
The reigning tournament runner-up admitted the contact changed everything.
“We were all just trying to funnel into the corner and I was just trying to fill the lane and thought I had plenty of room,” Blaney said. “It’s a shame to end it that way. We were just kind of scrapping along. It stinks. I wanted to put together a good run today… Unfortunately, it didn’t go the way we wanted.”
Gilliland wasn’t about to apologize for taking advantage.
“It feels really good,” he said. “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.”
There was no hiding the fact that luck played a role. But that’s the beauty of a knockout tournament. You don’t have to dominate every round. You simply have to survive one more week than everyone else.
The $1 million bonus goes to Front Row Motorsports, and Gilliland made sure the spotlight stayed on the people turning the wrenches.
“Our team deserves it,” he said. “They all ramped up and worked extremely hard. I’m just super proud of everyone for what they’ve done.”
Traditionalists will scoff at the idea of someone becoming a millionaire for finishing 24th.
Fair enough.
But here’s what the second edition of the In-Season Challenge proved: it gives fans a reason to care about battles throughout the field instead of only watching the leaders. For the closing laps at Indianapolis, 24th place mattered. Every pass mattered. Every position carried real consequences.
Stock car racing doesn’t often make the middle of the pack feel like the main event.
For the second straight year, the In-Season Challenge did exactly that. And Todd Gilliland just became its latest unlikely millionaire.
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.
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