Todd Gilliland and Ryan Blaney will square off in the 2026 NASCAR In-Season Challenge championship round at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 26. The No. 25 seed from Front Row Motorsports will go head-to-head against the No. 3 seed from Team Penske in a winner-take-all matchup for the $1 million prize.
The TNT bracket finale runs alongside the Brickyard 400, and one of the two drivers will walk away from the 2.5-mile oval with a seven-figure payday. When Gilliland was asked what he plans to do with the prize money if he wins, his answer reflected how surreal the whole run has felt for the No. 34 Ford team.
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“Yeah, this seems pretty far away at this moment. But it’ll be a lot of fun for sure. Unfortunately and good for the team, it all goes to the team and then it gets split up. So I have no idea how much I would even get, but it would still be a very, very fun and exciting day for everyone at Front Row,” Todd Gilliland said (0:30 onwards).
Todd Gilliland’s path to the In Season Challenge finale is built on a combination of results going his way and the No. 34 making the most of every opening. He eliminated Daniel Suárez at Sonoma in Round 1 when Suárez had issues throughout the race. At Chicagoland in Round 2, a Lap 31 wreck compromised Carson Hocevar’s race and Gilliland moved through.
Atlanta in Round 3 saw Alex Bowman run backwards, and Gilliland fought to 19th, one spot ahead, to keep the run alive. At North Wilkesboro in the semifinal, an ill-timed caution during the green-flag cycle caught seed No. 4 Chase Elliott a lap down, while Gilliland stayed clean and finished eighth to seal his spot in the final.
It is the second consecutive year in which the tournament has produced a Cinderella story, after Ty Dillon’s 2025 run. Ryan Blaney’s route was more straightforward. The 2023 Cup Series champion beat Shane van Gisbergen at Chicagoland, won at Atlanta in Round 3, and eliminated Christopher Bell at North Wilkesboro to book his spot in the final.
Ryan Blaney’s Brickyard record in the Next Gen oval era is strong. He was third in 2024 and seventh in 2025 with 14 laps led in the latter. But Todd Gilliland’s Indianapolis numbers look even better in that stretch. He was sixth in both starts at the track since the series returned in 2024.
Todd Gilliland and Ryan Blaney reflect on their contrasting journeys to the In Season Challenge final
The pre-race joint press conference at Indianapolis brought both drivers together to address what the In Season Challenge represents. Asked about what going for the million means and whether he had plans for a potential win, Todd Gilliland said (0:34 onwards):
“For me it’s just been a really cool opportunity, I think. The media opportunities have kind of come out of it the last week, two weeks, and have been fun. So, for us we’ve caught a lot of lucky breaks. We’ve barely been skating by all these rounds. But yeah, now that we’re here it feels a little bit more real. And you never know, right? Over the course of 400 miles anything can happen.”
Ryan Blaney reflected on the difference between this year’s experience and last season’s early exit:
“I got knocked out of it the first round last year at Atlanta, so it’s nice to go (be) part of it, see who you’re facing every single week, and go through the gauntlet. So, it’s nice to end it here at Indy.”
Ryan Blaney will start from 13th in the Brickyard 400, three-tenths of a second off pole-sitter Carson Hocevar’s benchmark lap of 48.232 seconds. Todd Gilliland qualified nearly a second off that pace and will line up 36th, requiring him to work through the field in the way that has defined his entire tournament run.
Edited by Anurup Chakraborty