SONOMA, Calif. — And then there were four.
On a day when none of the final eight contenders in the NASCAR Cup In-Season Challenge excelled, the field was trimmed to four, with the ultimate Dark Horse among them.
Ty Dillon, driver of the No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet, entered the tournament as the No. 32 seed (last) in the field and advanced for the third consecutive Sunday.
Dillon bumped the No. 48 Chevrolet of Alex Bowman out of the way on the final lap to finish 17th to Bowman’s 19th and keep his hopes for the $1-million prize alive.
Dillon will face John Hunter Nemechek in next Sunday semifinals at Dover Motor Speedway. Nemechek finished one spot ahead of LEGACY Motor Club teammate Erik Jones (28th to 29th) to advance to the fourth round.
“It was a rough couple of laps there,” Dillon acknowledged. “Alex and I race really clean. I told him, ‘Man, if it wasn’t for the million dollars, I probably wouldn’t have done that,’ but I had to. It’s been an incredible run for this No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet team. We’ve worked so hard for this opportunity…
“We’re going to give it all we’ve got at Dover; put pressure on the guys. I think you’ve seen through this that our team doesn’t quit. I saw the No. 48 there at the end, and I knew it was our opportunity to race hard and go get him. Just proud of this team’s effort.”
Ty Gibbs moved into the tournament semifinals with a seventh-place finish to Zane Smith’s 27th, and Tyler Reddick ousted Ryan Preece with a sixth-place run to Preece’s 12th.
Gibbs and Reddick will face off at the Monster Mile for a trip to the finals.
“Today was a bit of a struggle honestly for the Chumba Casino Toyota. We just kind of went backwards – we slid back throughout the whole day and didn’t really get stage points,” Reddick said. “We just kept fighting all day long. We put tires on there and was able to get through the chaos. We had a shot at fifth, just didn’t want to use Christopher (Bell) up on that last corner, so we settled for sixth.”
Nemechek had to battle his teammate, Jones, to advance.
“I felt like we were in a really good spot to have a good finish,” Nemechek said. “We out-ran the No. 43 all day, and we’re moving on in the In-Season Challenge, and then a bunch of restarts there at the end and some strategy calls made it closer than we wanted to be.
“I felt like a ping-pong ball the last few restarts and somehow managed to still beat the No. 43 and come home 28th. Not the finish that we wanted, but we’ll go on to Dover.”
Three of the four drivers remaining drive Toyotas.
The semifinals are Sunday at Dover Motor Speedway, with the finals the following weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
