Corey Heim achieved the main spotlight of the 2026 Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway by winning the event on Sunday, July 26. Meanwhile, Todd Gilliland celebrated a victory of his own as he claimed fame for winning the NASCAR Cup Series’ second annual In-Season Challenge through a late bizarre turn of on-track circumstances and good fortune working in his favor.
The two-time ARCA Menards Series West champion from Sherrills Ford, North Carolina, entered this year’s In-Season Challenge tournament in the 25th seed as he squared off against Daniel Suarez during the tournament’s first round at Sonoma Raceway on June 28.
During the inaugural In-Season Challenge a year ago, Gilliland had his hopes of achieving the $1 million prize eliminated following the tournament’s first event at EchoPark Speedway. This year at Sonoma, Gilliland was mired with a pair of on-track run-ins with 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace and Riley Herbst that shuffled him back to 29th place in the final running order. Nevertheless, he outdueled Suarez by two spots to transfer through the second round at Chicagoland Speedway (July 4).
At Chicagoland, Gilliland finished in 16th place, but finished ahead of his next opponent, Carson Hocevar, by six spots to transfer to the third In-Season Challenge round as a contestant at EchoPark Speedway (July 12). During the latest round, Gilliland secured a 19th-place run and finished ahead of his third opponent, Alex Bowman, by three spots to be one of four finalists squaring off for two final spots during the tournament’s penultimate round at North Wilkesboro Speedway (July 19).
At North Wilkesboro, Gilliland achieved good fortune when his fourth opponent, Chase Elliott, was mired out of the lead lap category when a Lap 182 multi-car accident pinned multiple competitors in deficits and out of lead lap categories, far from recovering. Despite ending up a lap down, Gilliland finished in eighth place and outdueled Elliott by nine spots to transfer to the tournament’s final round at Indianapolis, where he squared off against Ryan Blaney, the 2023 Cup Series champion, as Blaney outdueled Josh Berry, Shane van Gisbergen, William Byron and Christopher Bell to clinch his finals berth.
When the green flag of the 2026 Brickyard 400 waved, Blaney, who started in 13th place, received the early upper hand and methodically navigated his way through early green flag pit stop strategies and a one-lap shootout to conclude the first stage period by settling in 14th place. Meanwhile, Gilliland, who qualified in 36th place, was mired in 33rd place. The second stage period generated a different outcome as Gilliland, who remained on the track and did not pit under green with most of the field, settled in second place while Blaney settled in 14th place. Gilliland would then pit during the second stage’s break period, and it cycled Blaney ahead of Gilliland when the final stage period commenced with 56 laps remaining.
Then during a restart with 41 laps remaining, the battle for the In-Season Challenge tournament took a major turn when Blaney, who was mired in a stacked group inside of the top-15 mark, was bumped and turned by John Hunter Nemechek entering Turn 3. This sent Blaney for a 360 spin amid contact with Nemechek as both competitors hit the outside wall. As Blaney continued despite sustaining minor right-front fender damage, Gilliland barely dodged the carnage, including a spinning AJ Allmendinger, to overtake Blaney on the track.
For the start of the event’s final restart with 34 laps remaining, Gilliland was tasked with remaining ahead of Blaney as the former was scored in 22nd place while Blaney was mired in 31st place. Blaney spent the event’s remainder managing to climb his way up to 26th place on the leaderboard, but his late charge was not enough as Gilliland crossed the finish line in 24th place in his 166th career start and wrapped up the In-Season Challenge.
With his accomplishment, Gilliland, who is in his fifth full-time season competing as a full-time NASCAR Cup Series competitor, joins Ty Gibbs as recipients of the In-Season Challenge’s $1 million bonus. He also achieved his 18th top-25 result through 22-scheduled events at a venue in which he achieved two sixth-place results over the previous two seasons. Gilliland’s In-Season Challenge title also occurred nine days after he signed a contract extension to continue to drive Front Row Motorsports’ No. 34 Ford entry for the 2027 season.
As Gilliland celebrated his title, he also took a moment to applaud the intensity and hard work generated by his No. 34 Front Row Motorsports team led by crew chief Chris Lawson that led the entire group to the In-Season Challenge title and generate glimpses of competitiveness on the track.
“I think for me, the coolest thing has been seeing all my [No. 34] guys, the intensity ramping up over the first week,” Gilliland said on TNT Sports. “It’s tough. You look up at the top of this mountain of beating five rounds of these great drivers, and it seems almost impossible. Then you start clicking off one, two, and then, they start to really dig it in. They push themselves to a new level, so I think that’s really cool for all of them. To see that, it was cool for me to see.”
While Gilliland was left pleased, he now shifts his focus to capping off the 2026 season on a positive note while maintaining the competitiveness both on and off the track. The North Carolinian remains in 23rd place in the driver standings with his 24th-place result at Indianapolis and is 112 points behind the top-16 cutline to be Chase eligible with four regular-season events remaining on this year’s schedule. Through 166 starts, Gilliland also continues the pursuit of his first victory in NASCAR’s premier series.
“Hopefully, we can keep this intensity up. I think we always found just a little bit more on all of ourselves. Really pumped to take Front Row Motorsports through five rounds of great drivers is really, really cool.”
With the 2026 In-Season Challenge title wrapped up, Todd Gilliland’s 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season resumes on August 9 at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa, for the Iowa Corn 350. The event’s broadcast time is slated to commence at 3:30 p.m. ET on USA Network, MRN Radio, SiriusXM and HBO MAX.
