NASCAR Cup Series Adding $1 Million In-Season Tournament In 2025 And Denny Hamlin Already Claims Victory

By Gary Gastelu |

May 13, 2024

NASCAR In-Season Tournament bracket — Credit: NASCAR

NASCAR Cup Series drivers will be going head-to-head next season.

And head-to-head and head-to-head and head-to-head and …

NASCAR has announced a new In-Season Tournament that will take place during the middle of the season.

The NASCAR Cup Series broadcasts will be split across four outlets next year as part of a new rights agreement. Fox gets the first 14 races, Amazon Prime the next five followed by five on TNT, while NBC closes out the season with the final 14 races including the playoffs. The Busch Light Clash and All-Star Race are included in the breakdown.

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Here’s how the tournament will work.

The last three races on Amazon Prime will be used to seed 32 cars into a knockout bracket, based on a formula that takes into account the best finish in each race, with the second-best finish and season points standings acting as tiebreakers.

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Drivers will the be paired up in the bracket, with the highest finisher in each TNT-broadcast race advancing to the next round and the winner taking home a $1 million prize.

The race results otherwise count normally toward the season standings and post-season qualification.

“With the launch of our new media rights partnerships in 2025, we were excited to partner with Prime Video and TNT Sports to collaborate on fan engagement concepts that drive storylines in our sport and innovation from a production perspective,” Brian Herbst, NASCAR SVP, Media and Productions, said in a press release.

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“The idea of an in-season tournament has been discussed within the NASCAR industry and as we started to focus on adding promotional elements that drive interest throughout the season, we were excited by the opportunity to leverage the marketing weight of Amazon and TNT Sports to bring this concept to life.”

“This is such a win for our sport and drivers,” Denny Hamlin tweeted about the news.

This is such a win for our sport and drivers. Many story lines will made during this 5 week period. I will collect my 1M royalty next season ?. https://t.co/vD6bTuCddH
— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) May 13, 2024