NASCAR $1 Million In-Season Challenge Tournament Bracket Revealed — Who Is On Top?
The first-ever NASCAR In-Season Challenge is set to begin at Atlanta … uh, EchoPark Speedway on June 29.
The novel addition to the Cup Series features 32 seeded drivers paired in a knockout tournament that will take place over five races during the TNT portion of the broadcast schedule.
Drivers qualified by being in the top 32 in points before the race at Michigan and were seeded based on their finishes there, in Mexico and at Pocono, not by points.
Teammates Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe were the only race winners among the 32 drivers and have been seeded one and two, while Mexico winner Shane Van Gisbergen is out of the tournament, having been 33rd in points before Michigan.
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The rules are simple. Beat the driver you are up against in the race and move on to the next round until two are left to race for a winner-take-all $1 million prize at the Brickyard 400. Chicago, Sonoma and Dover are races two, three and four.
The In-Season Challenge has nothing to do with the races themselves or season championship, which will otherwise proceed as normal around them.
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Hamlin has been matched up against Ty Dillon in Atlanta and Chase Briscoe against Noah Gragson. Third-ranked Chris Buescher will take on Todd Gilliland while Christopher Bell (Hamlin and Briscoe’s teammate) is paired with Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Along with Van Gisbergen, full-time drivers Cole Custer, Riley Herbst and Cody Ware missed the cut.
Interesting first-round matchups include Brad Keselowski versus Kyle Bush, Alex Bowman versus Joey Logano, Kyle Larson versus Tyler Reddick and close off-track friends Bubba Wallace and Daniel Suarez.
It’s bizarrely coincidental that Hamlin is the number one seed, because, after it was announced last year, he said on social media “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.” adding a wink emoji.