For the first time, NASCAR is attempting an in-season tournament to add drama to the end of the regular season. In its first year, the rules and seeding have been confusing to some, with some drivers avoiding news of the tournament completely. 2020 Cup Series Champion Chase Elliott admitted to The Athletic’s Jeff Gluck that he didn’t know there was a prize associated with the tournament, and now that he knows it’s a million dollars, he wants to win it.
With Elliott’s fifth-place finish at Pocono Sunday evening, he moved up to fifth in the seeding and will face Austin Dillon in a head-to-head match-up next week at the newly named Echo Park Speedway in Atlanta, Georgia.
The last three races, which coincided with the end of Amazon Prime’s coverage of NASCAR, determined the seeding for the 32 drivers participating; those 32 drivers were locked in based on points leading into the race at Michigan International Speedway three weeks prior.
The driver with the best two finishes would get the top seed, with their worst finish being the least important in the seeding. This caveat was greatly appreciated by Denny Hamlin, who stayed home last weekend when the NASCAR Cup Series visited Mexico City for the first time, just hours after Hamlin welcomed his newborn baby boy.
The 32 drivers will face off in Atlanta, with the highest finishing in each match-up moving to the round of 16 at the Chicago Street Race.
Eight drivers will remain in the hunt for the million-dollar payday at Sonoma, then four at Dover, and the final two will duel at Indianapolis Motor Speedway at the end of July.
Hamlin was able to claim the No. 1 seed even with his DNS in Mexico thanks to his win at Michigan and his runner-up finish today at Pocono. Hamlin will face Ty Dillon, who had the worst performance of the tournament drivers with a best finish of 24th and two 33rd-place finishes.
Sunday’s winner, Chase Briscoe, moved up to the second seed and will face Noah Gragson next week. Briscoe and Hamlin are the only two winners since Mexico City was won by a racer not in the top 32 points position at the start of the tournament.
Last week, Shane van Gisbergen won the Mexico City race, but since he was 33rd in the points at the beginning of the seeding rounds, he’s not included in the year’s tournament.
Chris Buescher, with the third seed, will face Todd Gilliland. Christopher Bell, who won Atlanta’s spring race, takes the fourth seed to face off against Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
As previously mentioned, Elliott faces the elder Dillon brother, with his third-place finish in Mexico and fifth at Pocono, deleting his mid-pack finish of 15th at Michigan.
Ty Gibbs and Ryan Blaney follow as the other two drivers with third-place finishes. Gibbs will face Justin Haley, and Blaney will face Carson Hocevar, who has been hot in recent races, even if his best finish of 18th doesn’t show it.
Eighth Seed Alex Bowman is matched with 25th seed Joey Logano. Bubba Wallace, who suffered a mechanical issue at Pocono, stayed ranked in ninth and will face Daniel Suárez.
We have a sprint car vs. late model duel in 10th-ranked Kyle Larson vs. 23rd-ranked Tyler Reddick.
Michael McDowell is matched with AJ Allmendinger and John Hunter Nemechek against Josh Berry.
13th-seeded Ross Chastain faces 20th-seeded Eric Jones, followed by Zane Smith against Austin Cindric.
Ryan Preece, who finds himself the first driver under the cutline, is surprisingly the higher seed in his matchup against William Byron, the regular-season points leader who secured his playoff-clinching win early but has a best finish of ninth in the last three rounds.
The final match-up is between two former Cup champions, with 2015 and 2019 champion Kyle Busch seeded one position ahead of 2012 champion Brad Keselowski in 16th and 17th, respectively.
The in-season tournament is designed to provide fans with another layer of excitement during these closing summer races, mirroring similar tournaments in stick-and-ball sports, most notably the NBA Cup, which was announced in 2023 and has been played twice, with the Los Angeles Lakers winning it in 2023 and the Milwaukee Bucks winning it last winter.
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