First-round pairings for NASCAR Cup In-Season Challenge are set
LONG POND, Pa. — The matchups are set for the first round in the five-race in-season Cup tournament, which begins this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Sunday's race at Pocono finalized the pairings. The top 32 drivers in points after the Nashville race earlier this month were locked into the tournament, which will play the winner $1 million.
Results from the past three races — Michigan, Mexico and Pocono — determined the seedings. The seedings were based on a driver's best result among those three races. Tiebreakers were broken by a driver's second-best result in those races.
Denny Hamlin earned the top seed for his win at Michigan and his runner-up finish at Pocono. Briscoe took the No. 2 seed off his Pocono win. Shane van Gisbergen won at Mexico but is not in the top 32 in driver points at Nashville and is not in the tournament.
Dustin Long,
Here are the first-round pairings (the driver who finishes best in each matchup at Atlanta advances)
No. 1 seed Denny Hamlin vs. No. 32 seed Ty Dillon
No. 2 seed Chase Briscoe vs. No. 31 seed Noah Gragson
No. 3 seed Chris Buescher vs. No. 30 seed Todd Gilliland
No. 4 seed Christopher Bell vs. No. 29 seed Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
No. 5 seed Chase Elliott vs. No. 28 seed Austin Dillon
No. 6 seed Ty Gibbs vs. No. 27 seed Justin Haley
No. 7 seed Ryan Blaney vs. No. 26 seed Carson Hocevar
No. 8 seed Alex Bowman vs. No. 25 seed Joey Logano
No. 9 seed Bubba Wallace vs. No. 24 Daniel Suarez
No. 10 seed Kyle Larson vs. No. 23 Tyler Reddick
No. 11 seed Michael McDowell vs. No. 22 seed AJ Allmendinger
No. 12 seed John Hunter Nemechek vs. No. 21 seed Josh Berry
No. 13 seed Ross Chastain vs. No. 20 seed Erik Jones
No. 14 seed Zane Smith vs. No. 19 seed Austin Cindric
No. 15 seed Ryan Preece vs. No. 18 seed William Byron
No. 16 seed Kyle Busch vs. No. 17 seed Brad Keselowski
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NBC Sports
5 hours ago
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First-round pairings for NASCAR Cup In-Season Challenge are set
LONG POND, Pa. — The matchups are set for the first round in the five-race in-season Cup tournament, which begins this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Sunday's race at Pocono finalized the pairings. The top 32 drivers in points after the Nashville race earlier this month were locked into the tournament, which will play the winner $1 million. Results from the past three races — Michigan, Mexico and Pocono — determined the seedings. The seedings were based on a driver's best result among those three races. Tiebreakers were broken by a driver's second-best result in those races. Denny Hamlin earned the top seed for his win at Michigan and his runner-up finish at Pocono. Briscoe took the No. 2 seed off his Pocono win. Shane van Gisbergen won at Mexico but is not in the top 32 in driver points at Nashville and is not in the tournament. Dustin Long, Here are the first-round pairings (the driver who finishes best in each matchup at Atlanta advances) No. 1 seed Denny Hamlin vs. No. 32 seed Ty Dillon No. 2 seed Chase Briscoe vs. No. 31 seed Noah Gragson No. 3 seed Chris Buescher vs. No. 30 seed Todd Gilliland No. 4 seed Christopher Bell vs. No. 29 seed Ricky Stenhouse Jr. No. 5 seed Chase Elliott vs. No. 28 seed Austin Dillon No. 6 seed Ty Gibbs vs. No. 27 seed Justin Haley No. 7 seed Ryan Blaney vs. No. 26 seed Carson Hocevar No. 8 seed Alex Bowman vs. No. 25 seed Joey Logano No. 9 seed Bubba Wallace vs. No. 24 Daniel Suarez No. 10 seed Kyle Larson vs. No. 23 Tyler Reddick No. 11 seed Michael McDowell vs. No. 22 seed AJ Allmendinger No. 12 seed John Hunter Nemechek vs. No. 21 seed Josh Berry No. 13 seed Ross Chastain vs. No. 20 seed Erik Jones No. 14 seed Zane Smith vs. No. 19 seed Austin Cindric No. 15 seed Ryan Preece vs. No. 18 seed William Byron No. 16 seed Kyle Busch vs. No. 17 seed Brad Keselowski
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5 hours ago
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Long: Victory is as much relief as a celebration for Chase Briscoe
LONG POND, Pa. — It was a year and a day ago Christopher Bell let slip that Chase Briscoe would join Joe Gibbs Racing for the 2025 season, taking the spot vacated by Martin Truex Jr. Briscoe would join a team that entered this season on a 52-race winless streak. There had been chances to win. Sometimes circumstances prevented a victory. Other times it was a lack of execution. Through the first 16 races this season, Briscoe and crew chief James Small won four poles and scored five top-five finishes but had yet to win. Briscoe talked of how challenging it was to adjust to the Joe Gibbs Racing cars after having spent the past four seasons at Stewart-Haas Racing. The pressure built on Briscoe. And Small. As Sunday's rain-delayed race at Pocono moved into the evening, Briscoe was in position to deliver a victory. And then came the final pit stop. Briscoe left too early. He didn't have enough fuel to make it to the end unless there was a caution. Behind him was teammate Denny Hamlin, the winningest driver at Pocono. Yet, just as it seemed the No. 19 team would be foiled again, Briscoe got a key caution, saved enough fuel and held off Hamlin to win. Nate Ryan, The celebration was as much relief as joy. Briscoe called it his 'least-enjoyable' Cup win. Of course, it's a small sample. Sunday was his third series victory. Don't be misled. Briscoe still enjoyed the victory but the expectation of winning is different at Joe Gibbs Racing. The 30-year-old driver from Indiana felt that pressure. 'Last couple weeks especially, I've just been like this huge weight on my shoulders, unlike anything I've ever experienced before,' Briscoe said. 'My wife is, 'What is going on with you?' I'm like, I have to win. I don't think you realize how bad it is if we don't win a race and lock into the playoffs.' 'I feel like I honestly weigh a hundred pounds less already (after the win0. Literally when I was doing my contract with JGR, I remember them showing me the stat thing about how about out of 40 attempts for playoffs, they have made it 38 times. The expectation is if you don't make the playoffs, you're not going to be in this car anymore.' That's no longer a worry Briscoe's performance is why Joe Gibbs Racing signed him shortly after SHR announced that it would cease operations after the season. 'We did a total research on it,' car owner Joe Gibbs told NBC Sports about the pursuit of Briscoe. 'We came down to, 'Hey, Chase was the person that we thought was young and could give us a real future.'' Briscoe provided another piece for an organization that had Christopher Bell, likely a future series champion, youngster Ty Gibbs and Hamlin, the winningest driver at JGR and future Hall of Famer. Briscoe's hire also provided JGR with the opportunity to pair him with a crew chief other than Small had it wanted. This was the same organization that moved Chris Gabehart from being Hamlin's crew chief after last season to overseeing the competition department. But Small was kept with Briscoe. 'It's been a lot of work,' Small said. 'From where he came from, there wasn't much accountability. Nobody was holding his feet to the fire. That's probably been a big wake-up call for him.' Said Briscoe of the change: 'It's definitely more work, but it's because they are at such a high level. So yeah, it's been an adjustment for me. Even just racing with teammates that are winning has been an adjustment for me. It's definitely been a big learning curve.' There's more to do. 'We're still a work in progress,' Small said of he, Briscoe and the No. 19 team. 'We're far from being where we think we can be. At this point he's meeting our expectations. I still expect a lot from him. He's only going to get better, I know.' One thing they can work on is when Briscoe leaves his pit stall. On the final stop, which came at Lap 119 of the 160-lap race, Briscoe was to stay in the pit stall until Small told him to go as they waited on fuel. That didn't happen. 'As the tires got done, I knew we were sitting there waiting on fuel,' Briscoe said. 'I started revving the engine up so I wouldn't stall it when I left. I think James said, 'Wait.' As soon as I heard anything, I just went.' Small said when Briscoe left pit road he was nine laps short of making it to the finish on the 2.5-mile track. Hamlin pitted the next lap and waited for fuel. Briscoe soon realized his issue when he saw Hamlin well behind him — the benefit of a shorter pit stop than Hamlin since Briscoe didn't wait for fuel. 'I knew I was probably not in the best of shape,' Briscoe said. 'I instantly started saving fuel down the straightaways.' A caution helped Briscoe get closer to making it. He maintained the lead on the restart and Hamlin could not get by and finished second. 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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. You Might Also Like You Need a Torque Wrench in Your Toolbox Tested: Best Car Interior Cleaners The Man Who Signs Every Car Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
