Highlights: Xfinity Series at Texas on The CW
Watch the BetMGM 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Saturday, May 24 at 4:30 p.m. ET on The CW. Find your channel now: thecw.com/NASCAR. Stream free next day on The CW App.
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Fox Sports
9 minutes ago
- Fox Sports
NASCAR set for summer stretch March Madness style. Will new tournament end summer schedule malaise?
Associated Press LONG POND, Pa. (AP) — It's time to bust out the brackets, pick an upset or two, and follow winners on the road — a journey over city streets, concrete and bricks — to the final four and beyond. Totally awesome, baby? Forget all the upset specials in March. NASCAR will find out soon enough if its attempt to snap out of a mid-summer malaise with its first in-season tournament is a success with drivers and fans as it strives to boost engagement and build buzz in the staid regular season. The concept has already juiced enthusiasm in NASCAR to levels not seen since the halcyon days when Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough duked it out in the 1979 Daytona 500. 'To be really honest with you,' 2020 NASCAR champion Chase Elliott said, 'I have not paid any attention to it.' Maybe a look at the matchup will get NASCAR's most popular driver pumped! Elliott is seeded fifth against No. 28 seed Austin Dillon in the first round of the head-to-head showdown in the race-within-the-race set for this weekend at the track better known as Atlanta Motor Speedway. Here's a refresher for Elliott and any other sports fan who missed out on the specifics of NASCAR joining the in-season tournament party, much like attempts in the NBA, NHL, and, of course, throughout the world in soccer. NASCAR is set to start the engines on a five-race, bracket-style tournament called the In-Season Challenge in the midst of the summer slate, which comes with a $1 million prize to the winner. The final 32-driver field was set by results of the last three races at Michigan, Mexico City and Pocono. The drivers are paired in head-to-head matchups based on seeding, with the winners advancing to the next round in a bracket format that mirrors the NCAA basketball tournaments. Buoyed by a win at Michigan and a runner-up finish at Pocono, Denny Hamlin earned the top seed. He'll square off — race off? — against No. 32 seed Ty Dillon. Pocono winner Chase Briscoe is the No. 2 seed and is pitted against No. 31 seed Noah Gragson. Chris Buescher is third, Christopher Bell fourth and Elliott fifth, among notable names. The format is single elimination with the field cut to 16 at the street race in Chicago, eight at Sonoma, four on the lone concrete track in the series at Dover and the final two over the yard of bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The Challenge is part of NASCAR's media rights deal that includes TNT, and the Atlanta-based cable network will broadcast all five races in the tournament, starting with the 400-miler in Atlanta. Aside from a shrug from Elliott and a few others, drivers are intrigued by the idea of increasing the stakes in each race beyond a playoff berth, trophy and the winner's purse. 'I love it. I think it's great,' three-time Cup champion Joey Logano said. 'I think it's placed perfectly where it is in the season. This is kind of that moment where the newness is worn off. We're into the rhythm, we're racing every week. It's starting to start a little bit of, who's going to be in the playoffs, who's not, the cutoff line all those types of things. But it's not really the main story quite yet.' Stories are what sell, of course, and the sizzle in Pocono over the weekend had little to do with which drivers or teams are the ones to beat for the 2025 championship. Rather, it was whether two pedestrian drivers were going to fight, the end of Amazon Prime's run of wildly-popular telecasts and Hall of Fame driver Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s win in his first race as a crew chief. 'This really spices up the mid-part of the season,' Logano said. So does placing a few bucks on No. 11 to win. But as of Monday afternoon, most sports gambling sites did not offer odds on specific matchups headed into Atlanta. NASCAR is offering $1 million to a winning fan with a perfect bracket in its fantasy game. There are some quirks to the bracket: Shane van Gisbergen won the Cup race in Mexico City and is not in the field while series points leader William Byron is only a No. 9 seed. The tournament boasts matchups in the first-round of past Cup champions (Kyle Busch-Brad Keselowski), former teammates (Briscoe-Gragson), and even best friends (Bubba Wallace-Daniel Suarez). The idea for the challenge was largely championed by Hamlin, a three-time Daytona 500 champion who floated the idea of a mid-season tournament on his 'Actions Detrimental" podcast. When NASCAR bought into the idea and announced the creation of the tournament last year, Hamlin called the tournament on social media 'such a win for our sport and drivers.' He jokingly added, 'I will collect my 1M royalty next season.' Hamlin's on deck and clearly a favorite to win it all, with three wins this year for Joe Gibbs Racing and the top seed. (And let's not haggle over who gets credit in court.) 'I'm a sports guy, so I'm going to be engaged with it," Hamlin said. "I'll know who I will have to beat next week. I've told the team, we are going to try and do what we can. We are going to be up against it because we are going to tracks that aren't very favorable to me. But we are going to try to do our best to beat that one car for the next four to five weeks.' NASCAR will present the tournament winner at Indianapolis with a ring, jackets, trophy and — oh yeah, a million bucks. That's enough cash to get anyone's attention — even Elliott's. 'I don't know what you get. You get anything,' Elliott asked. 'Oh, a million dollars to the winner? Then yeah, we want to win.' ___ AP auto racing: recommended
Associated Press
13 minutes ago
- Associated Press
NASCAR set for summer stretch March Madness style. Will new tournament end summer schedule malaise?
LONG POND, Pa. (AP) — It's time to bust out the brackets, pick an upset or two, and follow winners on the road — a journey over city streets, concrete and bricks — to the final four and beyond. Totally awesome, baby? Forget all the upset specials in March. NASCAR will find out soon enough if its attempt to snap out of a mid-summer malaise with its first in-season tournament is a success with drivers and fans as it strives to boost engagement and build buzz in the staid regular season. The concept has already juiced enthusiasm in NASCAR to levels not seen since the halcyon days when Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough duked it out in the 1979 Daytona 500. 'To be really honest with you,' 2020 NASCAR champion Chase Elliott said, 'I have not paid any attention to it.' Maybe a look at the matchup will get NASCAR's most popular driver pumped! Elliott is seeded fifth against No. 28 seed Austin Dillon in the first round of the head-to-head showdown in the race-within-the-race set for this weekend at the track better known as Atlanta Motor Speedway. Here's a refresher for Elliott and any other sports fan who missed out on the specifics of NASCAR joining the in-season tournament party, much like attempts in the NBA, NHL, and, of course, throughout the world in soccer. NASCAR is set to start the engines on a five-race, bracket-style tournament called the In-Season Challenge in the midst of the summer slate, which comes with a $1 million prize to the winner. The final 32-driver field was set by results of the last three races at Michigan, Mexico City and Pocono. The drivers are paired in head-to-head matchups based on seeding, with the winners advancing to the next round in a bracket format that mirrors the NCAA basketball tournaments. Buoyed by a win at Michigan and a runner-up finish at Pocono, Denny Hamlin earned the top seed. He'll square off — race off? — against No. 32 seed Ty Dillon. Pocono winner Chase Briscoe is the No. 2 seed and is pitted against No. 31 seed Noah Gragson. Chris Buescher is third, Christopher Bell fourth and Elliott fifth, among notable names. The format is single elimination with the field cut to 16 at the street race in Chicago, eight at Sonoma, four on the lone concrete track in the series at Dover and the final two over the yard of bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The Challenge is part of NASCAR's media rights deal that includes TNT, and the Atlanta-based cable network will broadcast all five races in the tournament, starting with the 400-miler in Atlanta. Aside from a shrug from Elliott and a few others, drivers are intrigued by the idea of increasing the stakes in each race beyond a playoff berth, trophy and the winner's purse. 'I love it. I think it's great,' three-time Cup champion Joey Logano said. 'I think it's placed perfectly where it is in the season. This is kind of that moment where the newness is worn off. We're into the rhythm, we're racing every week. It's starting to start a little bit of, who's going to be in the playoffs, who's not, the cutoff line all those types of things. But it's not really the main story quite yet.' Stories are what sell, of course, and the sizzle in Pocono over the weekend had little to do with which drivers or teams are the ones to beat for the 2025 championship. Rather, it was whether two pedestrian drivers were going to fight, the end of Amazon Prime's run of wildly-popular telecasts and Hall of Fame driver Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s win in his first race as a crew chief. 'This really spices up the mid-part of the season,' Logano said. So does placing a few bucks on No. 11 to win. But as of Monday afternoon, most sports gambling sites did not offer odds on specific matchups headed into Atlanta. NASCAR is offering $1 million to a winning fan with a perfect bracket in its fantasy game. There are some quirks to the bracket: Shane van Gisbergen won the Cup race in Mexico City and is not in the field while series points leader William Byron is only a No. 9 seed. The tournament boasts matchups in the first-round of past Cup champions (Kyle Busch-Brad Keselowski), former teammates (Briscoe-Gragson), and even best friends (Bubba Wallace-Daniel Suarez). The idea for the challenge was largely championed by Hamlin, a three-time Daytona 500 champion who floated the idea of a mid-season tournament on his 'Actions Detrimental' podcast. When NASCAR bought into the idea and announced the creation of the tournament last year, Hamlin called the tournament on social media 'such a win for our sport and drivers.' He jokingly added, 'I will collect my 1M royalty next season.' Hamlin's on deck and clearly a favorite to win it all, with three wins this year for Joe Gibbs Racing and the top seed. (And let's not haggle over who gets credit in court.) 'I'm a sports guy, so I'm going to be engaged with it,' Hamlin said. 'I'll know who I will have to beat next week. I've told the team, we are going to try and do what we can. We are going to be up against it because we are going to tracks that aren't very favorable to me. But we are going to try to do our best to beat that one car for the next four to five weeks.' NASCAR will present the tournament winner at Indianapolis with a ring, jackets, trophy and — oh yeah, a million bucks. That's enough cash to get anyone's attention — even Elliott's. 'I don't know what you get. You get anything,' Elliott asked. 'Oh, a million dollars to the winner? Then yeah, we want to win.' ___ AP auto racing:
CBS News
2 hours ago
- CBS News
How to win 2025 NASCAR Chicago Street Race passes while helping a good cause
Preparations are underway for the NASCAR Chicago Street Race happening next month. If you don't already have tickets, you can still win some and help a good cause. A raffle is open to win two-day passes to the race in Grant Park. The passes will be awarded to 45 winners who will get standing room trackside viewing locations and access to the Zac Brown Band concert. Raffle sales benefit the Chicago Park District's "Park Kids Are Our Kids" fund, which helps families in need get their kids into summer day camp and after-school programs. The raffle is open until Thursday night. Tickets start at $15, and participants can buy 25 entries for $100. The race is set for July 5 and 6.
