Latest news with #InSeasonChallenge
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
NASCAR Madness: In-Season Challenge begins next week
Every year, like so many people do, Ryan Blaney and his team fill out a bracket for the NCAA men's basketball tournament. Now, a bit of March Madness is coming to NASCAR. Beginning next week, NASCAR holds its first In-Season Challenge, a bracket-style tournament where 32 drivers compete head-to-head for a $1 million prize. Advertisement Sunday's Great American Getaway 400 Presented by at Pocono Raceway is the final seeding race; Michigan and Mexico City were the first two races. A driver's best finish in those three races determines his seed. The next-best finish in those three races is the tiebreaker. If drivers are still tied after that, the point standings after Pocono is the final tiebreaker. The round-of-32 begins next Sunday at EchoPark Speedway at Atlanta. The Chicago Street Course hosts the 'Sweet 16' on July 6. The Sonoma road course is the site of the 'Elite Eight' on July 13. The 'Final Four' will be at Dover Motor Speedway on July 20. The two remaining drivers will battle for the championship in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 27. All four races are televised on TNT. Drivers simply advance by having the higher finish than the driver they are matched up against. 'I feel like the race tracks in the actual bracket are good for us; race tracks where I could knock out a top guy no problem,' said Michael McDowell, driver of No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet. 'We're also doing it for a million bucks. How can you not be excited about that? That's life-changing money.' Advertisement Most of the drivers are excited about the In-Season Challenge. Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 Penske Ford, thinks it comes at a perfect time in the schedule. 'This is kind of that point where the newness has worn off, we're into the rhythm of racing every week, it's starting to be about who's going to be in the playoffs, who's not, the cutoff line, those types of things. But it's not really the main story yet,' Logano said. 'So this really spices up the mid-part of the season. We have a long season, so just kind of changing it up and adding something to it is great.' Kyle Larson, driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, agrees with Logano. Advertisement 'I think it's exciting for our sport and our fan base,' Larson said. 'It's an extra storyline within the season. A lot of times the summer months can feel long and not much happening. So I think it adds an element of excitement. Hopefully it goes well for us. I think it's going to reward consistency, so hopefully we can be one of those teams.' Blaney believes the In-Season Challenge will create a lot of race-within-the-races scenarios. Not only will drivers try to win, but also finish ahead of the driver they are pitted against. 'We don't have a lot of 1 v. 1 in our sport. This is a cool opportunity to have those matchups,' said Blaney, driver of the No. 12 Penske Ford. 'It will be fun for people to track and watch. I heard the broadcast is going to have a dedicated team just for the in-season tournament to really keep track of it, which is good. You have to do a good job of keeping track of what is going on within the full race. So I think it's neat and will be fun to watch. I don't see one negative about it. You could see a lot of great battles out there for maybe, 20th, but it means a lot if you get 19th.' Much like the NCAA tournament, where people who don't follow college basketball still fill out a bracket, McDowell believes the In-Season Challenge can attract nonrace fans. Advertisement 'I didn't grow up following other sports,' McDowell said. 'To me, this is a unique opportunity for us to engage with a fan who maybe, like me but the opposite, has never watched motor sports or never got into racing. But they're like, 'This is pretty cool. I can get into this.'' Christopher Bell, driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, thinks having Atlanta as the first race of the In-Season Challenge will make things interesting. 'It's hard to pick a favorite going through Atlanta with it being a superspeedway-style race,' Bell said. 'I think you're going to see a lot of upsets Week 1 of the in-season tournament. So get through that one and see who's left standing.' Denny Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, despite missing last week's race at Mexico City due to the birth of his son, is the No. 1 seed by virtue of his win at Michigan. Mexico City winner Shane van Gisebergen is not eligible for the Challenge since he was not in the top 32 in the point standings after Nashville. Advertisement '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.' Here is how the bracket looks heading into Pocono and potential first-round matchups: 1-Denny Hamlin vs. 32-Carson Hocevar; 2-Chris Buescher vs. 31-Noah Gragson; 3-Christopher Bell vs. 30-Ty Dillon; 4-Ty Gibbs vs. 29-Todd Gilliland; 5-Chase Elliott vs. 28-Justin Haley; 6-Bubba Wallace vs. 27-Joey Logano; 7-Alex Bowman vs. 26-Ricky Stenhouse Jr.; 8-Michael McDowell vs. 25-Austin Dillon; 9-Kyle Larson vs. 24-Austin Cindric; 10-Ross Chastain vs. 23-Ryan Blaney; 11-John Hunter Nemechek vs. 22-Daniel Suarez; 12-Chase Briscoe vs. 21-Tyler Reddick; 13-Zane Smith vs. 20-A.J. Allmendinger; 14-Kyle Busch vs. 19-Josh Berry; 15-Ryan Preece vs. 18-Erik Jones; 16-William Byron vs. 17-Brad Keselowski.
Washington Post
02-06-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
NASCAR's new $1M In-season Challenge starts with drivers focused more on winning races
LEBANON, Tenn. — Bubba Wallace sees NASCAR having all the momentum possible right now with different media partners. Perfect timing then for NASCAR's 'In-season Challenge' to debut, right? Well, Wallace forgot that was about to debut. 'For me to forget about it and remember how exciting it was when they announced, I think it's going to be big for the fans to tune in and and give them a little bit more ... you're just invested more,' Wallace said.
Associated Press
02-06-2025
- Automotive
- Associated Press
NASCAR's new $1M In-season Challenge starts with drivers focused more on winning races
LEBANON, Tenn. (AP) — Bubba Wallace sees NASCAR having all the momentum possible right now with different media partners. Perfect timing then for NASCAR's 'In-season Challenge' to debut, right? Well, Wallace forgot that was about to debut. 'For me to forget about it and remember how exciting it was when they announced, I think it's going to be big for the fans to tune in and and give them a little bit more ... you're just invested more,' Wallace said. Kyle Larson just tried his latest attempt at 'the Double' of the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600. Count him among those who didn't realize NASCAR's new in-season competition had its field of 32 set after Sunday night's Cup Series race at the Nashville Superspeedway. 'I just really haven't seen anything promoted about it, so I think it's easy to forget about it,' Larson said. NASCAR announced this new in-season competition in May 2024, so drivers can be forgiven for being focused on the second half of the season. The format is simple: 32 drivers race for seeding over the next three races starting at Michigan on Sunday and concluding at Pocono on June 22. Drivers are seeded by their best finish for the five-race competition starting at Atlanta. Then it goes to single elimination with the field cut to 16 at Chicago, eight at Sonoma, four at Dover and the final two at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The winner gets $1 million, and that does get drivers' attention as part of the new media rights deal that includes TNT. 'It's going to be something fun that you pay attention to, and there's good money on the line,' said Larson, the 2021 Cup Series champ. 'So, you've just got to be really consistent throughout.' Chris Buescher of RFK Racing is among those who didn't realize this challenge is starting. He needs race victories after losing points for a penalty at Kansas in May. The prize is nice. 'That's real money,' Buescher said. 'But I don't want that to change how we go to the race track. We need to figure out how to win races. There's a lot more than that on the line at the end of the year.' Three-time Cup Series champ Joey Logano compared this event's prize to the money up for grabs in the All-Star Race and this new competition like a stage win. 'This is a little longer thing, but it's a race within the race,' Logano said. 'So you're not willing to give up a lot to do that, right?' Denny Hamlin was excited when the In-season Challenge was first announced. Then he saw the courses for this competition, and his enthusiasm dimmed with the number of road courses included. 'Truthfully, we're going to get pretty lucky or have such a good draw that just things kind of work out,' Hamlin said. 'I wish it was more conventional ovals, but I think that's just the way the schedule works out. And it's unfortunately not probably my prime part of the season.' Brad Keselowski and his No. 6 Ford for RFK Racing went into Nashville at 32 — right on the line to be included in that chase for seeding. He hadn't given the competition much thought focused on this season. But he thinks it will be fun once it starts. 'It's good for the sport, good for our fans and it's a competition,' Keselowski said. 'If there's competition, we want to win it. But that said, I think our heads down on one week at a time, in some ways one day at a time. ... And it's hard to look further ahead than that.' Team Penske all set for the playoffs With Ryan Blaney's first victory of the season at Nashville Superspeedway, Team Penske now has its three drivers qualified for the NASCAR Cup playoffs even with Nashville the first race of the second half of this year. Blaney, who hadn't won since November, joined Austin Cindric, who won at Talladega, and three-time Cup Series champ Joey Logano, a winner at Texas. Josh Berry, whose Wood Brothers Racing team has a relationship with Team Penske, also won at Las Vegas. Michael Nelson, president of Team Penske's NASCAR operations, said it was nice to have that pressure off all the teams. 'It's obviously pretty awesome to have a little bit of that pressure off for the guys,' Nelson said. 'And again ... it gives you a chance to go out and take some chances here and there and try to rack up a bunch of wins. So now we're grateful to be at this point with our cars this time of year.' Careful there Hocevar Carson Hocevar matched his career-best finish driving from 26th to second at Nashville. The 22-year-old driver in his second Cup Series season with Spire Motorsports ticked off Ricky Stenhouse Jr. with his aggressive style. Hocevar clipped Stenhouse on Lap 106 of 300, sending him into the wall and out of the race. Stenhouse said Hocevar was overly aggressive and will talk to the young driver. Just not after the race. 'No,' Stenhouse said, 'that costs too much money.' ___ AP auto racing:
