Since 2004, NASCAR has held a season-ending playoff for the NASCAR Cup Series. The 2025 season will be no exception. However, this year, NASCAR will hold the first ever in-season tournament for its premier series.
Unlike the playoffs, though, the in-season tournament will produce a winner — not a champion. And that winner will reap a singular reward of $1 million.
The concept of an in-season tournament, first announced by NASCAR in May 2024, has been part of the NBA season since 2023. After seeing the NBA’s in-season tournament in action, Cup Series driver Denny Hamlin mentioned the possibility of NASCAR instituting its own version. Speaking on his weekly podcast, Hamlin even dreamed out loud about how a NASCAR in-season tournament might look.
Now, beginning in a few short weeks, NASCAR will give it a try.
Let’s take a closer look at NASCAR’s in-season tournament, starting with how it will work. Then, we’ll review some key dates and places to remember.
32 Drivers. 5 Races. 1 Winner.
The NASCAR Cup Series In-Season Tournament debuts in 2025.
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) May 13, 2024
So What’s This In-Season Tournament All About, Anyway?
Similar to the annual NCAA men’s basketball tournament dubbed March Madness, the NASCAR Cup Series’ in-season tournament will assign a seed to each of its participants.
The seeding for the bracket-style head-to-head tournament will be based on results from the final three Cup Series races airing on Prime Video, which will broadcast five races. The streaming TV service owned by Amazon made its NASCAR Cup Series debut with coverage of last weekend’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway and will air the next four events.
All drivers are eligible for the three seeding races, but only the top 32 — based on outcomes from the seeding events — will become eligible for in-season tournament competition. Bracket seeding will be established by best finish in each race over the three races, with the tiebreakers determined by the next-best finish, followed by season points position.
Throughout the TNT Sports portion of the NASCAR Cup Series schedule, which follows the Prime Video portion, drivers will compete head-to-head. The higher-finishing driver in each race will advance over five rounds. At the conclusion of the fifth race, a tournament winner will be declared.
Naturally, NASCAR’s TV partners involved with the in-season tournament couldn’t be more thrilled.
“This new first-ever in-season tournament will bring a new competitive dynamic to NASCAR’s summer race weekends,” said Craig Barry, executive vice president and chief content officer for TNT Sports. “TNT Sports has always been at the forefront of creativity and innovation, and NASCAR is a perfect partner to bring this vision to life across our networks and platforms.”
Over at Prime Video, the enthusiasm is equally palpable.
“This tournament will showcase the league’s ability to drive innovation and engage fans with increased competition during a key part of the NASCAR schedule,” said Charlie Neiman, head of sports partnerships for Prime Video.
When And Where Will The NASCAR Cup Series’ In-Season Tournament Occur?
Following Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Nashville Superspeedway, the in-season tournament will get underway in a sense. That’s because the June 8 race at Michigan International Speedway will be the first of the three races that determine seeding for the in-season tournament.
The other two seeding races are set for Mexico City (Sunday, June 15) and Pocono Raceway (Sunday, June 22), respectively. The race in Mexico city is an inaugural event for the NASCAR Cup Series.
The in-season tournament will officially commence at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday night, June 28. The other four venues in line to host in-season tournament races are the streets of downtown Chicago (July 6), Sonoma Raceway (July 13), Dover Motor Speedway (July 20) and Indianapolis Motor Speedway (July 27).
The mix of tracks selected by NASCAR for the in-season tournament — three ovals, a road course and a street course — should pose quite a challenge for drivers and teams.
“It’s a wide array of different types of venues,” said Ben Kennedy, NASCAR executive vice president and chief venue and racing innovation officer. “We wanted to put a lot of momentum and energy into the in-season tournament.”
Will drivers and fans buy into the concept? Only time will tell, of course. But for now, the debut of an in-season tournament at least gives everyone one more thing to talk about.
💻 @DaleJr
The In-Season Tournament is coming to @NASCAR and it sounds absolutely awesome — NCAA bracket-style challenge for 5 races!#NASCAR @PrimeVideo pic.twitter.com/llUNA1u4QH
— Rich Eisen Show (@RichEisenShow) May 14, 2024
