NASCAR will introduce an in-season tournament in 2025, TNT Sports, NASCAR and Amazon Prime Video announced May 13.
The tournament will span five races on TNT Sports and will fit within the existing NASCAR Cup Series regular season schedule.
Over these five races, 32 drivers will compete head-to-head in a bracket-style tournament, with the winner receiving a $1 million prize after the fifth race.
“We want it to be pretty simple, since it is kind of a race within a race,” said Brian Herbst, NASCAR Senior Vice President of Media and Productions, of the tournament concept. “This bracket-style format seemed simple enough, seemed easily explainable. And the other piece that we wanted to do is focus on the drivers in particular to the extent that we can create rivalries or storylines from a head-to-head perspective.”
Seeding for the tournament will be determined in the final three races of Amazon Prime Video’s broadcast coverage. TNT Sports’ coverage will begin the first race after APV’s final event.
“The in-season tournament will provide a new engagement experience for fans during an important stretch of the NASCAR schedule,” Charlie Neiman, Prime Video head of sports partnerships, said in a statement. “We are excited to help drive innovation within the sport and add a dynamic element to increase competition among the drivers.”
Both TNT Sports and Amazon Prime Video were introduced as part of the new media rights deal beginning in 2025. Both companies will broadcast five races each over the middle of the NASCAR season.
Kevin Nix has been with Frontstretch since February 2023. Hailing from Gilbert, Arizona, his dream is to be in the NASCAR media sphere full-time. He is a video assistant, working on the back end to streamline video and audio quality of all at-track interviews. Nix also writes about news every Monday for the site.
Nix graduated with a Master's Degree in Sports Journalism from ASU's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Phoenix, Arizona. He also has bachelor's degrees in Communications and Political Science. In his downtime, he likes to read, play video games and take walks in the Arizona weather - when it's not too hot.