Saturday’s (June 28) Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta marks the first NASCAR Cup Series race for TNT since 2014, and its reintroduction to the sport also coincides with the debut of NASCAR’s inaugural In-Season Challenge, with a grand prize of $1 million awaiting the winner.
The March Madness-style bracket tournament will feature 32 drivers racing head-to-head against one another in pre-determined matchups, starting this Saturday at Atlanta. The 16 head-to-head winners at Atlanta will advance to the second round of the bracket at the Chicago Street Race for the next set of matchups.
Eight drivers will advance to the third round at Sonoma Raceway; four drivers will advance to the penultimate round at Dover Motor Speedway. Those races will set the stage for the tournament finale in the Brickyard 400 on July 27 — the last race of TNT’s coverage — where the final two drivers will race head-to-head for the million-dollar payday, with the highest finisher taking home the big bucks.
The top 32 drivers in points following the Cracker Barrell 400 at Nashville Superspeedway on June 1 clinched a spot in the challenge, and tournament seeding was set by a driver’s best finish in the last three Cup races at Michigan International Speedway, Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez and Pocono Raceway.
Any ties for best finish were set by a driver’s second-best finish. Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe clinched the top two seeds with wins at Michigan and Pocono, respectively, and Hamlin won the tiebreaker by having a second-best finish of second versus Briscoe’s second-best of seventh.
On the flip side, William Byron is seeded all the way back in 18th despite leading the regular season point standings because he finished no better than ninth in the last three races.
The above chart is color coded to show the matchups set for Atlanta. One-seed Hamlin will compete head-to-head against 32-seed Ty Dillon, two-seed Briscoe will race 31-seed Noah Gragson and so on. The winner of each head-to-head at Atlanta will then advance to Chicago to compete in the second round of the bracket.
If Hamlin beats Dillon head-to-head at Atlanta, he will have to beat either Brad Keselowski or Kyle Busch at Chicago to advance to the third round at Sonoma. The process continues for five races until one driver is the last man standing.
Fans at home also have the chance to play along, as $1 million will be awarded to anyone that fills out a perfect bracket. Submissions are due by 6:55 p.m. ET on June 28.
With a superspeedway and two road courses in the first three rounds, the head-to-head matchups will be anything but predictable. Race wins, trophies, playoff points and playoff spots on the line the next five weeks, and the In-Season Challenge will be another race for fans to follow as the regular season comes to a close.
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Find Stephen on Twitter @stephen_stumpf