LONG POND — Brad Keselowski was stunned when he was asked a question about the second NASCAR In-Season Challenge.
“We’re still doing that?,” Keselowski said. “I didn’t know we were still doing that. I thought that was over. You know more than I do. I think it’s great it’s still happening. I just didn’t know it was still happening.”
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Kyle Larson had a similar reaction.
“I had no clue we were even doing it again this year,” Larson said. “I’m happy. That’s a lot of money and I’d like the opportunity to win it. I feel like the promotion of it has been really bad, honestly. I didn’t hear much about it after the first announcement. I feel they could have done a much better job promoting it because the majority of us in this room don’t know about it. I’m sure a lot of fans don’t know about it.
“I think it’s a great thing. It’s really cool for the midseason part of our year. It was fun to follow along even when I wasn’t in it, when I got knocked out in the first round last year. Maybe they should just promote it better.”
Indeed, the In-Season Challenge is back for a second year. Similar to the NCAA basketball tournament, it is a 32-driver, single-elimination format over five races beginning June 28 on the road course at Sonoma. The bracket was set via the point standings following Sunday’s Great American Getaway 400 Presented by VISITPA at Pocono Raceway. Drivers advance by finishing higher than the other driver they are matched up against.
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After the first round at Sonoma, the Sweet 16 race is at Chicagoland Speedway on July 5. The Elite Eight is at Atlanta’s EchoPark Speedway on July 12. The Final Four race is at North Wilkesboro on July 19 and the championship will be decided in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 26. The winner gets $1 million.
Last year, Atlanta, Chicago Street Course, Sonoma, Dover and Indianapolis comprised the In-Season Challenge. Several multi-car wrecks at Atlanta wound up eliminating many of the top seeds in the first round.
“It’s a million dollars, all of us drivers want that money,” William Byron said. “I think it will be great, I’m glad it’s coming back another year. There’s a lot of things outside what we do that it impacts. I’m excited for it. It starts at a different track this year. Atlanta, we got eliminated in the first stage so it wasn’t really exciting for me. I was kind of thumbs down on the whole thing. Now that it’s starting in a different place, it will give us an opportunity to control some of that performance. Hopefully, we’ll get to the end.”
Erik Jones feels the In-Season Challenge is a good way to break up the monotony of the middle of the regular season.
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“You get to this stretch of the season and things get a bit dragging on,” Jones said. “You’ve got a little bit left until the playoffs and the field is getting pretty set and there’s not a lot to always be pumped up about. So to have something unique and different like that, I think it’s good and something cool to keep up with for fans and even for drivers and teams. It gives guys that maybe aren’t up front running a chance to win something pretty big, which is cool.”
Ty Gibbs, who was the sixth seed, won last year’s In-Season Challenge, beating No. 32 seed Ty Dillon.
“Looking forward to it,” Gibbs said. “Obviously, we’d like to bring home another million bucks. We’ll see what happens.”
Dillon eliminated top seed Denny Hamlin in the first round last year as well as No. 17 Brad Keselowski and No. 8 Alex Bowman on his way to the final.
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Interestingly, this year, Hamlin and Dillon are facing each other again in the 2 vs.31 matchup.
“My kryptonite,” Hamlin said. “What’s the first race?”
When told Sonoma, Hamlin quipped, “I’m cooked.”
First-round matchups
No. 1 Tyler Reddick vs. No. 32 Alex Bowman
No. 16 Austin Cindric vs. No. 17 Brad Keselowski
No. 8 Daniel Suarez vs. No. 25 Todd Gilliland
No. 9 Carson Hocevar vs. No. 24 Zane Smith
No. 12 Chase Briscoe vs. No. 21 A.J. Allmendinger
No. 5 Ty Gibbs vs. No. 28 Austin Dillon
No. 13 Bubba Wallace vs. No. 20 Michael McDowell
No. 4 Chase Elliott vs. No. 29 Noah Gragson
No. 2 Denny Hamlin vs. No. 31 Ty Dillon
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No. 15 Erik Jones vs. No. 18 Joey Logano
No. 7 Chris Buescher vs. No. 26 John Hunter Nemechek
No. 10 Christopher Bell vs. No. 23 Ross Chastain
No. 11 William Byron vs. No. 22 Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
No. 6 Kyle Larson vs. No. 27 Riley Herbst
No. 14 Shane van Gisbergen vs. No. 19 Ryan Preece
No. 3 Ryan Blaney vs. No. 30 Josh Berry
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