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.
Sunday’s Great American Getaway 400 Presented by VISITPA.COM 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.”
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.
“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.
“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.
“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.
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