NASCAR has always crowned one champion per season. But with the addition of the new In-Season Challenge, drivers have more motivation to compete during the summer part of the regular season.
The in-season challenge is a new idea that is completely separate from the actual season and playoffs of the Cup Series. The winner of the tournament will win $1 million.
The bracket-style tournament is like March Madness or the NFL playoffs, where drivers go head-to-head against each other.
The drivers who are top 32 in points will be competing for a chance at the $1 million. That means that some well-known, full-time drivers who are outside of the top 32 in points are not able to compete in the in-season challenge, including names like Shane van Gisbergen and Riley Herbst.
The first round will have 16 matchups, with each matchup having two drivers who are competing against each other during a regular season NASCAR race. The driver in the matchup who has a better finish than the other will win that round and advance to the next round. This goes on until there are only two drivers left in the challenge, and the winner of that final matchup will receive the $1 million.
The drivers who aren’t eligible for the in-season challenge will still be racing, though. All cars, whether they qualified or were eliminated from the challenge, still have the opportunity to get points and even playoff points for the season championship. The races that feature the challenge pairings are still points races for all drivers.
It will be interesting to see whether teams try to use strategies to take advantage of other drivers who might be focused primarily on the challenge, or the playoffs.
This could create drama between teams, as intensity in these next few weeks could be different than what fans have seen before in NASCAR. At the final challenge race with two drivers left, the racing between the two should be great straight through the end of the race.
The challenge starts with three seeding races at Michigan International Speedway, Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez and Pocono Raceway. The competitive challenge races are at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Chicago Street Course, Sonoma Raceway, Dover Motor Speedway and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. That means the challenge will start with the round of 32 at a superspeedway and feature two road courses later on.
In all, the challenge should be an interesting addition to the long months of the NASCAR season. This is another interesting addition to NASCAR and a trend that fans have seen this season with the Manufacturer Challenge at the All-Star Race.
Fans can tune in on TNT starting Sunday with the seeding races. The challenge will end on July 27 with one winner who receives $1 million.
