LONG POND, Pa. (AP) — Denny Hamlin earned the top seed in the inaugural version of NASCAR’s In-season Challenge, a five-race, bracket-style tournament set to kick off next week in Atlanta.

The tournament, which comes with a $1 million prize to the winner, is part of a new media rights deal that includes TNT.

The final 32-driver field was set by results of the races at Michigan, Mexico City and Pocono. Chase Briscoe won the Cup race Sunday at Pocono Raceway to finalize the field.

The drivers will be paired in head-to-head matchups based on seeding, with the winners advancing to the next round in a bracket format that mirrors the NCAA basketball tournaments.

Hamlin goes head-to-head next week against the 32nd seed, Ty Dillon. Briscoe earned the second seed, Chris Buescher is third, Christopher Bell fourth and Chase Elliott fifth.

The format is single elimination with the field cut to 16 at Chicago, eight at Sonoma, four at Dover and the final two at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The tournament is patterned after in-season tournaments that are staged by soccer leagues around the world and even brought to the NBA.

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LONG POND, Pa. (AP) — Denny Hamlin earned the top seed in the inaugural version of NASCAR’s In-season Challenge, a five-race, bracket-style tournament set to kick off next week in Atlanta.

The tournament, which comes with a $1 million prize to the winner, is part of a new media rights deal that includes TNT.

The final 32-driver field was set by results of the races at Michigan, Mexico City and Pocono. Chase Briscoe won the Cup race Sunday at Pocono Raceway to finalize the field.

The drivers will be paired in head-to-head matchups based on seeding, with the winners advancing to the next round in a bracket format that mirrors the NCAA basketball tournaments.

Hamlin goes head-to-head next week against the 32nd seed, Ty Dillon. Briscoe earned the second seed, Chris Buescher is third, Christopher Bell fourth and Chase Elliott fifth.

The format is single elimination with the field cut to 16 at Chicago, eight at Sonoma, four at Dover and the final two at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The tournament is patterned after in-season tournaments that are staged by soccer leagues around the world and even brought to the NBA.

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

The Associated Press

Bubba Wallace had no warning of impending doom, but once he heard the brake rotor explosion, he knew what was coming.

“Oh my God,” Wallace radioed as his Toyota took off for the Turn 2 wall Sunday at Pocono Raceway.

The incident, on lap 55, was the second of the day for a 23XI Racing driver. Wallace suffered the same fate as teammate Riley Herbst, who crashed in Turn 1 on lap 42 after a brake rotor explosion, and was forced to retire from the race early. He was running 27th at the time.

“I was going to battle the No. 17 (Chris Buescher) into Turn 2, and by the time I was ready to touch the pedal, it just went to the floor,” Wallace said. “The brakes exploded. I hate it. We’ve had two or three good races in a row, then here we go with the bad luck again. But MJ (Michael Jordan) told me there’s no such thing as bad luck, so we create our own luck.

“I apologize to the racing gods – this weekend sucked aside from practice, but that pays nothing.”

Wallace was the second-fastest driver overall in Cup Series practice, but then he couldn’t make a qualifying lap when his car would not fire on pit road because of a starter issue.

The team finished the first stage in 21st position after coming from the rear of the field. The brake issue and crash occurred early in the second stage.

“I hate it for my guys,” Wallace said. “I hate it for McDonald’s. We knew it was going to be a grind, and I was mentally prepared for that all day. As frustrating as it gets here to not be able to pass here in Pocono, we were going to just take our lumps and march our way through and set ourselves up for the end of the race. The brakes didn’t want us to hang around that long.”

Pocono Raceway is Wallace’s sixth DNF of the season. He will finish 36th of 37 drivers.

In the bigger picture, he entered the weekend having finished 12th or better in the last three races. The stretch pushed him to ninth in the championship standings with a 57-point advantage on the playoff grid cutline.

Chase Briscoe

LONG POND — Chase Briscoe got the cold facts when the third-generation driver’s career took an unexpected turn, leaving his lame-duck NASCAR team for the sport’s most coveted available seat with powerhouse Joe Gibbs Racing.

The message was clear at JGR — home of five Cup driver titles and a perennial contender to win another one.

“You don’t make the playoffs,” Briscoe said, “you don’t race in this car anymore.”

The Toyotas were better at JGR, sure. So were the championship standards set by Joe Gibbs and the rest of the organization.

“It’s been a lot of work,” Briscoe’s crew chief James Small said. “From where he came from, there wasn’t much accountability. Nobody was holding his feet to the fire. That’s probably been a big wake-up call for him.”

Briscoe’s eyes are wide open now, a first-time winner for JGR and, yes, he is indeed playoff bound.

Briscoe returned to victory lane Sunday at Pocono Raceway, stretching the final drops of fuel down the stretch to hold off Hamlin for his third career Cup victory and first with his new race team.

“I’ve only won three races in the Cup Series, right? But this is by far the least enjoyable just because it’s expected now,” Briscoe said. “You have to go win. Where at SHR, you really felt like you surprised the world if you won.”

Briscoe raced his way into an automatic spot in NASCAR’s playoffs with the win and gave the No. 19 Toyota its first victory since 2023 when Martin Truex Jr. had the ride. Briscoe lost his job at the end of last season at Stewart-Haas Racing when the team folded and he was tabbed to replace Truex — almost a year to the day for his win at Pocono — in the four-car JGR field.

Hamlin, who holds the track record with seven wins, appeared on the brink of reeling in Briscoe over the final, thrilling laps only to have not enough in the No. 11 Toyota to snag that eighth Pocono win.

“It was just so hard to have a guy chasing you, especially the guy that’s the greatest of all time here,” Briscoe said.

Briscoe made his final pit stop on lap 119 of the 160-lap race, while Hamlin — who returned after missing last week’s race following the birth of his son — made his final stop on 120. Hamlin’s team radioed to him that they believed Briscoe would fall about a half-lap short on fuel — only for the first-year JGR driver to win by 0.682 seconds.

“The most nervous I get is when two of our cars are up front,” Gibbs said.

Gibbs now has Hamlin, Bell and Briscoe in the playoff field.

“It’s definitely more work but it’s because they’re at such a high level,” Briscoe said. “Even racing with teammates that are winning has been a big adjustment for me.”

Briscoe, who won an Xfinity Series race at Pocono in 2020, raced to his third career Cup victory and first since Darlington in 2024.

Briscoe has been on bit of a hot streak, and had his fourth top-10 finish over the last six races, including a seventh-place finish in last week’s ballyhooed race in Mexico City.

He became the 11th driver to earn a spot in the 16-driver field with nine races left until the field is set and made a winner again of crew chief James Small. Small stayed on the team through Truex’s final winless season and Briscoe’s winless start to this season.

“It’s been a tough couple of years,” Small said. “We’ve never lost belief, any of us.”

Hamlin finished second. Ryan Blaney, Chris Buescher and Chase Elliott completed the top five.

Briscoe, raised a dirt racer in Indiana, gave JGR its 18th Cup victory at Pocono.

“I literally grew up racing my sprint car video game in a Joe Gibbs Racing Home Depot uniform,” Briscoe said. “To get Coach in victory lane after them taking a chance on me, it’s so rewarding truthfully. Just a big weight off my shoulders. I’ve been telling my wife the last two weeks, I have to win. To finally come here and do it, it has been a great day.”

The race was delayed 2 hours, 10 minutes by rain and the conditions were muggy by the time the green flag dropped. Briscoe led 72 laps and won the second stage.

Briscoe wrote before the race on social media, “Anybody going from Pocono to Oklahoma City after the race Sunday?” The Pacers fan — he bet on the team to win the NBA title — wasn’t going to make it to Game 7 of the NBA Finals.

He’ll certainly settle for a ride to victory lane.

Elsewhere:

n Alex Palou won the IndyCar XPEL Grand Prix in Plymouth, Wis., on Sunday with Felix Rosenqvist second.

n Shawn Langdon won the Top Fuel division, and Austin Prock won Funny Car in the American Rebel Light Virginia NHRA Nationals on Sunday.

n Connor Zilisch, with Dale Earnhardt Jr. filling in as his crew chief, won the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Pocono on Saturday.

LONG POND, Pa. (AP) — Dale Earnhardt Jr. might already be NASCAR’s most popular crew chief.

He’s certainly an undefeated one.

Pressed into unexpected service, Earnhardt called the shots for 18-year-old prospect Connor Zilisch in the No. 88 Chevrolet and they landed in victory lane Saturday in the second-tier Xfinity Series race at Pocono Raceway.

“It felt good to have some input and decision-making power,” Earnhardt said. “And then helping Connor understand what our plan was so he knew when to push and what he was expected to do.”

Earnhardt — who won NASCAR’s most-popular driver award 15 times — made a pit stop from his day job as team owner at JR Motorsports with normal crew chief Mardy Lindley suspended one race because of a lug nut infraction this month at Nashville.

Aside from his duties as team owner, Earnhardt also was at Pocono for his role on the Prime broadcast for the NASCAR Cup Series race Sunday.

“Lot of fun for me today,” Earnhardt said. “I missed the thrill of competition. I love broadcast, don’t get me wrong. But nothing compares to driving or just being part of the team. Being an owner doesn’t really deliver like this. This is a lot of fun.”

Earnhardt had his wife and two young daughters in tow with him as he made the celebratory walk to victory lane. Oldest daughter Isla Rose clutched the checkered flag while youngest Nicole Lorraine soaked in the scene from her dad’s arms.

“I love that they just get to experience things about NASCAR,” Earnhardt said. “I had such a great time growing up as a kid in this sport, just running around here. I want them to have that opportunity and understand that this is a place where they could create opportunities for themselves down the road.”

The win continued a banner season for the NASCAR Hall of Fame driver — who swept two races at Pocono as a driver in 2014 — after JR Motorsports and reigning Xfinity Series champion Justin Allgaier qualified for the season-opening Daytona 500 and secured their Cup Series debut.

Earnhardt won two Daytona 500s, in 2004 and 2014, and 26 races overall.

His side hustle Saturday was made a bit easier with Zilisch behind the wheel. Zilisch, who turns 19 in July, raced to his second Xfinity victory of the season and third of his young career. He won his Xfinity debut last year at Watkins Glen International.

Earnhardt even pitched in during the race and tossed tires over the wall during pit stops.

“Midway through the race man, I was feeling it,” Earnhardt said.

Zilisch took the win down to the wire and finally passed Jesse Love with five laps left in the race. Love finished second.

“Dale Junior, not too bad on the box,” Zilisch said. “Pretty cool to have him up there. Getting him a 1-for-1 win as crew chief is pretty awesome.”

Even with the victory, it just might be one-and-done on the pit box for Earnhardt.

“I don’t know that I see myself doing it again,” he said.

It was nervous times atop the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing pit box as Chase Briscoe worked diligently to save enough fuel while leading the NASCAR Cup race at Pocono. He had left his box before the team was done filling up his Toyota Camry, leaving Briscoe to sweat as he tried to both save enough fuel and hold off teammate Denny Hamlin.

But it all worked out in the end, with Briscoe winning the race and teammate Hamlin finishing close behind. Briscoe ended up leading 72 of 160 laps, and was well aware of who was behind him.

“It was a lot,” said Briscoe when asked about the pressure. “It was kind of weird. I wasn’t driving hard. It’s not like I was on the ragged edge. It was so hard to have a guy chasing you, right, probably the guy that’s the greatest of all time here. Trying to save fuel and everything else.

“Thank you to all you race fans. It’s sold out every single time we come here. Unbelievable racing in front of a sold-out crowd. Amazing day for our race team. Really the first race we’ve kind of executed truthfully all year long … Joe Gibbs Racing took a big chance on me. Like, I wasn’t everybody’s first choice I think. Yeah, but for me to be able to get here and finally deliver a win is just an awesome feeling.”

Behind the JGR duo, Ryan Blaney finished third, Chris Buescher fourth, and Chase Elliott fifth. John Hunter Nemechek, Kyle Larson, Ryan Preece, Brad Keselowski, and Austin Cindric filled out the remainder of the top ten.

The run to the finish

Brad Keselowski, Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford

Photo by: Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

After the first two stages featured several incidents, including multiple brake failures, things got a bit cleaner for the final 60 lap run to the finish. By this point in the race, two of the 23XI Racing drivers crashed out with brake failures, while Tyler Reddick went behind the wall in attempt to fix the issue and avoid a similar fate.

Briscoe started the final stage out front as everyone raced towards the final fuel window. Once there, Briscoe was one of the first to dive to pit road with 40 laps to go. Most of field followed suit, but there were a handful of drivers who gambled and chose to push the run long.

Among those running long was Brad Keselowski, who appeared to be fast all day but never could catch a break. He was leading earlier in the race, but made a shocking mistake as he dove to the pits before pit road was open. But later in the day, he found himself out front again when misfortune found him once more.

Shane van Gisbergen, who won last weekend in Mexico City, went for a spin, triggering the final caution of the race with 35 laps to. Keselowski lost all of his track position as a result while Briscoe cycled back to the front.

But things weren’t all positive for Briscoe. He did not wait on fuel during his stop, leaving the box right as the jack dropped, forcing him to go full fuel-save for the final 30-lap run.

His JGR teammate was right behind him, but Hamlin could never quite get to him. Struggling to do anything in dirty air, this allowed Briscoe to save plenty of fuel and make it to the checkered flag.

Pocono ended up being Briscoe’s third career win and his first since joining JGR ahead of the 2025 season. Briscoe is now the 11th different winner this year, taking victory in the final NASCAR on Prime Video broadcast before the Cup Series shifts over to TNT Sports.

Photos from Pocono – Race