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NASCAR set for summer stretch March Madness style. Will new tournament end summer schedule malaise?

LONG POND, Pa. – It’s time to bust out the brackets, pick an upset or two, and follow winners on the road — a journey over city streets, concrete and bricks — to the final four and beyond. Totally awesome, baby? Forget all the upset specials in March. NASCAR will find out soon enough if […]

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LONG POND, Pa. – It’s time to bust out the brackets, pick an upset or two, and follow winners on the road — a journey over city streets, concrete and bricks — to the final four and beyond.

Totally awesome, baby?

Forget all the upset specials in March.

NASCAR will find out soon enough if its attempt to snap out of a mid-summer malaise with its first in-season tournament is a success with drivers and fans as it strives to boost engagement and build buzz in the staid regular season.

The concept has already juiced enthusiasm in NASCAR to levels not seen since the halcyon days when Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough duked it out in the 1979 Daytona 500.

“To be really honest with you,” 2020 NASCAR champion Chase Elliott said, “I have not paid any attention to it.”

Maybe a look at the matchup will get NASCAR’s most popular driver pumped!

Elliott is seeded fifth against No. 28 seed Austin Dillon in the first round of the head-to-head showdown in the race-within-the-race set for this weekend at the track better known as Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Here’s a refresher for Elliott and any other sports fan who missed out on the specifics of NASCAR joining the in-season tournament party, much like attempts in the NBA, NHL, and, of course, throughout the world in soccer.

NASCAR is set to start the engines on a five-race, bracket-style tournament called the In-Season Challenge in the midst of the summer slate, which comes with a $1 million prize to the winner.

The final 32-driver field was set by results of the last three races at Michigan, Mexico City and Pocono. The drivers are 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.

Buoyed by a win at Michigan and a runner-up finish at Pocono, Denny Hamlin earned the top seed. He’ll square off — race off? — against No. 32 seed Ty Dillon. Pocono winner Chase Briscoe is the No. 2 seed and is pitted against No. 31 seed Noah Gragson.

Chris Buescher is third, Christopher Bell fourth and Elliott fifth, among notable names.

The format is single elimination with the field cut to 16 at the street race in Chicago, eight at Sonoma, four on the lone concrete track in the series at Dover and the final two over the yard of bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The Challenge is part of NASCAR’s media rights deal that includes TNT, and the Atlanta-based cable network will broadcast all five races in the tournament, starting with the 400-miler in Atlanta.

Aside from a shrug from Elliott and a few others, drivers are intrigued by the idea of increasing the stakes in each race beyond a playoff berth, trophy and the winner’s purse.

“I love it. I think it’s great,” three-time Cup champion Joey Logano said. “I think it’s placed perfectly where it is in the season. This is kind of that moment where the newness is worn off. We’re into the rhythm, we’re racing every week. It’s starting to start a little bit of, who’s going to be in the playoffs, who’s not, the cutoff line all those types of things. But it’s not really the main story quite yet.”

Stories are what sell, of course, and the sizzle in Pocono over the weekend had little to do with which drivers or teams are the ones to beat for the 2025 championship. Rather, it was whether two pedestrian drivers were going to fight, the end of Amazon Prime’s run of wildly-popular telecasts and Hall of Fame driver Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s win in his first race as a crew chief.

“This really spices up the mid-part of the season,” Logano said.

So does placing a few bucks on No. 11 to win.

But as of Monday afternoon, most sports gambling sites did not offer odds on specific matchups headed into Atlanta. NASCAR is offering $1 million to a winning fan with a perfect bracket in its fantasy game.

There are some quirks to the bracket: Shane van Gisbergen won the Cup race in Mexico City and is not in the field while series points leader William Byron is only a No. 9 seed. The tournament boasts matchups in the first-round of past Cup champions (Kyle Busch-Brad Keselowski), former teammates (Briscoe-Gragson), and even best friends (Bubba Wallace-Daniel Suarez).

The idea for the challenge was largely championed by Hamlin, a three-time Daytona 500 champion who floated the idea of a mid-season tournament on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast. When NASCAR bought into the idea and announced the creation of the tournament last year, Hamlin called the tournament on social media “such a win for our sport and drivers.” He jokingly added, “I will collect my 1M royalty next season.”

Hamlin’s on deck and clearly a favorite to win it all, with three wins this year for Joe Gibbs Racing and the top seed.

(And let’s not haggle over who gets credit in court.)

“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.”

NASCAR will present the tournament winner at Indianapolis with a ring, jackets, trophy and — oh yeah, a million bucks.

That’s enough cash to get anyone’s attention — even Elliott’s.

“I don’t know what you get. You get anything,” Elliott asked.

“Oh, a million dollars to the winner? Then yeah, we want to win.”

___

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

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.



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Motorsports

NASCAR ’25 Will Not Have “Local Multiplayer”

What’s Happening? A producer for iRacing’s upcoming NASCAR ’25 Console game confirmed in a recent interview that the game will not have local multiplayer. During an interview with Mike Straw of Insider Gaming, Matt Lewis, a producer on NASCAR ’25, stated that the upcoming game will not have local multiplayer. “We made the tough decision […]

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July 16, 2025

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What’s Happening?

A producer for iRacing’s upcoming NASCAR ’25 Console game confirmed in a recent interview that the game will not have local multiplayer.

WeatherTech Push DownWeatherTech Push Down

  • During an interview with Mike Straw of Insider Gaming, Matt Lewis, a producer on NASCAR ’25, stated that the upcoming game will not have local multiplayer. “We made the tough decision to cut local multiplayer, so that’s not a thing in this game,” Lewis said.
  • Lewis did not expand on what exactly he meant by local multiplayer, though most could assume that split-screen or in-person multiplayer is not featured in NASCAR ’25. Split-screen mode is a long-time gaming staple, but its use has steadily declined since the introduction of online play.  
  • Yet Lewis could mean another form of Local Multiplayer, as the term is often used interchangeably for certain forms of play. For example, Lewis could have referred to features such as LAN play being removed from the game, with the split screen still intact.
  • Of course, online multiplayer is a major part of this game, with private lobbies and “special events” for those seeking a multiplayer experience. Lewis said these special events include “certain nights have sort of special events at a given track where there’s kind of a structure.”
  • There is no set release date for NASCAR ’25 at this time. We have covered all the news and rumors about NASCAR ’25 and its development via the article linked below.

What’s Happening?

Since late 2023, NASCAR fans have been waiting for the release of iRacing’s upcoming NASCAR console game. In…

What do you think about this? Let us know your opinion on Discord or X. Don’t forget that you can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.





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NASCAR suspends two crew members for Cody Ware loose wheel

Cody Ware was hoping for a calm day at Sonoma Raceway after a terrifying crash at the end of the Chicago Street Course race, one week prior. A brake rotor exploded at one of the fastest parts of the circuit and Ware’s car buried itself into the tire barriers at Turn 6. He impacted the wall […]

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July 16, 2025

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Cody Ware was hoping for a calm day at Sonoma Raceway after a terrifying crash at the end of the Chicago Street Course race, one week prior. A brake rotor exploded at one of the fastest parts of the circuit and Ware’s car buried itself into the tire barriers at Turn 6. He impacted the wall at around 90mph, causing noticeable damage to the steering wheel and cracking his HANS Device.

Thankfully, nothing like that happened at Sonoma, but it wasn’t without its own drama. In the closing laps of the race, the right-rear wheel separated from the car. The No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Ford was able to continue, but the runaway wheel brought out a caution flag. Ware drove the car back to the pits and carried on, ultimately finishing 34th of the 37 starters. It was Ware’s worst finish since Bristol in April.

As a result of the loose wheel, NASCAR has issued team penalties to RWR. Rear tire changer Marquill Osborne and jackman De’Quan Hampton have both been suspended for the next two races — Dover this weekend and Indianapolis next weekend.

The only other penalties from the race weekend were fines for unsecured lug nuts in the Xfinity Series. The No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet of Austin Hill, No. 26 Sam Hunt Racing Toyota of Dean Thompson, and the No. 44 Alpha Prime Racing Chevrolet of Brennan Poole.

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NASCAR’s Trackhouse Racing Makes High Profile Joe Gibbs Racing Hire

NASCAR’s Trackhouse Racing team has announced the hiring of Todd Meredith from Joe Gibbs Racing as president of racing operations. The newly created role means Meredith does not replace anyone at the team. According to LinkedIn, Meredith was the vice president of operations at JGR and has been serving the team since May 1992. The […]

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July 16, 2025

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NASCAR’s Trackhouse Racing team has announced the hiring of Todd Meredith from Joe Gibbs Racing as president of racing operations. The newly created role means Meredith does not replace anyone at the team.

According to LinkedIn, Meredith was the vice president of operations at JGR and has been serving the team since May 1992. The big announcement comes a day after Trackhouse’s Shane van Gisbergen won the Cup Series race at Sonoma.

Meredith began his new role on Monday, marking the start of a new chapter with Trackhouse and the end of his long partnership with JGR. Speaking about Meredith’s arrival to the team, Trackhouse Racing team owner Justin Marks said in a statement:

“We’re thrilled to welcome someone of Todd’s caliber and experience to help guide Trackhouse from the top. His focus on culture, strategy, quick decision making and organization will be a massive shot in the arm for this company as we navigate a pivotal growth period in the history of Trackhouse Racing.”

Shane Van Gisbergen
Shane Van Gisbergen, driver of the #88 Red Bull Chevrolet, celebrates with a burnout after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway on July 13, 2025 in Sonoma, California.

Meg Oliphant/Getty Images

Meredith said:

“I feel at home in NASCAR and wanted to return in some form. The more I talked with Justin, the more I was excited by his vision of Trackhouse Racing. The team is very talented and quite successful, as you have seen in the last few months, but we want even more.”

While Trackhouse’s SVG stole the show at Sonoma, JGR made news for other reasons. The team found itself in the middle of a controversy after Ty Gibbs and Brad Keselowski pitted.

JGR’s pit stall was right next to RFK Racing. At the end of Stage 2, Gibbs came into the pit lane and grazed RFK’s tire changer, Telvin McClurkin. Footage revealed later that Gibbs’ car grazed a tire McClurkin was holding as he prepared to service Keselowski’s car.

The situation escalated after both drivers had pitted. McClurkin confronted the JGR crew before a fight erupted between them. NASCAR officials had to intervene to prevent further escalation.

The sport decided not to penalize Gibbs for the incident, despite Keselowski’s team presenting footage with an overhead view. Former driver Kyle Petty stated that crew members need to adjust and make space due to the smaller pit boxes. He said:

“People get bumped, people get moved, people have to adjust. And I think it’s just the timing. It’s the perfect storm here. Ty had to be in his pit box, had to get in straight.

“When you’ve got a short pit box, the only way to get in your pit box straight and close for fueling and give the tire guys room is to come in the back door, to come in that back line completely straight. And when you see Ty come in, he comes through the 6’s box and into his box straight.

“No, I don’t have an issue with what Ty did. Now, I don’t really have an issue with what the tire carrier did either because he’s a little upset. He should have maybe kept his tire out of the way.”



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RestorationMaster Sponsors Stock Race Car Driven by Micheal Clayton Sr. of City Garage Motorsports

We’re proud to stand behind a team that’s not only building competitive race cars but also building a name for themselves in the sport. We’re thrilled to be part of their journey and can’t wait to see what the rest of the season holds. Post this “City Garage Motorsports is making big moves on the […]

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