Third-round matchups in NASCAR Cup In-Season Challenge at Sonoma

The upsets continued in the second round of NASCAR’s In-Season Challenge, leaving eight drivers in contention for the $1 million prize.

Ty Dillon, the No. 32 seed in the 32-driver event continued his run. After eliminating top seed Denny Hamlin at Atlanta, Dillon beat No. 17 seed Brad Keselowski last weekend at Chicago to move on to the third round.

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Sunday’s race at Sonoma Raceway will cut the field In-Season Challenge field to four drivers.

Here is a look, with the help of Racing Insights, at the second-round pairings for Sunday’s race:

No. 6 Ty Gibbs vs. No. 14 Zane Smith

How they got here

Gibbs eliminated Justin Haley (seeded 27th) at Atlanta and AJ Allmendinger (22) at Chicago.

Smith eliminated Austin Cindric (19) at Atlanta and Chris Buescher (3) at Chicago.

Follow the road: Gibbs has an average finish of 15.7 in three road course races this season, while Smith’s average finish is 26.0.

Rolling: Gibbs has five consecutive top-15 finishes, including two top-five results.

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Winner … advances to meet winner of Ryan Preece – Tyler Reddick matchup.

No. 8 Alex Bowman vs. No. 32 Ty Dillon

How they got here

Bowman eliminated Joey Logano (25) at Atlanta and Bubba Wallace (9) at Chicago.

Dillon eliminated Denny Hamlin (1) at Atlanta and Brad Keselowski (17) at Chicago.

Matchup of opposites: Bowman is one of two drivers to finish in the top 10 in all three road course races this season (Shane van Gisbergen is the other). Dillon has not finished better than 20th in the three road course races this year. Bowman has seven top-10 finishes, including a win in his last 11 races on road courses. Dillon has never finished better than 15th in 28 Cup road course starts.

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Upset Special: The driver with the worse seed has won 11 of the 24 matchups so far, including Dillon’s two wins.

Winner … advances to meet winner of John Hunter Nemechek – Erik Jones matchup.

No. 12 John Hunter Nemechek vs. No. 20 Erik Jones

How they got here

Nemechek eliminated Josh Berry (21) at Atlanta and Chase Elliott (5) at Chicago.

Jones eliminated Ross Chastain (13) at Atlanta and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (29) at Chicago.

Familiar faces: This matchup pits Legacy Motor Club teammates against each other. At least the organization knows it will have one driver among the final four in the race for $1 million.

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Close duel: In the last eight races, Nemechek and Jones have each finished better than the other four times.

Winner … advances to meet winner of Ty Dillon – Alex Bowman matchup.

No. 15 Ryan Preece vs. No. 23 Tyler Reddick

How they got here

Preece eliminated William Byron (18) at Atlanta and Noah Gragson (31) at Chicago.

Reddick eliminated Kyle Larson (10) at Atlanta and Carson Hocevar (26) at Chicago.

Road course ringer: In the Next Gen era, Reddick is tied for the most road course wins (three) and poles (three) and ranks second in top-five finishes (nine) and top-10 finishes (14).

On a roll: Preece has five top-10 finishes in the last eight races. That is tied for the most top 10s in that span.

Winner … advances to meet winner of Ty Gibbs – Zane Smith matchup.