Following the lead of the NBA, the NASCAR Cup Series is planning a five-race, bracket-style tournament in the midst of the 2025 season, beginning with a night event at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The tournament, which comes with a $1 million prize to the
winner, is part of a new media rights deal that includes TNT.
The Atlanta-based cable network will broadcast all five
races in the tournament, starting with a 400-miler in its home market on June
28, 2025.
“Next year, having $1 million on the line, that’s for sure
going to be a goal before the season starts and something that you and your
team strategize around and all that,” Kyle Larson said. “I look forward to it.
The summer months get stale. Not boring, but it just gets repetitive. You lose
some excitement.”
Atlanta, which has produced some of NASCAR’s most thrilling
races since the track was redesigned with higher banking, gets the honor of
hosting the first tournament race. The remainder of the 36-race schedule will
be announced later.
Brandon Hutchison, president and general manager of the
Atlanta track, said the venue was eager to host racing after dark after being
scheduled for two day races this season. To get the opening event of the new
in-season tournament was an added bonus.
“We’ve heard our fans loud and clear,” Hutchison said. “We
know that they wanted the night race back. We were excited to even be able to
consider being able to give that to them. Then with TNT — a hometown broadcast
partner, home track, the first season of the in-season bracket tournament, the
first time that’s ever been held in NASCAR — we feel that … June 28, 2025, is
going to be a very exciting time to be at Atlanta Motor Speedway.”
The tournament Is patterned after in-season tournaments that
are staged by soccer leagues around the world and were brought to the NBA this
season. The Los Angeles Lakers won the inaugural event in December, beating
Indiana in a title game held in Las Vegas.
The NASCAR tournament will feature the top 32 drivers from
three seeding races, which will be held just before the Atlanta race and
televised by Amazon Prime.
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.
The field of contenders will be reduced to 16 for Race 2,
followed by the quarterfinals in Race 3, the semifinals in Race 4 and the final
in Race 5.
“It’s never been a better time to be a fan of motorsports,
and this new, first-ever in-season tournament will bring a new competitive
dynamic to NASCAR’s summer race weekends,” said Craig Barry, executive vice
president and chief content officer of TNT Sports.
Hutchison said the Atlanta track will continue to host two
races in 2025 though the complete schedule is still pending.
This season, the 1.54-mile oval in suburban Hampton held the
second points race of the year on Feb. 25 — a week after the Daytona 500 — that
ended with Daniel Suarez edging Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch in a three-wide
photo finish.
Atlanta’ s second race of 2024 is set for Sept. 8 as the
kickoff to the NASCAR playoffs. Next year, that race will move up to be part of
the in-season tournament instead of the playoff.
In a post on X, the social media site formerly known as
Twitter, Denny Hamlin called the tournament “such a win for our sport and
drivers.” He jokingly added, “I will collect my 1M royalty next season.”
Larson said the tournament will provide a much-needed boost
to the doldrums of summer.
“I think this bracket, or whatever you want to call it, is
going to add a lot of excitement and more storylines,” he said. “So I love it.”
-AP