NASCAR in-season tournament

The NASCAR In-Season Tournament is an upcoming multi-phase tournament that will be conducted among drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series. It is scheduled to debut in the 2025 season.

Format

The tournament will consist of eight regular season races that will be run during June and July 2025. All tournament races will count toward the regular season and playoff standings as normal.

For the first three races, all full-time drivers in the series are eligible to compete. Race winners will automatically qualify for the bracket, and be joined by the drivers with the best finish in any of the three races, with ties to be broken by total race points. The 32 drivers with the best performances move on to the next phase of the tournament. The seeding races will be streamed on the new package to be shown on Amazon Prime Video.

The last five races will be conducted in a single elimination bracket. In each round, the driver in each matchup with the better finish advances, while the other is eliminated. This process will continue until only two drivers remain; the driver with the better finish in that race will be the tournament champion and win a $1 million bonus. All of these races will be shown on TNT.

In 2025, the first race of the bracketed portion will be held at Atlanta Motor Speedway for the Quaker State 400 on June 28.

The In-Season Tournament will be the second $1 million bonus event in the Cup Series, joining the NASCAR All-Star Race.

Reception

The NASCAR in-season tournament's concept was praised by several current and former NASCAR Cup Series drivers including Christopher Bell, Denny Hamlin, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Ryan Blaney upon being announced.