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| Founder | Denny Hamlin |
|---|---|
| First season | 2023 (as concept) 2025 (officially) |
| Organising body | NASCAR |
| Most recent champions | No. 54Ty Gibbs Joe Gibbs Racing (2025) |
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 2025 NASCAR In-Season Challenge | |
TheNASCAR In-Season Challenge (initially titled theNASCAR In-Season Tournament) is asingle-elimination tournament that is conducted among drivers in theNASCAR Cup Series. It made its debut during the2025 season.
The In-Season Challenge will be the second $1 million bonus event in the Cup Series, joining theNASCAR All-Star Race.[1]
The in-season tournament is not the first time that an extra event was organized alongside the Cup Series season, with various formats done through NASCAR history. The first was theWinston Million from 1985 to 1997, giving a driver a cash prize for their victory in four assigned races. In 1998, the format was expanded to five races and became theNo Bull 5, a challenge where a driver must finish in the top 5 and then win in two consecutive Crown Jewel races to earn a million dollar prize. This format lasted until 2002.
With the advent of theChase for the Cup in 2004, later reformulated as theNASCAR playoffs in 2014–2017, the idea of a mid-season event was instead used in the lower tiers of NASCAR competition. In 2009, NASCAR adopted theDash 4 Cash for its Nationwide Series, now named theO'Reilly Auto Parts Series. In 2019, theTriple Truck Challenge was adopted in theTruck Series. Both are organized to this day alongside the regular seasons and playoffs for both series.
The idea of a in-season format based onMarch Madness and theNBA Cup (which was introduced in 2023) was conceptualized by Cup Series driver and23XI Racing co-ownerDenny Hamlin, first publicly mentioned in his podcastActions Detrimental. According to Hamlin, the Cup season needed more storylines during the mid-summer part of regular season as he felt there wasn't much buzz and too few stories going on in the series until the final races before the Playoffs. Hamlin himself realized a non-official version of the format during the 2023 and 2024 seasons.[2][3][4]
The format, along with his podcast, became successful enough to get the attention of NASCAR leadership, who decided turn the concept idea into a official mid-season event from the 2025 season. Upon the announcement, Denny jokingly mentioned that he wanted to win the million-dollar prize for the first In-Season Challenge asroyalties.[5]
The tournament consists of eight regular season races that are run during the regular season, with all races counting 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 automatically qualify for the bracket, and are joined by the drivers with the best finish in any of the three races. Any ties in finishing position are broken by total race points. The 32 drivers with the best performances move on to the next phase of the tournament. The seeding races for 2025 were streamed onAmazon Prime Video as part of their inaugural broadcasting tenure.[6] The last five races are conducted in a single elimination bracket. In each of the four "Challenge Rounds", the driver in each matchup with the better finish advances, while the other is eliminated. This process will continue until only two drivers remain in what is known as the "Champions Round"; the driver with the better finish in that race will be the tournament champion and win a $1 million bonus. All tournament races are shown onTNT.
In 2025, the first race of the bracketed portion was held atAtlanta Motor Speedway for theQuaker State 400 on June 28.[7] The rest of the races include theChicago Street Course,Sonoma,Dover, andIndianapolis.
| Year | Date(s) | Seed | No. | Driver | Team | Manufacturer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | June 28 - July 27 | #6 | 54 | Ty Gibbs | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota |
| Track | City | Round in2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| EchoPark Speedway | Hampton, GA | Round 1 | Round 3 |
| Chicago Street Course | Chicago, IL | Round 2 | — |
| Sonoma Raceway | Sonoma, CA | Round 3 | Round 1 |
| Dover Motor Speedway | Dover, DE | Round 4 | — |
| Indianapolis Motor Speedway | Speedway, IN | Round 5 | Round 5 |
| Chicagoland Speedway | Joliet, IL | — | Round 2 |
| North Wilkesboro Speedway | North Wilkesboro, NC | — | Round 4 |
The NASCAR in-season tournament's concept was praised by several current and formerNASCAR Cup Series drivers, includingChristopher Bell,Dale Earnhardt Jr. andRyan Blaney upon being announced.[8][9]
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