NASCAR announces in-season tournament to be held during 2025 season
NASCAR announced the initial format for an in-season tournament during the 2025 Cup Series season on Monday, and it will include 32 drivers in a single-elimination bracket over five races.
The in-season tournament will feature the top 32 drivers in average finish from the final three races televised by Amazon Prime Video in 2025. Once seeded from 1-32, the in-season tournament will be held over the five midseason races televised by TNT Sports.
Matchups will be determined by head-to-head results, with best finisher in each head-to-head advancing to the next round. The winner will earn $1 million.
“With the launch of our new media rights partnerships in 2025, we were excited to partner with Prime Video and TNT Sports to collaborate on fan engagement concepts that drive story lines in our sport and innovation from a production perspective,” NASCAR executive Brian Herbst said in a release.
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2025 is the first year of a seven-year deal of NASCAR's new television deal, which will feature FOX, Amazon, TNT Sports and NBC as media rights partners. FOX will broadcast the first 12 Cup races from 2025-31 as well as the Busch Clash and the All-Star race, with Amazon and TNT Sports showing the next five races apiece. NBC will televise the final 14 races, including the entire playoffs.
The 2025 Cup Series schedule has not yet been released, but it seems likely that if the race weekend at Nashville Superspeedway remains in mid-to-late June that it will be a part of the in-season tournament in some form.
This is such a win for our sport and drivers. Many story lines will made during this 5 week period. I will collect my 1M royalty next season 😉. https://t.co/vD6bTuCddH
— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) May 13, 2024
NASCAR 2025 in-season tournament format
Amount of drivers involved: 32
Seeding? Seeds 1 through 32 will be determined by the average finish of the top 32 cars in the final three races broadcasted by Amazon Prime Video in 2025.
Format? There will be five rounds in the single elimination, 32-driver bracket. 32 drivers will be cut to 16 drivers for the second round, then down to 8 for the next round, etc.
The stakes? $1 million to the winner.
What's the 2025 schedule look like? NASCAR has not yet announced the 2025 Cup Series schedule.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: NASCAR announces in-season tournament to be held during 2025 season
