NASCAR to launch in-season tournament in 2025 with Amazon Prime Video, TNT Sports
NASCAR has announced the formation of an in-season tournament that will take place in 2025 with its new broadcast partners Amazon Prime Video and TNT Sports. The winner will earn $1 million.
The tournament will start with the final three races that air on Prime Video. Those races will determine driver seeding in the head-to-head bracket for the top 32 drivers. The seeding will be established by best finish in each race over the three races, and tiebreakers will be broken by the next-best finish followed by season point position.
TNT Sports, which will broadcast the five NASCAR Cup Series races after the five on Prime Video, will carry the tournament. The highest-finishing driver in each head-to-head matchup for each race advances in the tournament.
“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 storylines in our sport and innovation from a production perspective,” said Brian Herbst, NASCAR senior vice presient of media and productions. “The idea of an in-season tournament has been discussed within the NASCAR industry and as we started to focus on adding promotional elements that drive interest throughout the season, we were excited by the opportunity to leverage the marketing weight of Amazon and TNT Sports to bring this concept to life.
“Having head-to-head driver matchups for each one of TNT’s NASCAR Cup Series races will add a compelling fan engagement element across media platforms like TNT, Bleacher Report, House of Highlights, and NASCAR digital platforms.”
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Prime Video and TNT Sports will split 10 midseason NASCAR Cup Series races beginning in 2025. The new media rights deal goes through 2031.
“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, TNT Sports executive vice president and chief content officer. “TNT Sports has always been at the forefront of creativity and innovation, and NASCAR is a perfect partner to bring this vision to life across our networks and platforms.”
“We’re excited to be part of NASCAR’s first in-season tournament next season,” said Charlie Neiman, head of sports partnerships for Prime Video. “This tournament will showcase the league’s ability to drive innovation and engage fans with increased competition during a key part of the NASCAR schedule.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NASCAR, TNT, Amazon Prime Video to debut in-season tournament in 2025
