NASCAR to run in-season tournament on TNT Sports in 2025
NASCAR announced on Monday that it will add a new twist to next season‘s races with the TNT Sports portion of the 2025 Cup Series schedule featuring an in-season, bracket-style tournament.
The prior three races, airing on Prime Video, will set the seeding for the tournament as the sanctioning body tries the new concept during the first season in its historic seven-year media rights deal.
“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,” said Brian Herbst, NASCAR SVP, media and productions, in a press release.
“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.”
All drivers are eligible for the seeding races, and the top 32 drivers from those events, airing on Amazon’s Prime Video, will qualify for the in-season tournament that starts with TNT Sports’ first race. Seeding will be based on best finish in the three Prime Video races with tiebreakers determined by next-best finish, followed by season points position.
Drivers in the in-season tournament on TNT Sports and Max will compete head-to-head with the higher finishing driver advancing over five rounds. The winner of the in-season tournament will get to take home a $1 million prize.
“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, TNT Sports. “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, 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.”
As part of the media rights deal, Prime Video and TNT will evenly split a series of 10 midseason Cup races. Both also own exclusive rights to select practice and qualifying sessions in the Cup Series through the 2031 season.
Amazon’s Prime Video and TNT Sports join FOX Sports and NBC Sports in providing live coverage of all 38 Cup Series races beginning in 2025 and running through 2031.
