When NASCAR's "In-Season Challenge" for the TNT Sports portion of the broadcast schedule was announced, it sounded like a fun idea on paper.
If nothing else, it would be a way to spice up the summer stretch of the season by adding unique storylines to a span of five races between EchoPark Speedway and Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Only two weeks in, the 32-man field has been narrowed down to eight. And the eight drivers remaining are...not exactly the most expected ones.
32 has quickly become eight. pic.twitter.com/bnp2nETEDs
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 6, 2025
One of Ty Dillon, Alex Bowman, John Hunter Nemechek, Erik Jones, Ryan Preece, Tyler Reddick, Ty Gibbs, or Zane Smith will be the inaugural In-Season Challenge champion. They have a combined zero wins in 2025.
NASCAR's In-Season Challenge has proven to be a mediocrity machine
It probably should've been obvious from the start that this was tournament was meant to be nothing more than a ratings gimmick, much like the NBA's In-Season Tournament. It has zero impact on the standings or the playoff picture, with the only reward being a $1 million bonus for the winning team.
That's a good thing, because after the first two rounds, both set on tracks that are highly conducive to attrition, it's clear that the bracket is not rewarding winners. Instead, it is rewarding "not losers", drivers who have been fortunate enough to avoid being taken out in a crash or suffering some otherwise form of misfortune to drop them down the running order.
Of the eight remaining competitors, only two of them, Reddick and Bowman, are currently in a provisional playoff position. The average tournament seed among those still alive is 16.25. The average points position of the group is 17.6. Even within the two races of the contest thus far, the average finish of the survivors is only 11th place.
Simply put, it does not require a high level of skill to advance in this tournament. It only requires a driver's opponent to have something go wrong for them.
This, along with the chaotic nature of the single-elimination format, has created a high degree of randomness with upsets galore, much like one would see in the NCAA Tournament. Only, in the NCAA Tournament, teams have to actually beat their opponent. Here, all one has to do is hope their opponent gets taken out by some outside factor.
Again, it's worth noting that the In-Season Challenge is only meant to be for show. But in case there were any ideas of turning it into something more than that, it has proven in only two weeks of practice why that should not happen. Now, we wait to see which winless driver will take home a million bucks.