The second annual NASCAR In-Season Challenge started on Sunday afternoon at Sonoma Raceway, and 32 drivers battled for the right to advance to the second round at Chicagoland Speedway this coming Sunday evening.
With head-to-head matchups determining who advances and who is eliminated, the top 16 finishers weren't necessarily those who advanced. In fact, simply because of seeding and matchup draws, four drivers who finished inside the top 16 on Sunday were eliminated, while four who finished below them advanced to the next round.
Only four full-time drivers were excluded from the 32-driver bracket. Haas Factory Team's Cole Custer, Trackhouse Racing's Connor Zilisch, and Rick Ware Racing's Cody Ware all failed to qualify for the tournament, as they were all outside of the top 32 in the point standings following the race at Pocono Raceway two weeks prior.
Richard Childress Racing's Austin Hill, who took over behind the wheel of the No. 8-turned-No. 33 Chevrolet after the death of two-time series champion Kyle Busch, is not eligible for Cup Series points as a full-time O'Reilly Auto Parts Series driver, and the seeding was based on driver points, rather than owner points.
16 drivers eliminated, including three upsets
Most notably, No. 1 seed Tyler Reddick was eliminated after power steering issues mired him four laps off the lead lap. With No. 1 seed Denny Hamlin having been eliminated in the opening round at EchoPark Speedway (Atlanta Motor Speedway) a year ago, the No. 1 seed has still yet to advance to the second round in this tournament.
There were only two other upsets. The entire right side of the bracket notably did not feature any upsets in eight matchups, while the left side featured three.
No. 25 seed Todd Gilliland of Front Row Motorsports beat No. 8 seed Daniel Suarez of Spire Motorsports, and he did so with only a 29th place finish. No. 20 seed Michael McDowell of Spire Motorsports defeated No. 13 seed Bubba Wallace of 23XI Racing.
Here's a look at how things shook out on Sunday.
NASCAR In-Season Challenge matchups at Sonoma
Seed | Winner | Finish | Seed | Loser | Finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
32 | Alex Bowman | 10th | 1 | Tyler Reddick | 36th |
16 | Austin Cindric | 13th | 17 | Brad Keseloweski | 17th |
25 | Todd Gilliland | 29th | 8 | Daniel Suarez | 31st |
9 | Carson Hocevar | 11th | 24 | Zane Smith | 18th |
12 | Chase Briscoe | 2nd | 21 | A.J. Allmendinger | 16th |
5 | Ty Gibbs | 3rd | 28 | Austin Dillon | 27th |
20 | Michael McDowell | 9th | 13 | Bubba Wallace | 22nd |
4 | Chase Elliott | 17th | 29 | Noah Gragson | 32nd |
2 | Denny Hamlin | 26th | 31 | Ty Dillon | 35th |
15 | Erik Jones | 23rd | 18 | Joey Logano | 24th |
7 | Chris Buescher | 19th | 26 | John Hunter Nemechek | 25th |
10 | Christopher Bell | 5th | 23 | Ross Chastain | 14th |
11 | William Byron | 12th | 22 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 21st |
6 | Kyle Larson | 4th | 27 | Riley Herbst | 30th |
14 | Shane van Gisbergen | 1st | 19 | Ryan Preece | 8th |
3 | Ryan Blaney | 6th | 30 | Josh Berry | 28th |
The second round at Chicagoland is set to feature Bowman vs. Cindric, Gilliland vs. Hocevar, Briscoe vs. Gibbs, McDowell vs. Elliott, Hamlin vs. Jones, Buescher vs. Bell, Byron vs. Larson, and van Gisbergen vs. Blaney.
Rounds three, four, and five are scheduled to take place at Atlanta, North Wilkesboro Speedway, and Indianapolis Motor Speedway, respectively.
Tune in to TNT this Sunday, July 5 at 6:00 p.m. for the live broadcast of the eero 400 from Chicagoland Speedway.
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