NASCAR In-Season Tournament updated bracket: Round of 8 locked in after Chicago

Two weeks down in the NASCAR In-Season Tournament. What was once 32 drivers has quickly turned into only eight. These are not the drivers everyone expected to make it to this point in the bracket challenge, everyone’s brackets are, in fact, busted, but there is still $1,000,00 on the line in a few weeks.

Once again, Ty Dillon has upset his matchup and will advance. He beat Brad Keselowski, who was a DNF after that big pileup caused by Carson Hocevar’s spin. So he will continue on, and he’s up against the second-highest seed remaining.

There is also a teammate battle in this Round of 8. Things are going to get very interesting at Sonoma Raceway next week. Another road course. Wonder who the favorite will be? After next Sunday, we will have only four drivers left fighting for the $1,000,000 prize in the NASCAR In-Season Tournament.

NASCAR In-Season Tournament Bracket:

• 32-seed Ty Dillon vs. 8-seed Alex Bowman
• 23-seed Tyler Reddick vs. 15-seed Ryan Preece
• 20-seed Erik Jones vs. 12-seed John Hunter Nemechek
• 14-seed Zane Smith vs. 6-seed Ty Gibbs

The Chicago Street Race put on a great show once again. Finally! A dry race! Start to finish, no wet-weather tires. It was a really good race. The first half or so was dominated by Michael McDowell. He led 31 laps before his throttle went out.

Perhaps the most intense fight in the NASCAR In-Season Tournament happened today. Bubba Wallace and Alex Bowman went toe(link)-to-toe(link) with each other.

That led to the 23 car being spun out of the top-10 and back to P28 overall. A tough break. Exactly the drama that NASCAR wants from this bracket challenge.

“I thought we had squashed our beef, but clearly not,” Bowman told Jeff Gluck of The Athletic. “I followed the 45 [Tyler Reddick] past him, he ran me into the inside wall into Turn 8. Still felt like I passed him clean, and he absolutely demolished me into Turn 12. I gave it back a little into Turn 1, and then he demolished me again into Turn 2, ran me into the outside wall. I’m just a pinball between him and the outside wall at that point. Certainly, not trying to crash anybody.

“I’d have to watch it back to be certain, but I felt like he kind of did it to himself because I kept getting pinballed between him and the outside wall. Wasn’t the intention, but I don’t know — we had way fresher tires than him. I get the In-Season tournament is a lot, but at that point, I’m just trying to finish the best I can. I wasn’t really thinking about that. Don’t know if that’s what it was about or what, but unfortunate that it happened. It tore up our car a bunch and killed his day.”

The NASCAR In-Season Tournament continues. Eight drivers left to fight over the $1,000,000. Sonoma, Dover, and Indianapolis are next up on the schedule. Who will be the last man standing?