The inaugural NASCAR In-Season Challenge gets underway this Sunday with the Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta. Ahead of the highly anticipated bracket style tournament, NASCAR unveiled a hype video on Tuesday.
“NASCAR and TNT , they’ve handed us the keys to something big,” Ryan Blaney says to a table full of drivers Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Austin Cindric, Josh Berry and John Hunter Nemechek. Together, they come up with ideas of how to design the NASCAR In-Season Challenge.
The task was simple. Design something big and bold for TNT.
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) June 24, 2025
Sworn to secrecy in an undisclosed location, @Blaney and some of NASCAR's brightest minds went to work. pic.twitter.com/KB4YGZAx1q
The video takes a comedic turn when Stenhouse suggests a “driver versus driver” format. “That’s my boy, Stenhouse,” Blaney told the HYAK Motorsports driver. Berry interrupted, “Don’t you mean Spinhouse?” Stenhouse reminded Berry, “The last guy that said that — didn’t work out too well for him.” Berry responded by throwing double birds in Stenhouse’s direction.
Sounds like a Stenhouse versus Berry matchup would be a must-see event. It could happen, as both are on the same side of the bracket.
And here is the in-season tournament bracket as shown on Prime Video: pic.twitter.com/gbXyOYwwNT
— Kelly Crandall (@KellyCrandall) June 23, 2025
Simply put, the matchup winner is the best-finishing driver between the two, and that driver advances to the next round, staying alive with a chance to win the ultimate $1 million prize. Atlanta starts it off, followed by the Chicago Street Race, Sonoma Raceway and Dover Motor Speedway. The finale will take place at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in one of NASCAR’s Crown Jewel events, the Brickyard 400.
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