NASCAR taking page out of the NBA's book with 2025 in-season tournament

An in-season tournament is coming to the NASCAR Cup Series in 2025. 

The stars of the NASCAR Cup Series will battle it out for a $1 million prize throughout five races in summer 2025, with three races determining the 32 drivers who will compete, as well as seeding for the tournament. 

Three seeding races, airing during Amazon Prime’s portion of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series schedule, are going to decide which 32 drivers will have a chance to win the $1 million prize over the five races that will be broadcast on Turner Sports in the media giant’s first year as a NASCAR broadcast partner since 2014. 

The tournament will, of course, be in a bracket-style format, with each of the five races making up one of the five “rounds.” Brian Herbst, senior vice president of NASCAR media and productions, says “having head-to-head driver matchups for each one of TNT’s NASCAR Cup Series races will add a compelling fan engagement across media platforms like TNT, Bleacher Report, House of Highlights, and NASCAR Digital Platforms.”

NASCAR Cup Series driver Denny Hamlin proposed the idea for an in-season tournament in 2023 on his podcast, “Actions Detrimental.” 

Whether or not Hamlin’s endorsement of the idea was a major factor in it coming to fruition is unclear, but NASCAR likely took inspiration from the NBA’s in-season tournament in the winter of 2023, which reportedly took TV ratings up 41 percent as opposed to the equivalent window of the NBA season in 2022. 

In the first year of a new $7 billion TV deal, NASCAR is looking to forge a solid relationship with its new broadcast partners in TNT and Amazon Prime. The in-season tournament could be NASCAR’s ticket to riding a wave of momentum during the summer months and into the playoffs.