NASCAR Scraps Overly Complicated In-Season Challenge Seeding Format
What’s Happening? For the second season of its in-season challenge tournament, NASCAR is changing how drivers are seeded and qualify for…
NASCAR is bringing back its five-race In-Season Challenge in 2026, adding a midyear jolt to the calendar. Just like last year, all five rounds of the head-to-head contest will air during TNT Sports’ stretch of the schedule. Only the top 32 drivers in the standings will make the cut, and this time the lineup will be set by points position entering the tournament instead of a three-race scramble to sort the field.
Drivers will go toe-to-toe across five weeks, chasing a $1 million prize. While the races will not be as simple as duels, the math will be easier this time. The drivers will have to beat their matchup on the results sheet and move on. One by one, the field will be whittled down until two drivers remain, with the last man standing taking the payout.
However, the journey to that finale will take a new road in 2026.
Sonoma Raceway has been moved from Round 3 to the opener, throwing drivers straight into a road-course test from the drop of the flag. In Round 2, the series will stay in Illinois but trade the downtown street course for Chicagoland Speedway, marking the first return to Joliet since 2019.
EchoPark Speedway near Atlanta, which opened the in-season challenge brackets in 2025, will slot into the third round to decide which four drivers move on. From there, the field will head to North Wilkesboro Speedway, which is returning to the points schedule for the first time since 1996 and will serve as the penultimate round of the bracket.
The curtain will finally fall at the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where the winner will be crowned under the weight of one of the sport’s crown-jewel events.
NASCAR has also gone back to the drawing board on how the field is set. In 2025, seeding was based on a driver’s best finish across three races, with tie-breakers decided by the next-best result and then by season points. The system opened the door to an underwhelming string of tie scenarios.
This year, the 32-driver field will be locked in by points after the June 14 race at Pocono Raceway, giving fans a clearer view of the bracket. The street race at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego will sit outside the seeding window, creating a gap between the cutoff and the start of the tournament.
What’s Happening? For the second season of its in-season challenge tournament, NASCAR is changing how drivers are seeded and qualify for…
The first edition of the in-season challenge was pretty intense and unpredictable. None of the top drivers could qualify for the finale of the in-season championship in 2025. All 32 full-time drivers took part, with results counting toward the regular season and the playoff picture.
But Ty Dillon, John Hunter Nemechek, Ty Gibbs, and Tyler Reddick fought their way into the final four through their runs at Sonoma. Dillon, the No. 10 Kaulig Racing driver, came from the 32nd seed and knocked off Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Alex Bowman, and Nemechek to reach the final.
On the other side, Gibbs created his own path, beating Justin Haley, AJ Allmendinger, Zane Smith, and Reddick in all four rounds to punch his finale entry. Finally, at Indianapolis, Ty Gibbs got the better of Dillon and walked away with the $1 million prize, closing the book on the first edition of a format that now returns for another run.
This article will be updated race to race when the In-Season Challenge kicks off.
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