On Saturday, June 28, NASCAR’s inaugural In-Season Challenge begins as the Cup Series drivers compete in the Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway.

If you aren’t clear on how this In-Season Challenge works, we’ve got you covered. Keep reading as we break down what this mid-season tournament is all about, the five-race format, what the prize is for the winner, and discuss NASCAR’s foray into a bracket challenge.

And, of course, we’ll also take a look at the NASCAR betting odds for this tournament, courtesy of the top sports betting sites.

What Is The NASCAR In-Season Challenge?

To spice things up during the dog days of Summer, NASCAR decided to take a page out of the playbook of other sports like the NBA and its in-season tournament called the NBA Cup.

For the sport of NASCAR, making the season more meaningful and exciting has been a challenging task over the last decade. However, I believe they nailed it with this tournament. In fact, I expect this In-Season Challenge to breathe new life into a sport desperately seeking attention.

How Does The In-Season Challenge Work?

32 eligible drivers will compete in a single-elimination tournament over a five-race span. The drivers previously qualified based on their finishes at the three prior races of Michigan, Mexico City and Pocono.

Following their results at those tracks, the 32 eligible drivers were put in a field like the NCAA Men’s or Women’s Basketball Tournament.

All 32 drivers were paired off with each other to give us 16 matchups in the first round. After each race, the winner of a head-to-head matchup will advance to the next round. The driver with the highest finish, amongst the two competitors, will win their matchup.

So, like with the Big Dance in College Basketball, we’ll see this In-Season Challenge dwindle down each week until there’s just two eligible drivers left in the fifth and final race, which takes place at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, July 27.

The winner of the Championship Round head-to-head matchup will leave Indy with a cool million dollars.

In addition to trying to win the head-to-head matchup each week, every driver will still be racing for race points, Playoff points, Stage Wins, and checkered flags. So, every week will feel like two races in one, kind of like how the Playoffs operate.

In-Season Challenge Races:

The In-Season Challenge consists of the following five rounds:

• Challenge Round 1: Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway
• Challenge Round 2: Grant Park 165 at the Chicago Street Race
• Challenge Round 3: Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway
• Challenge Round 4: EchoPark Automotive at 400 Dover Motor Speedway
• Championship Round: Brickyard 400 Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Another fascinating aspect of this tournament is that it consists of a mixture of tracks from road courses and short tracks to street races and intermediate tracks. That means we’ll see some fascinating matchups each week without any driver having a clear-cut advantage.

How To Watch The NASCAR In-Season Challenge?

All five of these races will air live on TNT Sports. Which also means you can stream them live on MAX and take full advantage of the platform’s select in-car coverage of popular Cup Series drivers. In other words, the entire In-Season Challenge will unfold on TNT over the next five weeks.

NASCAR In-Season Challenge Odds

Check out the latest NASCAR In-Season Challenge odds, courtesy of the top sports betting sites:

These NASCAR odds are for the In-Season Challenge heading into Round 1, which takes place at EchoPark Speedway. After each round, these odds will be updated to reflect the changes on the boards based on which drivers have advanced.

Not only will we continue to provide our NASCAR coverage throughout the entire in-season tournament, but you can also check out which way the best handicappers are leaning with their NASCAR picks.

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Betting on the NASCAR In-Season Challenge

There are multiple ways to bet on the NASCAR In-Season Challenge. The following is just a quick summary of three popular ways to bet this tournament:

• Overall Winner: betting on a specific driver to win the tournament.
• Race Matchups For Each Round: betting on specific drivers to win their head-to-head matchups in each round of the tournament.
• Race Winners: betting on a driver to win each race during the tournament.

Our In-Season Challenge NASCAR coverage will provide betting analysis for all three of those strategies and more.

NASCAR In-Season Challenge Predictions

This section will be updated after each week’s round of driver matchups. However, we’re also going to make our NASCAR In-Season Challenge predictions before the tournament begins.

NASCAR In-Season Challenge Round 1 Predictions

Heading to Atlanta, the Fords are favored to win the Quaker State 400. So, you might want to keep an eye on drivers like Ryan Blaney (+800) who is the odds-on favorite to take the checkered flag on Saturday night.

Hendrick Motorsports has three drivers with plenty of potential to crash the Ford party with William Byron (+1400), Chase Elliott (+1600) and Kyle Larson (+1600). Elliott has won at this track before, and is one of our favorite drivers on Saturday night, along with Blaney.

You can continue reading our NASCAR picks of the week for more bets on the Quaker State 400, along with our breakdown of the race itself.

With that said, let’s take a look at our top head-to-head matchups for Round 1 of the In-Season Challenge:

Austin Cindric (-290) vs. Zane Smith (+220)

Austin Cindric enters this weekend’s race tied for the second spot in the betting odds just behind his teammate Blaney. Yet, Cindric has the easiest matchup of the Team Penske drivers as he faces Zane Smith.

Cindric has a 15.3 average finish at Atlanta (EchoPark Speedway) with two top 5s and three Top 10s in eight starts.

Smith has never finished in the Top 10 at Atlanta and has a 22.3 average finish, which is seven spots below Cindric. Take the Team Penske driver to crush this head-to-head matchup.

Bet: Austin Cindric (-290)

Ryan Preece (+145) vs. William Byron (-180)

Ryane Preece is on the cusp of making the Playoffs as he sits 14^th in the standings, roughly 40 points above the cut-off line.

However, Preece has made nine Atlanta starts and has never cracked the Top 10. In fact, he has a 23.9 average finish over those appearances.

William Byron sits on top of the driver standings, as he has for most of the season, and has two wins, two Top 5s, four Top 10s, and a 17.8 average finish in 12 Atlanta starts.

Byron won this race in 2023, was 9^th last year, and should cruise to a better finish than Preece this weekend.

Bet: William Byron (-180)

Chase Elliott (-240) vs. Austin Dillon (+190)

Chase Elliott is a driver to watch this weekend. Not only to win this race matchup, but to also contend for the checkered flag.

Elliott has one win, two Top 5s, eight Top 10s, and a 12.2 average finish in 13 starts. He sports the second-best average finish among the field.

Austin Dillon has one Top 10 in 21 Atlanta starts and a 21.1 average finish. Where Elliott has been very reliable this season, without any DNFs, Dillon sits 26^th in the standings with one DNF and just three Top 10s on the year.

This is an easy win for Elliott.

Bet: Chase Elliott (-240)

Denny Hamlin (-250) vs. Ty Dillon (+200)

You might think I’m picking on drivers with the last name of Dillon but that’s not the case. What I am doing is taking the best matchups of Round 1 and getting some momentum rolling through the inaugural In-Season Challenge.

Denny Hamlin is another easy bet in my opinion. Hamlin has won in Atlanta before along with six Top 5s, 11 Top 10s, and a 16.9 average finish over 30 appearances at this venue.

Dillon has made 11 starts in Atlanta and has never finished in the Top 10. He also has a 24.7 average finish. Let’s also not forget that, as of right now, Hamlin is the top overall seed in this field.

Bet: Denny Hamlin (-250)

Who Wins The NASCAR In-Season Challenge?

When picking winners for the College Basketball tournament, you can see how some regions have easier matchups than others. While, there’s some easy first round matchups, this NASCAR in-season tournament gets very difficult moving forward.

Let’s try to break this down by region, which is loosely designated by colors.

The Orange Region

This features Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano. The two could meet in Round 3 to decide who goes on to the Final 4. Whoever wins between those two, will win their region. I like Hamlin’s form and momentum coming into the summer. I expect the #11 car to dominate the Orange region.

The Blue Region

This one is a little bit tougher as there are a few talented drivers here, most notably Chase Elliott and Christopher Bell. If they meet, it would be in Round 3 at Sonoma. And, you know how I feel about Elliott on road courses. Give me Elliott to win this region and be a strong contender to win the tournament.

The Purple Region

This is the easiest region of them all as it lacks any real Championship contender like the other three regions. Chris Buescher is the top seed (3) in the Purple Region and will have a tough battle on his hands with Cindric in Round 2.

Ty Gibbs could be a sneaky play in this region as well. If he can get by AJ Allmendinger in Round 2 at the Chicago Street Race.

With the way Buescher has been driving, nine Top 10s on the season so far, I think he’s the safe play in this region. However, I would suggest taking this region round-by-round as we could see some fantastic betting value over the next two rounds on the street and road courses.

The Green Region

This is the toughest region of them all. It features three of the Top 5 drivers in the Cup Series (Byron, Blaney, Larson) and other talented competitors like Briscoe, Reddick and Hocevar.

The toughest first round matchup for the entire tournament is Larson vs. Reddick. Good luck picking there. My personal bias is for Larson to win. After that, the winner will take on Ryan Blaney who should beat out Hocevar in Atlanta.

The winner of Blaney vs. Larson/Reddick will then face the winner of Byron vs. Briscoe, provided that everyone wins as expected.

So, just to get to the Final 4, the winner will have to face at least two of the Top 5 drivers in the Cup Series. Currently, I am leaning towards Byron. He’s been the most consistent driver all season long.  

Final Four Drivers

My final four drivers, as of this writing, are Hamlin, Elliott, Byron, and Buescher. This round will take place at Dover, so let’s take a look at each driver’s averages at this venue:

• Hamlin (34 starts): two wins, eight Top 15, 16 Top 10s, 15.6 average finish
• Elliott (14 starts): two wins, 10 Top 5s, 10 Top 10s, 9.5 average finish
• Byron (10 starts): zero wins, three Top 5s, four Top 10s, 14.9 average finish
• Buescher (14 starts): zero wins, zero Top 5s, two Top 10s, 19.9 average finish

So, if everything holds as predicted above, then I really like Elliott over Hamlin and Byron over Buescher at Dover Motor Speedway in Round 4 of the In-Season Challenge.

That would give us Hendrick teammates Elliott and Byron battling for the tournament victory.

And The Winner Is?

When looking at the career stats for Elliott and Byron at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the home of the Championship Round, neither have been super impressive.

However, Elliott does have a slight advantage. In seven starts, he has two Top 10s and a 16.7 average finish. Byron has one Top 5, one Top 10, and a 22.0 average finish in four starts at this track.

Byron faces an uphill battle to get to the Final Four, whereas Elliott really only needs to beat out Bell (at Sonoma) and then Hamlin, which he has the advantage over at Dover.

I’m taking Chase Elliott to win this In-Season Challenge. Now, head over to NASCAR and fill out your bracket for a shot at $1 million dollars

Bet: Chase Elliott (+1400)

NASCAR In-Season Bracket Challenge

Like with College Basketball, NASCAR has unveiled their own Bracket Challenge. It works as follows:

• Predict the winner of each head-to-head matchup starting from the opening round.
• Get bonus points if you correctly pick upsets.
• If you fill out the perfect bracket by picking every matchup correctly, then you win $1 million dollars.