On Sunday, July 27, NASCAR’s inaugural In-Season Challenge will enter its Championship Round with just two drivers remaining. And, the two drivers were longshots at the start of the tournament. If you had picked Ty Dillon and Ty Gibbs to be in the Championship race, then you are on the cusp of winning a million dollars and I could use a donation or two!

This mid-season tournament kicked off on June 28 at EchoPark Speedway in the Quaker State 400. And, it’s set to conclude on Sunday, July 27, at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Brickyard 400.

We’ve dissected the tournament for its entire five-week duration and it’s been an exciting addition to the NASCAR Cup Series calendar. In fact, it’s made some of these races even more entertaining.

With that said, let’s take a look at the In-Season Challenge Championship Round matchup and break down the latest NASCAR betting odds for this head-to-head battle, along with how each driver reached this round.

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: Autotrader EchoPark Automotive at 400 at 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 4, which takes place at Dover Motor 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

Check out our In-Season Challenge predictions for the Championship Round:

Ty Gibbs (NA) vs. Ty Dillon (NA)

Ty Gibbs came into this tournament ranked as the 6th seed and Ty Dillon was ranked as the no. 32 seed. In other words, Dillon was the biggest longshot of the tournament. And, yet, Mr. Cinderella got a late free pass onto the lead lap in OT at Dover to keep his million dollar dream alive.

Dillon finished 20th at Dover, which matched his same result for Chicago. He was 8th in Atlanta and 17th at Sonoma. These aren’t amazing finishes, but they were just enough. Dillon eliminated the no.1 seed Denny Hamlin in the first round, Keselowski in the second round, Bowman in the third round, and John H. Nemechek in the fourth round.

Gibbs took down Haley, Allmendinger, Smith and Reddick with a 14th, 2nd, 7th and 5th finishes. He’s averaging a 7.0 finish in the tournament so far. Dillon is averaging a 16.25 finish in the tournament so far.

At Indianapolis, Gibbs has a 23rd in his lone Brickyard 400. Dillon has a 17.2 in five starts, and was 19th in last year’s race.

On the season, Gibbs sits 16th in the driver standings and 19th in the Playoff standings. Dillon sits 30th in both standings. Gibbs has six Top 10s and a 17.0 average finish on the season, while Dillon has one Top 10 and a 22.3 average finish.

Dillon certainly rode the Cinderella wave to the Championship Round. However, Gibbs has been the better driver in the tournament and for the season to date. Additionally, Gibbs is poised to make the Playoffs where as Dillon will miss out on the postseason.

I’m taking Gibbs to win this head-to-head battle and finish in the Top 10 for the Brickyard 400. I think Dillon’s luck will run out as he finishes somewhere between 16th and 20th.

Bet: Ty Gibbs (NA)

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.