To shake up the middle of the season, NASCAR has introduced the In-Season Challenge, a 5 week bracket series, with the winner walking away with one million dollars. The NASCAR team at Last Word on Sports shares our picks for who walks away a million dollars richer.
Who Wins NASCAR’s In-Season Challenge? LWOS Weighs In
Bracket challenges have been wildly successful in other forms of sport. The whole country seems to submit a bracket for the NCAA’s March Madness, adding another touch to the excitement. So why shouldn’t NASCAR try it out?
It was all thanks to Denny Hamlin and Dirty Mo Media’s bracket challenge last season. Seeded based on the point standings after Charlotte in 2024, it was wildly successful and easy for fans to understand. And it went viral.
With the returning TV partner TNT, returning for five races, they wanted to capitalize on their short broadcast schedule. The introduction of a NASCAR-sanctioned challenge would be an obvious choice.
NASCAR would change the seeding but put up a big prize for the winner. 1 million dollars to the winner of the challenge and another million to the fan with the perfect bracket.
32 drivers. Five rounds. $1,000,000 to the winner.
Introducing the bracket for the NASCAR In-Season Challenge presented by @DKSportsbook. pic.twitter.com/O3O9VhQP4M
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) June 23, 2025
The Brackets:
Here are the brackets Kaleb Kraus and I have for the next five weeks. Starting with myself, I have Chase Elliott walking away the winner of the inaugural In-Season Challenge.
My picks were using two mindsets. I want to see upsets. Stenhouse versus Bell or Zane Smith versus Cindric. I picked, in my opinion, the underdog of the matchups. Why? Because I want to see chaos and excitement. Who doesn’t love an underdog story?
Kaleb and I’s brackets are somewhat similar. They do not start similarly, though. It takes a while, but we get back to the same conclusion. Chase Elliott and Chris Buescher are silent contenders each week.
While I have Elliott versus Briscoe, Kaleb has Buescher making the final round. But we both came to the same conclusion: Chase Elliott will walk away after five weeks a million dollars richer.
Let’s look at Chase’s stats this season. No wins, yet. Five top-fives, 9 top-tens. An average finish of 10.8. Sitting fifth in the points, the highest driver in the points without a win.
Consistency wins, and the #9 team has had it all year. That is why we see Chase Elliott as the favorite in this In-Season Challenge.
While you can no longer enter the challenge, as the race at Atlanta is underway. You can follow along with our brackets, see if they get busted after one race or if we go all the way to Indianapolis with our pick, Chase Elliott winning a million dollars.
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Main Photo: Jonathan Bachman, Getty Images
Recording Date: 2/22/2025
