NASCAR is following the NBA’s lead.
Subsequent season, NASCAR will unveil an in-season, five-race match clearly aimed to boost curiosity in its common season.
The match will function 32 drivers and can air on TNT’s portion of the 2025 broadcast schedule.
Here is the way it will work:
The ultimate three races of the Amazon Prime portion of the published schedule (races 15-17) will decide the seeding of the 32-driver area. As soon as the bracket is about, drivers will go head-to-head, with the upper ending drivers advancing to the subsequent spherical, culminating in a winner-take-all, $1 million prize in Race No. 5 (or Race No. 22 of the season).
The in-season tourney idea comes as NASCAR begins a brand new seven-year media rights deal throughout Fox, Prime Video, TNT and NBC. Fox will carry the primary 12 factors races of the 2025 season, adopted by Prime (5 races), TNT (5 races) and NBC (14 races).
“The concept of an in-season match has been mentioned throughout the NASCAR trade and as we began to give attention to including promotional parts that drive curiosity all through the season, we had been excited by the chance to leverage the advertising and marketing weight of Amazon and TNT Sports activities to deliver this idea to life,” NASCAR exec Brian Herbst mentioned in a press release.
Whereas in principle the match might “drive curiosity all through the season,” in observe it is a departure from the whole lot racing has ever been. The game has by no means been about head-to-head competitors, however fairly each driver versus the sphere (or within the present playoff format, 4 drivers vs. each other).
Now, whereas drivers can be racing for a checkered flag, they will have the twin objective of beating a singular opponent, which actually will make for fascinating competitors.
Little question diehard followers will view this as yet one more act of desperation by NASCAR to curb its scores woes. Early returns from drivers, nevertheless, paint this as a constructive.
“That is such a win for our sport and drivers,” Denny Hamlin said on X. “Many story traces will made throughout this 5 week interval. I’ll gather my 1M royalty subsequent season.”
NASCAR has but to launch its schedule for 2025. Utilizing this season’s schedule, the match would start at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in June.
