Bust Or Bracket-Buster Fun? NASCAR Attempts $1M In-Season Tournament

When NASCAR signed its new broadcast deal, siphoning off five-race packages to two entities, it provided the perfect road map for an in-season tournament. 

To do nothing would have been a lost opportunity, so kudos to NASCAR for putting together its 32-driver in-season tournament that begins this weekend at Atlanta, coinciding with the five-race stretch on TNT.

Here's how it works:

The top 32 in driver points after Nashville were eligible for the tournament. Seeding is based on best finish over the past three races — Michigan, Mexico City and Pocono — resulting in Denny Hamlin earning the top seed. Ties were broken by the next-best finish. If two drivers had the exact same three finishes, then whoever had the best finish first over the three weeks got the higher seed. 

NASCAR now has a traditional tournament bracket that will run concurrently with the next five races — all regular-season events run as normal with the addition of the tournament as somewhat of a sideshow. In Atlanta, the No. 1 seed (Hamlin) is matched against the No. 32 seed (Ty Dillon), the No. 2 seed (Chase Briscoe) faces No. 31 (Noah Gragson) and so on. Whoever has the best finish at Atlanta in each of the 16 matchups advances to the next round at the Chicago street course.

The winner of No. 1 vs. No. 32 gets matched against the winner of No. 16 vs No. 17 at Chicago, the No. 2 vs. No. 31 winner gets the No. 15 vs. No. 18 winner and so on.

After Chicago, eight drivers remain for Sonoma, four for Dover and the final two facing off at Indy. There is no reseeding, drivers already know potential opponents based on where they are seeded in the bracket.

After Christopher Bell captured $1M for winning the All-Star Race, another million-dollar prize is on the line