The three races at Michigan International Speedway, Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez and Pocono Raceway determined the seeding for NASCAR’s In-Season Challenge. Seeding is based on a driver’s best finish in the three races. The first tiebreaker is the next-best finish in the three races, followed by the third-best finish in the three races. If there’s still a tie after that, then season-long points standings after Pocono will determine who gets the better seed for the challenge opener on June 28 at EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway).
RELATED: How the In-Season Challenge works | Hub page with bracket
Here’s where we stand after the final seeding race at Pocono now that post-race inspection is complete:
Pocono race winner: Chase Briscoe held off Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin to win for the first time with the No. 19 team. It appeared Briscoe left too early on his final green-flag pit stop for him to get enough fuel in the tank to make it to the finish, but he did a great job of managing the fuel situation the rest of the way and got the victory. With the win, Briscoe moved up 10 spots in the seedings to No. 2, where he will face No. 31 seed Noah Gragson in the first round of the In-Season Tournament at EchoPark Speedway.
RELATED: Race results
Who earned the top four seeds: Hamlin held onto the top seed on the strength of his Michigan victory and a second-place finish at Pocono. He will face No. 32 seed Ty Dillon in his first-round matchup. We already talked about Briscoe, the No. 2 seed, so let’s move on to No. 3, where we find RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher. He’s riding finishes of second (Michigan), fourth (Pocono) and 10th (Mexico City) into EchoPark, where he will face No. 30 Todd Gilliland in the first round. Christopher Bell rounds out the top four seeds, but he will need to bounce back from finishes of 16th (Michigan) and 17th (Pocono) in the seedings races in order to take care of No. 29 seed Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who’ll be a tough out on the superspeedway.
Most interesting matchup in the challenge: No. 16 Kyle Busch vs. No. 17 Brad Keselowski. Can it get any better? Two former champions, who had an infamous beef with each other way back when, face off in the first round on a superspeedway track. Keselowski’s prowess on superspeedways is historic with seven career wins, while Busch has three wins himself and was involved in one of the closest finishes ever at the track formerly known as Atlanta Motor Speedway when he lost by a whisker to Daniel Suárez. Grab your popcorn, sit back and enjoy tracking this matchup, with the winner possibly facing Hamlin in Round 2.
Who’s Up
Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Team Penske Ford: Blaney entered Pocono as the No. 23 seed, but his third-place finish Sunday vaulted him up to the No. 7 seed. His reward in the first round? Facing Carson Hocevar, who is a tough matchup on this track type. However, history is still on Blaney’s side because of his four career superspeedway wins.
Who’s Down
William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet: It’s odd to see the series standings leader in the bottom half of the bracket as the No. 18 seed, but he’s in a dry spell with finishes of 28th (Michigan) and 27th (Pocono) sandwiched around a ninth-place finish (Mexico City). Byron will face No. 15 seed Ryan Preece, who is closer than you might think in this matchup based on recent performance.
Official seeds for In-Season Challenge:
| Seed | Driver | Best finish | 2nd best finish | 3rd best finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Denny Hamlin | 1 | 2 | DNS |
| 2 | Chase Briscoe | 1 | 7 | 23 |
| 3 | Chris Buescher | 2 | 4 | 10 |
| 4 | Christopher Bell | 2 | 16 | 17 |
| 5 | Chase Elliott | 3 | 5 | 15 |
| 6 | Ty Gibbs | 3 | 11 | 14 |
| 7 | Ryan Blaney | 3 | 14 | 32 |
| 8 | Alex Bowman | 4 | 11 | 36 |
| 9 | Bubba Wallace | 4 | 12 | 36 |
| 10 | Kyle Larson | 5 | 7 | 36 |
| 11 | Michael McDowell | 5 | 30 | 35 |
| 12 | John Hunter Nemechek | 6 | 6 | 34 |
| 13 | Ross Chastain | 6 | 16 | 26 |
| 14 | Zane Smith | 7 | 25 | 35 |
| 15 | Ryan Preece | 8 | 9 | 15 |
| 16 | Kyle Busch | 8 | 20 | 37 |
| 17 | Brad Keselowski | 9 | 10 | 25 |
| 18 | William Byron | 9 | 27 | 28 |
| 19 | Austin Cindric | 10 | 18 | 31 |
| 20 | Erik Jones | 11 | 13 | 17 |
| 21 | Josh Berry | 12 | 12 | 26 |
| 22 | AJ Allmendinger | 13 | 17 | 21 |
| 23 | Tyler Reddick | 13 | 20 | 32 |
| 24 | Daniel Suarez | 14 | 15 | 19 |
| 25 | Joey Logano | 16 | 21 | 22 |
| 26 | Carson Hocevar | 18 | 29 | 34 |
| 27 | Justin Haley | 19 | 21 | 24 |
| 28 | Austin Dillon | 19 | 24 | 28 |
| 29 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 20 | 27 | 30 |
| 30 | Todd Gilliland | 22 | 28 | 33 |
| 31 | Noah Gragson | 23 | 27 | 30 |
| 32 | Ty Dillon | 24 | 33 | 33 |