LONG POND, Pa. — One race remains to set the seeds for the inaugural In-Season Challenge in the NASCAR Cup Series.
The 32 drivers locked into this year’s five-race, bracket-style tournament will be seeded according to their best finishes over the course of three races — Michigan International Speedway, Mexico City’s Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez and finally Pocono Raceway on Sunday afternoon (2 p.m. ET, Prime Video, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
MORE: How In-Season Challenge works | Pocono schedule
Tyler Reddick, the 2024 regular-season champion, wasn’t quite sure where he sat in the provisional seedings but knew “we’re not currently seeded very well at all.” He’s right, sitting in the No. 21 seed after two races. Chase Briscoe, on the other hand, is the No. 12 seed and knew exactly who he’d be matched against if the tournament started today.
“For sure. Right now, I’d go up against Tyler if it started this weekend,” Briscoe said. “I’m hoping that changes just because Tyler, I think he’s, like, seeded (21st) or something right now, and he’s one of the top five guys in the sport. So it’d be a tough round one.”
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The challenge begins next week at EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta). Ryan Blaney, the 2023 Cup champion, is currently listed as a No. 23 seed and would be matched against No. 10 Ross Chastain in the opening round.
“I wasn’t crazy-hyper-focused on like the seeding,” Blaney said, “but then I saw a chart of the seeding as of right now after Mexico City, and I was like, ‘Oh man, I need to get my seeding up.’ But Atlanta being the first race, it doesn’t really make a huge difference. I think you’re going to see a lot of upsets at Atlanta just because the way the track is, but I think when you get in the tournament starts next week, you’re definitely going to be aware of who you’re racing and who you’re matched up against.
“You’re not going to completely jumble your race up just for that, but you might have a hell of a battle for like 20th. You’re like, ‘Why are these guys racing so hard?’ Well, it’s part of the In-Season [Challenge]. These guys are racing their asses off for 20th to move on.”
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Bubba Wallace is currently the No. 6 seed and would be matched against No. 27 Joey Logano, the defending and three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion. The $1-million prize is tantalizing, but Wallace shares the same mindset as Blaney: don’t let those battles ruin your race.
“I’ve been paying attention to the seeding, but you can’t let that be a distraction,” Wallace said. “It’s something that is cool I think more so for the fans to be more invested into their favorite drivers and see how it stacks up than the drivers themselves. So I’ve just got to do our part and not get caught up in the madness.”