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Preview: Round 3 of the 2026 In-Season Challenge at EchoPark Speedway

Nathan Solomon

Sean Gardner | Getty Images

The 2026 In-Season Challenge rolls into Round 3 this Sunday when the NASCAR Cup Series visits EchoPark Speedway (7 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). It's the first track the series visits for a second time in 2026, and the hybrid superspeedway will almost certainly put on a summer showdown worth remembering for a long time. Round 2 at Chicagoland Speedway had plenty of excitement, featuring five statistical upsets -- including No. 32 seed Alex Bowman advancing into the quarterfinals over No. 16 seed Austin Cindric, as well as No. 25 seed Todd Gilliland defeating No. 9 seed Carson Hocevar. But generally speaking, the cream has risen to the top through two races as Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendrick Motorsports each still have three dogs in the hunt with Team Penske's Ryan Blaney lurking as well. Coincidentally, three Round 3 matchups feature a pair of cars from powerhouse organizations, while the two Cinderella stories square off in the fourth. When it's all said and done, three Hendrick cars could make up the semifinals -- which would undoubtedly prove the organization is headed in the right direction after a shaky start to 2026. RELATED: Check your bracket! | In-Season Challenge hub ROUND 3 MATCHUPS: TRACK BREAKDOWN EchoPark Speedway's reputation as Daytona on steroids has quickly made the Atlanta-area facility one of the hottest tickets in NASCAR. Six different drivers have won in nine races since the pre-2022 reconfiguration, and no driver has won more than twice. It's the ultimate test between superspeedway prowess and car control, all while hauling wide open at 180 mph on a 1.5-mile track. Three of the remaining In-Season Challenge drivers have victories at EchoPark, and two of them count as multitime winners. William Byron won the inaugural race in 2022 and picked up another dub the next fall, while Chase Elliott has won a pair of summer races -- including last year's race. Elliott owns the best average finish among all drivers at 9.38, with Ryan Blaney right behind him in third at 10.78. All three drivers rank inside the top seven for most laps led in the Peach State draft. Shockingly, despite Ford winning the pole for each of the nine races since the reconfiguration, the manufacturer has won just twice, both coming from Joey Logano -- who was eliminated in Round 1. Some of that, however, is due to crashes. Per Racing Insights, an average of 25.3 cars are involved in incidents at EchoPark races, and twice the crashed-car count exceeded 30. Certain drivers clearly perform better than others at EchoPark, but it's still a wild card at the end of the day. MATCHUP OF THE WEEK: (No. 2) Denny Hamlin vs. (No. 10) Christopher Bell A pair of Joe Gibbs Racing teammates will square off at EchoPark Speedway with a trip to the semifinals on the line. Both Bell and Hamlin finished on the podium at Chicagoland behind fellow JGR driver Chase Briscoe, each making significant gains in their championship points situations. But with a drafting track on deck, how much will these two shopmates help each other in this high-speed chess match? Once one of the best in the draft -- as evidenced by his three Harley J. Earl trophies for winning the Daytona 500 -- Hamlin has struggled at superspeedway-like tracks in the Next Gen car, specifically EchoPark, where he has just two top 10s in nine races since the reconfiguration. Meanwhile, Bell is sneaky good here with three top fives and a last-lap victory in 2025. But as we’ve learned in years past, anything can happen when the Cup Series visits the Atlanta-area facility. EchoPark served as the In-Season Challenge opener last year and busted brackets with eight Round 1 upsets. And with these two teammates pitted against each other, this could serve as the most significant matchup in the entire tournament. Both drivers are contenders at every oval on the circuit, and Toyota continues to show incredible strength across the board. With North Wilkesboro and Indianapolis to follow, the winner of this head-to-head duel could very well go all the way. [caption id="attachment_518308" align="aligncenter" width="1300"]Getty Images[/caption] MORE: Recap Round 2 action KEY MATCHUP: (No. 3) Ryan Blaney vs. (No. 11) William Byron This is about as good as it gets with a pair of multitime drafting-track winners squaring off for a spot in the semifinals. Both Blaney and Byron won their first two matchups fairly easily. Blaney's first two opponents finished outside the top 20 as the Team Penske driver scored a sixth at Sonoma and a seventh at Chicagoland. Byron beat Ricky Stenhouse Jr. by nine spots at the road course, while capitalizing on teammate Kyle Larson's misfortunes at Chicagoland with a top five and a race-best 94 laps led. Ford generally has more speed in these types of races, and Penske drivers always seem to work the best in the draft. Blaney has seven top 10s in the last eight EchoPark races, and while Byron has wrecked his last three times in Atlanta, he's still a two-time Daytona 500 champion. Expect Ford to qualify well on Saturday, which should give Blaney the necessary track position. If he can keep it, Blaney will likely move on to Round 4 -- but keep in mind the No. 12 team still ranks outside the top 30 in pit-crew performance. KEY MATCHUP: (No. 4) Chase Elliott vs. (No. 12) Chase Briscoe It's pretty safe to say Chase will win this battle, but which one? Elliott has the numbers to back it up at EchoPark, earning a pair of victories and boasting the aforementioned best average finish at his home track. But Briscoe has all the momentum in the world, as he nearly defeated Shane van Gisbergen at Sonoma before finally ripping the bandage off with a victory last weekend at Chicagoland. To that point, Briscoe's record at EchoPark is borderline abysmal. He did finish second this spring, but before that, he had just one top-15 finish since the reconfiguration. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver is improving at drafting tracks, though, as Briscoe banked a Talladega win last fall to make his first Championship 4. However, Elliott's numbers are far more impressive across the board at these types of tracks, and as one of the Cup Series' most consistent drivers, he'll set a high bar that will be difficult to beat. Elliott is the favorite, but in a year dominated by Toyota, anything is possible -- especially at this place. KEY MATCHUP: (No. 25) Todd Gilliland vs. (No. 32) Alex Bowman Everyone certainly penciled this as a quarterfinal matchup in their brackets, right? This year's two Cinderellas are on a crash course, and something obviously has to give. Bowman's on one of his better stretches this season, earning a pair of top-10 finishes at Sonoma and Chicagoland. Gilliland, however, is benefiting from a survive-and-advance mentality. His 29th-place result at Sonoma eeked him past No. 9 Daniel Suárez, who suffered an early tire issue at the road course and ran most of the race off the lead strategy. At Chicagoland, Gilliland's Round 2 rival, Carson Hocevar, got fenced by Zane Smith, and the Spire Motorsports driver could never recover. As evidenced by his six front-row starting positions for the Daytona 500, Bowman has plenty of speed at drafting tracks. His results don't necessarily reflect that, but the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team quietly has four top 10s in the draft since the start of 2025. Bowman should be the favorite here.