NASCAR announced on Monday that the 2025 Cup Series season will include a 32-driver, bracket-style, in-season tournament. The effort mimics concepts followed in global soccer avenues and the NBA. It aims to appeal to the casual NASCAR fan. The tournament will take place over 5 regular season races and the winner at the end of it will be rewarded with $1 million.
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Talks of having such a structure within the season first began when the new media rights deal was being penned with Amazon, TNT, and the other broadcasters. TNT Sports played ball and the tournament will now be aired during its portion of the broadcast (Races 18-22) next year. The 32-driver list will be drafted by races 15-17 of the regular season, according to Fox Sports.
Though the 2025 Cup Series schedule has not been announced yet, it can be expected that it will be drafted with the tournament in mind. The contest will be run over different track types. NASCAR Senior Vice President Brian Herbst said, “We want it to be pretty simple since it is kind of a race within a race. This bracket-style format seemed simple enough, and seemed easily explainable.”
EXCLUSIVE: @NASCAR will institute an in-season tournament competition in 2025.
A 32-driver, bracket-style, head-to-head competition will play out over five Cup Series races, with those events aligning with the portion of the calendar aired by TNT Sports.… pic.twitter.com/r6m5LvtKTd
— Sportico (@Sportico) May 13, 2024
“And the other piece that we wanted to do is focus on the drivers in particular to the extent that we can create rivalries or storylines from a head-to-head perspective.” Though production plans are still in a nascent stage, TNT will be using the competition to throw extra light on position battles that could be taking place over the Cup Series points table.
The purpose of having an in-season tournament in the Cup Series regular season
TNT’s Chief Content Officer Craig Barry explains the thought process behind the tournament, “This just gives you this extra dynamic where every race of those five races means a little bit more. It creates something really interesting for the casual fan.” It is hard to ignore the fact that the media house’s calendar is relatively quiet in the summer – with the NBA season ending by then – and that the tournament will help draw attention.
Notably, racing icon Dale Earnhardt Jr. is set to be a part of TNT and Amazon’s broadcast units next year. Should all the plans be executed well, the 2025 season could prove to be yet another turning point in NASCAR’s growth on a global scale.
