Outside of the very intense NASCAR battle to make the Chase, there is another competition to keep an eye on this summer, and this one has no actual impact on the championship … but it does award a $1 million prize to the winner and any fortunate fans with a perfect bracket.
The In-Season Challenge got underway at Sonoma Raceway for Round 1 of 5 as part of TNT’s summer stretch of Cup races, and the No. 1 seeded Tyler Reddick is already eliminated.
However, Reddick was just one of three unfortunate drivers who failed to advance against lower-seeded opponents.
No. 32 seed Alex Bowman was the lowest-ranked driver in the entire competition, and yet, he dethroned Reddick with a tenth-place finish. A power steering issue saw Reddick finish 36th (last) at Sonoma.
No. 25 seed Todd Gilliland was another underdog advancement, besting No. 8 seed Daniel Suarez. This was a bit closer, as Gilliland finished 29th at Sonoma, and Suarez was 31st.
Finally, No. 20 seed Michael McDowell eliminated No. 13 seed Bubba Wallace. McDowell finished ninth, while Wallace faced multiple setbacks during the race weekend, and finished 22nd.
All three full-time 23XI Racing drivers are already out of the competition, which is certainly unexpected.
Below you can find the full chart for who beat who, as well as the new matchups for Round 2 at Chicagoland Speedway.
Sonoma Matchups: Who advanced, and and who was eliminated?
Note: Bolded driver name advanced
NEW: Round 2 matchups for Chicagoland Speedway
| Driver Name (Seed No.) vs. | Driver Name (Seed No.) |
| Denny Hamlin (No. 2) | Erik Jones (No. 15) |
| Ryan Blaney (No. 3) | Shane van Gisbergen (No. 14) |
| Chase Elliott (No. 4) | Michael McDowell (No. 20) |
| Ty Gibbs (No. 5) | Chase Briscoe (No. 12) |
| Kyle Larson (No. 6) | William Byron (No. 11) |
| Chris Buescher (No. 7) | Christopher Bell (No. 10) |
| Carson Hocevar (No. 9) | Todd Gilliland (No. 25) |
| Austin Cindric (No. 16) | Alex Bowman (No. 32) |
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: motorsport.com
