How does the NASCAR mid-season tournament work?

The tournament is the trendy format in the United States, especially in basketball. In addition to the playoffs, the NBA now has a mid-season tournament, designed to make certain regular-season matches more interesting, and also a "play-in" phase, a preliminary tournament for the playoffs and designed to qualify the last teams in contention to win the title at the end of the season.

With 36 races on the calendar, the NASCAR is also facing a loss of interest in some races in its championship. Three key periods stand out at the moment: the first races of the championship, where the public is once again passionate about the discipline after several months of forced withdrawal; the last three races before the elimination stages, which reveal the 16 qualified drivers; and finally the last ten rounds of the championship, which make up the famous playoffs.

To recreate interest in the mid-season races, NASCAR created a tournament format, which will begin this weekend in Atlanta and continue for a total of five races. Following the Nashville round, the top 32 qualified for the tournament. In the following three races, each driver's best results determined their seed, and thus their path to the million-dollar prize. The No. 1 seed faces the No. 32, the No. 2 seed faces the No. 31, and so on. Similar to a tennis tournament, the top two seeds can only face off in the final.

Once the 32 drivers are divided into the field, the process will be extremely simple. This weekend in Atlanta, each "match" will be decided by the best performance of the drivers. If Denny Hamlin beats Ty Dillon, the No. 11 advances to the next round. This will continue for the sixteen matches on the schedule. The same will be true at the Chicago street circuit, then at Sonoma, at Dover, and finally at Indianapolis, where the final will pit the two remaining drivers against each other. The highest-placed driver will win $XNUMX million.

To further entice fans, supporters are invited to fill out their "bracket" online, and if someone guesses the correct result of all 31 matches, they can also win a million dollars. One mistake and it's all over…

Gimmick or real innovation?

On the driver side, opinions are divided, and Joey Logano (Team Penske) and Chase Elliott (Hendrick Motorsports) represent this divergence well... For the driver of the #22 Ford, this new development is welcome, and the three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion is eager to do battle, as he will have to face Alex Bowman for a place in the round of XNUMX.

“I think the idea is brilliant. I think the tournament is perfectly placed where it is in the season. This is kind of the point where the novelty wears off. We've gotten into the rhythm, we're racing every week. You start to wonder who's going to make the playoffs, who's not, where the line is, that kind of thing. But it's not the main story of the season yet.”

The most popular driver in the championship since 2018, Chase Elliott is not at all upset by this new addition: "To be completely honest, I didn't pay attention to it. I don't even know what we win, if anything (a journalist mentions to him that the winner receives a million dollars. Ed.). Ah, in that case, we definitely want to win!"

More than ever, in Uncle Sam's country, Cash Is King... It remains to be seen whether these clashes on Excel spreadsheets will translate into fierce battles on the track!

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