{"id":101493,"date":"2025-07-02T14:49:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T21:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=101493"},"modified":"2025-07-03T13:22:42","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T20:22:42","slug":"nascar-launches-first-ever-in-season-challenge-1-million-on-the-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/nascar-launches-first-ever-in-season-challenge-1-million-on-the-line\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Launches First-Ever In-Season Challenge: $1 Million on the Line"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 data-start=\"110\" data-end=\"186\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"91899\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/nascar-2024-hall-of-fame-inductees-revealed\/nascar-logo-min\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/NASCAR-logo-min-e1691017688779.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"640,138\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"NASCAR logo-min\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/NASCAR-logo-min-e1691017688779-300x65.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/NASCAR-logo-min-e1691017688779.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-91899\" src=\"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/NASCAR-logo-min-e1691017688779.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"138\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/NASCAR-logo-min-e1691017688779.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/NASCAR-logo-min-e1691017688779-300x65.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/NASCAR-logo-min-e1691017688779-638x138.jpg 638w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/h3>\n<p data-start=\"188\" data-end=\"433\">A new era of action-packed midseason motorsports drama is here! NASCAR\u2019s inaugural In-Season Challenge kicks off this weekend at the Quaker State 400, available at Walmart at EchoPark Speedway in Hampton, GA (June 28, 7 p.m. ET on TNT &amp; Max).<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"435\" data-end=\"581\">This five-race, bracket-style showdown features 32 drivers competing head-to-head, with the ultimate winner claiming a $1 million prize.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"583\" data-end=\"611\"><strong>Challenge Schedule:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul data-start=\"612\" data-end=\"845\">\n<li data-start=\"612\" data-end=\"654\">\n<p data-start=\"614\" data-end=\"654\"><em data-start=\"614\" data-end=\"624\">Round 1:<\/em> EchoPark Speedway (June 28)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li data-start=\"655\" data-end=\"698\">\n<p data-start=\"657\" data-end=\"698\"><em data-start=\"657\" data-end=\"667\">Round 2:<\/em> Chicago Street Race (July 6)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li data-start=\"699\" data-end=\"738\">\n<p data-start=\"701\" data-end=\"738\"><em data-start=\"701\" data-end=\"711\">Round 3:<\/em> Sonoma Raceway (July 13)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li data-start=\"739\" data-end=\"784\">\n<p data-start=\"741\" data-end=\"784\"><em data-start=\"741\" data-end=\"751\">Round 4:<\/em> Dover Motor Speedway (July 20)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li data-start=\"785\" data-end=\"845\">\n<p data-start=\"787\" data-end=\"845\"><em data-start=\"787\" data-end=\"805\">Champions Round:<\/em> Indianapolis Motor Speedway (July 27)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p data-start=\"847\" data-end=\"1081\">Fans can catch every race live on TNT and Max, with altcasts on truTV focusing on real-time driver matchups. The lineup includes Dale Earnhardt Jr., Steve Letarte, Adam Alexander, Shannon Spake, Jamie McMurray, and Parker Kligerman.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1083\" data-end=\"1107\"><strong>Fan Engagement:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul data-start=\"1108\" data-end=\"1349\">\n<li data-start=\"1108\" data-end=\"1164\">\n<p data-start=\"1110\" data-end=\"1164\">$1M Perfect Bracket Challenge via NASCAR Fantasy<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li data-start=\"1165\" data-end=\"1227\">\n<p data-start=\"1167\" data-end=\"1227\">Live matchup betting, new markets, and odds via DraftKings<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li data-start=\"1228\" data-end=\"1282\">\n<p data-start=\"1230\" data-end=\"1282\">NASCAR.com hub for matchups, results, and insights<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li data-start=\"1283\" data-end=\"1349\">\n<p data-start=\"1285\" data-end=\"1349\">\u201cInside the Race\u201d YouTube series breaking down weekly brackets<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p data-start=\"1351\" data-end=\"1499\">Drivers will sport special windshield header colors to show bracket progress \u2014 from black\/yellow at Atlanta to gold for the final two at Indy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>A new era of action-packed midseason motorsports drama is here!<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":101529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3470,8393],"tags":[12193,12202,12195,12192,12196,12197,12208,12199,12191,12205,12207,12198,12190,12206,12201,12200,12204,5431,12194,12203],"class_list":["post-101493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-press-releases","tag-chicago-street-race-nascar","tag-dale-earnhardt-jr-nascar-coverage","tag-dover-motor-speedway-nascar","tag-echopark-speedway","tag-indianapolis-motor-speedway-nascar","tag-nascar-1-million-challenge","tag-nascar-2025-midseason-event","tag-nascar-betting","tag-nascar-bracket-racing","tag-nascar-driver-matchups","tag-nascar-fan-contest","tag-nascar-fantasy-bracket","tag-nascar-in-season-challenge","tag-nascar-live-odds","tag-nascar-max-streaming","tag-nascar-tnt-broadcast","tag-nascar-trutv-altcast","tag-quaker-state-400","tag-sonoma-raceway-nascar","tag-steve-letarte-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/NASCAR-Bracket-Challenge.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-qoZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101493"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101497,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101493\/revisions\/101497"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}