NASCAR on TNT In-Season Tournament video goes viral with Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ryan Blaney starring

The inaugural NASCAR In-Season Challenge gets underway this Sunday with the Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta. Ahead of the highly anticipated bracket style tournament, NASCAR unveiled a hype video on Tuesday.

“NASCAR and TNT, they’ve handed us the keys to something big,” Ryan Blaney says to a table full of drivers Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Austin Cindric, Josh Berry and John Hunter Nemechek. Together, they come up with ideas of how to design the NASCAR In-Season Challenge.

The task was simple. Design something big and bold for TNT.

Sworn to secrecy in an undisclosed location, @Blaney and some of NASCAR's brightest minds went to work. pic.twitter.com/KB4YGZAx1q

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) June 24, 2025

The video takes a comedic turn when Stenhouse suggests a “driver versus driver” format. “That’s my boy, Stenhouse,” Blaney told the HYAK Motorsports driver. Berry interrupted, “Don’t you mean Spinhouse?” Stenhouse reminded Berry, “The last guy that said that — didn’t work out too well for him.” Berry responded by throwing double birds in Stenhouse’s direction.

Sounds like a Stenhouse versus Berry matchup would be a must-see event. It could happen, as both are on the same side of the bracket.

And here is the in-season tournament bracket as shown on Prime Video: pic.twitter.com/gbXyOYwwNT

— Kelly Crandall (@KellyCrandall) June 23, 2025

Simply put, the matchup winner is the best-finishing driver between the two, and that driver advances to the next round, staying alive with a chance to win the ultimate $1 million prize. Atlanta starts it off, followed by the Chicago Street Race, Sonoma Raceway and Dover Motor Speedway. The finale will take place at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in one of NASCAR’s Crown Jewel events, the Brickyard 400.

NASCAR In-Season Tournament Bracket:

• 1-seed Denny Hamlin vs. 32-seed Ty Dillon
• 16-seed Kyle Busch vs. 17-seed Brad Keselowski
• 8-seed Alex Bowman vs. 25-seed Joey Logano
• 9-seed Bubba Wallace vs. 24-seed Daniel Suárez
• 5-seed Chase Elliott vs. 28-seed Austin Dillon
• 12-seed John Hunter Nemechek vs. 21-seed Josh Berry
• 4-seed Christopher Bell vs. 29-seed Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
• 13-seed Ross Chastain vs. 20-seed Erik Jones
• 6-seed Ty Gibbs vs. 27-seed Justin Haley
• 11-seed Michael McDowell vs. 22-seed AJ Allmendinger
• 3-seed Chris Buescher vs. 30-seed Todd Gilliland
• 14-seed Zane Smith vs. 19-seed Austin Cindric
• 7-seed Ryan Blaney vs. 26-seed Carson Hocevar
• 10-seed Kyle Larson vs. 23-seed Tyler Reddick
• 2-seed Chase Briscoe vs. 31-seed Noah Gragson
• 15-seed Ryan Preece vs. 18-seed William Byron