Chase Elliott comments on "interesting" NASCAR tournament, discusses playoff spot implications

Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott discussed NASCAR's In-season tournament, calling it "interesting." He also discussed the prospects of the winner getting into the Playoffs.

NASCAR will introduce an in-season tournament from 2025 which will include a $1 million cash prize for the winning driver. It is set to be a bracket-style tournament in partnership with TNT Sports and Prime Video. It will be a part of the Cup Series championship. All the drivers will be eligible to take part in the seeding races that will be streamed on Prime Video, while the main tournament will include 32 drivers over five rounds of the championship.

Talking about the tournament, Chase Elliott mentioned that he finds it interesting and has no issues with it. He told the media:

"I don't know probably every single detail about it but I have heard of it and yeah sounds interesting, especially starting at Atlanta um you know now being a Speedway. But yeah I think it has the potential to you know add some excitement to our year and doing something a little different so um I don't have any issues with that." (0:10)

Further, when inquired if the winner of the race should be qualified for the Cup Series Playoffs, Elliott stated that the driver would already have qualified for it.

"A playoff spot to the winner... um, they're already going to be in."

Other drivers are also looking forward to NASCAR's in-season tournament. Recently, Trackhouse Racing driver Ross Chastain expressed his desire to win it.

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Ross Chastain aims to win the NASCAR in-season tournament

Chastain, who claims to have taken part in such tournaments previously, was seemingly confident about the in-season tournament next year.

When asked by a journalist ahead of the All-Star race, he stated that drivers can be "greedy" about these tournaments.

"I mean, of course, when it comes down to it, I've had experience with triple-truck challenge and dash-for-cash. It's impossible not to pay attention to the other people. We were just talking about how greedy and selfish, I want to win, I want to win points, I want to win lap times, and I want to win money," Chastain said, as per Frontstretch. [2:50].

NASCAR mentioned that they were inspired by the NBA's in-season tournament, and Denny Hamlin's mention of the same earlier in his podcast, Actions Detrimental. The contest is expected to increase the number of viewers of the races.

Since the calendar of the 2025 Cup Series championship has not been revealed, it is unknown which races will be held by the tournament.