Dale Earnhardt Jr. explains his expectations for 2025 NASCAR In-Season Tournament

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said Wednesday he believes the 2025 NASCAR In-Season Tournament will be “phenomenal” for the sport in giving drivers another opportunity to claim a “big-ticket item.”

💰 "Before this, we had one chance at a million dollars for the All-Star event outside of the championship […] and now we got two of those."@DaleJr discusses the new in-season tournament for 2025 and what he hopes to see from it in the future ⬇️

🎧 → https://t.co/WGRTG5gnEd pic.twitter.com/WybhgsRNVT

— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) May 15, 2024

“There will be three seeding races that will determine how drivers are seeded for the tournament in the Amazon package,” Earnhardt said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “So, the five-race Amazon package the last three races — those races will determine how drivers are seeded against each other which I think will be fun because some drivers could have a terrible little stretch there and actually get a favorable seed. It’ll be interesting to see how that plays out and during the TNT stretch, that’s the five weeks where we’ll determine whoever wins this $1 million pot a gold. Second gets zero.

“I think that’s phenomenal. A million dollars is a lot of money. Before this, we had one chance at a million dollars for the All-Star event. Outside of the championship, that was the big-ticket item on the table for the drivers, and now we’ve got two of those. So, it’s creating opportunities for the drivers to find some motivation in other areas outside of just going for this championship at the end of the year. So, I think it’s really cool.”

NASCAR in-season tournament to debut in 2025 on TNT, Amazon Prime Video

NASCAR previously announced Monday that the 2025 season would feature a bracket-style tournament for the TNT Sports portion of the schedule. The prior three races leading up, all on Amazon Prime Video, will set the seeding for the tournament. The top 32 drivers from those events qualify for the five-race tournament.

“Seeding will be based on best finish in the three Prime Video races with tiebreakers determined by next-best finish, followed by season points position,” NASCAR said. “Drivers in the in-season tournament on TNT Sports and Max will compete head-to-head with the higher finishing driver advancing over five rounds.” 

The winner of the In-Season Tournament will collect a $1 million prize.

Earnhardt said he would like to see a scenario in the future where the winner of the tournament gains an advantage for the playoffs.

“My hope selfishly is that in years to come, this also with the monetary value for the winner, would allow the [winning] driver a first-round bye in the playoffs or something sort of tangible he can use in the playoffs,” Earnhardt said. “That would really make this tournament more important for the teams and the owners as well.”