Denny Hamlin suggests NASCAR add bonuses for each round of In-Season Tournament
Denny Hamlin suggested NASCAR should add bonuses for each round of the sport’s In-Season Tournament.
The new portion of the NASCAR season is set to debut in 2025 but Hamlin wants to see extra motivation for drivers and teams. Just take a look at the NBA’s first edition of the In-Season Tournament earlier in the regular season.
A big pool of money for the winner, plus some advancement money, sounds like a good start for Hamlin.
“I got a call about 30 minutes before the announcement last week,” Hamlin said on Actions Detrimental. “(Steve) Phelps called me about 30 minutes before it was released and said hey, because I think they were probably a little worried I was going to have a certain feeling about it. But I just said, sounds great … It is certainly something that I think that would be good for our sport, on and off the track.
“And so I think this is a good thing for our sport, and certainly the drivers are going to get excited about it, the teams will get excited about it. If I had to pick it apart, the only thing I would do is I think there still should be ($1 million) to the winner, but I think that there should be an additional million spread out to the race teams.”
The new tournament will take place during the summer next season. 32 drivers will be seeded based on the final three races of the Amazon Prime Video part of the schedule. Then, the tournament will air on TNT Sports.
“In each round you advance, I think the team or driver, whatever you want to say, gets money for advancing,” Hamlin said. “So maybe if you advance it’s 100 grand per round you advance … Having an all or nothing is tough, but I know that’s what brackets are. I mean when you have March Madness, there’s no prize for finishing second.
“But I just think our sport’s a little different because as you advance rounds, it’s certainly big. So set aside a little more money for this thing to continue to reward teams for beating their head to head competition.”
NASCAR sees a lot of value in those summer races. I think if they are marketed the right way, and putting $1,000,000 up for grabs is a good way to do it, then it can be a success.
There really isn’t a lot going on in June and July once the NBA and Stanley Cup Playoffs are over. It’s just a waiting game for football’s resumption.
Perhaps Hamlin is on to something here.