Chicagoland Speedway hosted its first NASCAR Cup Series race since 2019 this past Sunday evening, and that race, the eero 400, was also the second race of the second annual five-race In-Season Challenge tournament.
Entering the 267-lap race around the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) Joliet, Illinois oval, there were 16 drivers still eligible to win the tournament, after the first round race at Sonoma Raceway eliminated the other 16 who were a part of the bracket. Three full-time drivers were excluded entirely.
The tournament bracket is based strictly on head-to-head matchups, so just as not all of the top 16 of 32 tournament drivers advanced from the first to the second round, not all of the top eight of 16 remaining tournament drivers advanced from the second round to this coming weekend's quarterfinals at EchoPark Speedway (Atlanta Motor Speedway).
Joe Gibbs Racing's Ty Gibbs did not advance, despite finishing higher than two drivers who did. Front Row Motorsports' Todd Gilliland did advance, despite finishing behind Gibbs and two other drivers, Team Penske's Austin Cindric and Legacy Motor Club's Erik Jones, who failed to do so, simply because he beat Spire Motorsports' Carson Hocevar.
Aside from No. 5 seed Gibbs, whose tournament title defense simply got screwed over by the fact that his matchup happened to come against teammate Chase Briscoe, the top-seeded driver who failed to advance was No. 6 seed Kyle Larson, who was also in a teammate battle.
Larson led laps early after starting on the front row, but the reigning series champion was never able to fully recover from a spin and had to settle for 34th place, multiple laps off the lead lap. William Byron beat him comfortably with a fourth place finish.
The other drivers eliminated this weekend included Spire Motorsports' Michael McDowell, RFK Racing's Chris Buescher, and Trackhouse Racing's Shane van Gisbergen. All finished 19th or worse overall and 12th or worse among remaining tournament drivers.
Here's how the Chicagoland matchups played out.
NASCAR In-Season Challenge: Chicagoland results
Seed | Winner | Finish | Seed | Loser | Finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
32 | Alex Bowman | 5th | 16 | Austin Cindric | 13th |
25 | Todd Gilliland | 16th | 9 | Carson Hocevar | 22nd |
12 | Chase Briscoe | 1st | 5 | Ty Gibbs | 8th |
4 | Chase Elliott | 11th | 20 | Michael McDowell | 29th |
2 | Denny Hamlin | 3rd | 15 | Erik Jones | 15th |
10 | Christopher Bell | 2nd | 7 | Chris Buescher | 19th |
11 | William Byron | 4th | 6 | Kyle Larson | 34th |
3 | Ryan Blaney | 7th | 14 | Shane van Gisbergen | 25th |
The quarterfinal round at Atlanta is set to feature Bowman vs. Gilliland, Briscoe vs. Elliott, Hamlin vs. Bell, and Byron vs. Blaney.
Live coverage of the Quaker State 400 is set to be shown live on TNT from EchoPark Speedway starting at 7:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, July 12. Don't miss the four quarterfinal matchups of the In-Season Challenge tournament!
