{"id":784223,"date":"2026-07-06T16:46:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T16:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/784223\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T16:46:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T16:46:12","slug":"who-was-eliminated-in-round-2-of-the-nascar-in-season-bracket-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/784223\/","title":{"rendered":"Who was eliminated in Round 2 of the NASCAR In-Season Bracket Challenge?"},"content":{"rendered":"

32 drivers were cut down to 16 at Sonoma<\/a>, and now only eight remain after Chicagoland in the NASCAR In-Season Bracket Challenge. The wildly unpredictable EchoPark Speedway (Atlanta) is next, with the tournament concluding with races at North Wilkesboro and the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n

The winner will receive a $1 million prize, and Ty Gibbs<\/a> is the defending champion. Unfortunately for Gibbs, who was ranked as the No. 5 seed in 2026, he will not go back-to-back as his tournament hopes ended at\u00a0Chicagoland despite an eighth-place finish. He was facing JGR teammate Chase\u00a0Briscoe<\/a>, who actually won the race and advanced onward.<\/p>\n

Another big name that fell was Kyle Larson<\/a>, as a mid-race spin derailed what was a strong day for the No. 6 seed. He lost to his teammate as well, No. 11 seed William Byron<\/a><\/p>\n

No. 2 seed Denny Hamlin<\/a> remains in the competition, as does No. 3 seed Ryan Blaney<\/a> and No. 4 seed Chase Elliott<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The charge of the underdogs
\n \"Todd <\/p>\n

Todd Gilliland, Front Row Motorsports Ford<\/p>\n

Photo by: Christian Petersen \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

At Chicagoland, five of the eight matchups were actually won by the lower-seeded driver, and two true underdogs still remain. No. 25 seed Todd Gilliland<\/a> eliminated Carson Hocevar<\/a> with a 16th place finish.<\/p>\n

There’s also Alex Bowman<\/a>, who was the lowest ranked driver of the entire competition as the No. 32 seed. The Hendrick Motorsports<\/a> driver is deep in the standings after missing several races as he was suffering from vertigo, but finishes of tenth and fifth have vaulted him up into the third round of the In-Season Challenge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, only one of these bracket-busters will continue beyond Atlanta, as Gilliland and Bowman will face each other this upcoming race weekend.<\/p>\n

Below you can find the full chart for who beat who at Chicagoland, as well as the new\u00a0matchups for Round 3 at Atlanta:<\/p>\n

Round 2 at Chicagoland: Who advanced and who was eliminated?<\/p>\n

Note: Driver names that are bolded\u00a0advanced<\/p>\n

NEW: Round 3 matchups for EchoPark Speedway (Atlanta)<\/p>\n

Driver Name (Seed No.) vs.
\nDriver Name (Seed No.)<\/p>\n

Denny Hamlin (No. 2)
\nChristopher Bell (No. 10)<\/p>\n

Ryan Blaney (No. 3)
\nWilliam Byron (No. 11)<\/p>\n

Chase Elliott (No. 4)
\nChase Briscoe (No. 12)<\/p>\n

Todd Gilliland (No. 25)
\nAlex Bowman (No. 32)<\/p>\n

Austin Cindric (No. 16)
\nAlex Bowman (No. 32)<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

We want your opinion!<\/p>\n

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?<\/p>\n

Take our 5 minute survey.<\/a><\/p>\n

– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"32 drivers were cut down to 16 at Sonoma, and now only eight remain after Chicagoland in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":784224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,6681,127187,634,3628,82,277431],"class_list":["post-784223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-chicago","tag-chicagoland-speedway","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-cup","tag-sports","tag-who-was-eliminated-in-round-2-of-the-nascar-in-season-bracket-challenge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=784223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/784224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}