{"id":53178,"date":"2025-06-30T15:40:25","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T20:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=53178"},"modified":"2025-06-30T15:40:25","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T20:40:25","slug":"upsets-at-echopark-dominate-first-round-of-in-season-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/30\/upsets-at-echopark-dominate-first-round-of-in-season-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Upsets at EchoPark dominate first round of In-Season Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t take long to bust every bracket in NASCAR\u2019s inaugural In-Season Challenge.<\/p>\n

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Josh Berry, driver of the #21 DEX Imaging Ford, Ryan Preece, driver of the #60 Solomon Plumbing Ford, Carson Hocevar, driver of the #77 Chili’s Ride the ‘Dente Chevrolet, and Kyle Larson, driver of the #5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, spin after an on-track incident during the NASCAR Cup Series Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart at Echo Park Speedway on June 28, 2025 in Hampton, Georgia. (Photo by Krista Jasso\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The first two stages of Saturday night\u2019s Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway took care of that. A seven-car wreck on Lap 57 and a colossal 22-car incident 12 laps later wiped out most of the top choices to win the $1-million top prize in the five-race tournament.<\/p>\n

The No. 11 Toyota of top seed Denny Hamlin sustained severe damage in the massive Lap 69 wreck, paving the way for 32nd seed Ty Dillon to advance to the second round at the Chicago Street Course.<\/p>\n

Clearly, Dillon enjoyed prevailing in the matchup almost no one thought he would win.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty pumped about our day, and, oh, one more thing: all you Denny fans out there, I just knocked your favorite driver out,\u201d Dillon crowed with a broad smile on his face, turning one of Hamlin\u2019s pet phrases back on the Joe Gibbs Racing driver.<\/p>\n

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In fact, Dillon didn\u2019t back into his head-to-head victory over the pre-tournament favorite. The driver of the No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet took the checkered flag in eighth place.<\/p>\n

According to NASCAR\u2019s loop data statistics, Dillon also was eighth-best in average running position at 12.55.<\/p>\n

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The #11 King’s Hawaiian Toyota, driven by Denny Hamlin is towed after an on-track incident during the NASCAR Cup Series Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart at Echo Park Speedway on June 28, 2025 in Hampton, Georgia. (Photo by Krista Jasso\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI have to thank (team owner) Matt Kaulig and (team president) Chris Rice for giving me an opportunity of a lifetime,\u201d said Dillon, who will face Brad Keselowski in the second round. \u201cThese are the best cars I’ve ever driven, and we’re building confidence and momentum week in and week out.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve had a lot of speed this year and just haven’t gotten the results, and it’s nice to get the result on a day like today. We’re building confidence and this is a great start to continue our climb.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamlin was one of three Gibbs drivers to bow out in the first round. Christopher Bell turned sideways in Turn 4 to ignite the seven-car accident on Lap 57, sustained serious damage and eventually retired from the race in 33rd place, losing his matchup to Ricky Stenhouse Jr.<\/p>\n

Second-seeded Chase Briscoe was gobbled up in the 22-car melee and lost his matchup to close friend Noah Gragson, the 31st seed.<\/p>\n

That leaves Ty Gibbs carrying the banner for JGR. With a 14th-place run, Gibbs eliminated Justin Haley and will face AJ Allmendinger in an intriguing battle of proficient road course racers at Chicago.<\/p>\n

Chase Elliott\u2019s wildly popular victory and Alex Bowman\u2019s third-place finish kept two Hendrick Motorsports drivers in the running, but other organizations fared better.<\/p>\n

Led by Keselowski, the race runner-up, Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing advanced all three of its drivers to the next round. Ryan Preece eliminated William Byron, another victim of the Lap 69 wreck.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a fun thing while it lasted,\u201d Byron said after a trip to the infield care center. \u201cNow I\u2019m out of it, so whatever. I\u2019ll just go and try to win Chicago.\u201d<\/p>\n

RFK\u2019s Chris Buescher, the highest remaining seed at No. 3, moved past wreck victim Todd Gilliland and will face off against fellow Ford driver Zane Smith in the Chicago Street Race.<\/p>\n

Smith advanced past Austin Cindric of Team Penske, easily the most star-crossed organization at EchoPark Speedway.<\/p>\n

All three Penske drivers\u2014Cindric, Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano\u2014as well as Josh Berry of Team Penske affiliate Wood Brothers Racing were eliminated in accidents.<\/p>\n

Those four drivers had locked out the first two rows during qualifying, with Logano taking the pole position, and all four were gone early in the second stage.<\/p>\n

Asked how many brackets he thought had been busted, Berry replied, \u201cI\u2019m sure a lot. I mean, coming here, you knew that was probably going to happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody thought they had it figured out, but they weren\u2019t planning on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conventional wisdom says the Chicago Street Race should be more predictable than the wild, random action at Atlanta, as drivers steam toward the $1-million top prize in the In-Season Challenge.<\/p>\n

Sadly, even if the Chicago race follows form, the corresponding $1-million prize for picking a perfect bracket already is off the table.<\/p>\n

The chaos at EchoPark ended the quest for perfection quickly and decisively.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service It didn\u2019t take long to bust every bracket in NASCAR\u2019s inaugural In-Season Challenge. The first two stages of Saturday night\u2019s Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway took care of that. A seven-car wreck on Lap 57 and a colossal 22-car incident 12 laps later wiped out most of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":53153,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[52,1107,16],"class_list":["post-53178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-atlanta-motor-speedway","tag-echopark-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/GettyImages-2222672011.jpg?fit=1878%2C1252&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-dPI","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53178"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53183,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53178\/revisions\/53183"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}