NASCAR In-Season Challenge Round 3: Bracket Breakdown and Best Bets at the Quaker State 400

The NASCAR Cup Series field rolls into EchoPark Speedway this Sunday for the Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart, and while the race itself matters plenty for the regular playoff picture, there is a second competition happening inside the competition. Round 3 of the NASCAR In-Season Challenge kicks off at 7 p.m. ET on TNT, and the bracket has been trimmed down to eight drivers chasing a $1 million bonus. Four head-to-head matchups will decide who reaches the Elite Four, and the betting markets around those individual duels are just as interesting as the outright winner odds.

How the In-Season Challenge Bracket Actually Works

The format borrows straight from March Madness. The top 32 drivers in regular-season points standings were seeded 1 through 32 following the June points reset, then paired off in single-elimination matchups: No. 1 versus No. 32, No. 2 versus No. 31, and so on down the bracket. There is no reseeding between rounds, so once the bracket was set, the path was locked in. In each of the first four “Challenge Rounds,” the driver who finishes ahead of their bracket opponent advances, regardless of where either driver actually finishes in the overall race. A driver could finish 25th and still move on if his bracket rival finishes 30th. The bracket runs through five races total: Sonoma opened Round 1, Chicagoland hosted Round 2, EchoPark Speedway now stages Round 3, North Wilkesboro holds Round 4, and the two survivors meet in the winner-take-all Champions Round at Indianapolis, where the higher finisher walks away with $1 million.

Who’s Still Alive Heading Into Atlanta

The Round 1 seeding produced an early bracket shake-up when No. 32 seed Alex Bowman knocked off top-seeded Tyler Reddick, and that result still shapes this weekend’s matchups. After two rounds of eliminations, eight drivers remain, and Round 3 pairs them into four confirmed matchups at EchoPark Speedway: William Byron against Ryan Blaney, Alex Bowman against Todd Gilliland, Chase Briscoe against Chase Elliott, and Denny Hamlin against his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell. Byron eliminated Kyle Larson in Round 2 before drawing Blaney, who took care of Shane van Gisbergen. Gilliland pulled off his own upset over Carson Hocevar to set up the Bowman matchup, while Briscoe knocked out fellow JGR driver Ty Gibbs to earn a Round 3 date with Elliott, who advanced past Michael McDowell.

The Head-to-Head Matchups Worth Watching

Two names jump off this bracket immediately given the venue. Chase Elliott and Christopher Bell are the only two drivers remaining in the field with a win at EchoPark Speedway since it was reconfigured into a drafting-style oval ahead of the 2022 season, and both happen to be squared off against tough bracket opponents this weekend. Bell’s Atlanta victory came a year ago in this very race, when he started 32nd and stormed to the front in a caution-shortened finish for his first career win on a drafting track in 28 career starts at Atlanta, Daytona or Talladega combined. Elliott, meanwhile, is part of a trio with Byron and Joey Logano that has combined to win six of the nine races run on the reconfigured layout.

The Bowman-Gilliland pairing is the most lopsided seed gap in the round, with the No. 32 seed facing a No. 25 seed who has already proven he can win the close ones this bracket. The Briscoe-Elliott matchup doubles as a Hendrick-versus-Toyota storyline and a “Chase versus Chase” novelty that NASCAR fans have circled all week. And the Hamlin-Bell pairing puts two JGR teammates on opposite sides of the same pit road, which always adds an extra layer of intrigue to a bracket that already eliminated one JGR-on-JGR matchup in Round 2.

Betting the Bracket Matchups Independent of the Race Winner

Because advancing only requires beating one specific driver, sportsbooks have started pricing these bracket duels as standalone head-to-head props, separate from the outright win market. As of this week, Bell was priced as a narrow favorite over Hamlin in their direct matchup, reflecting Bell’s superior recent form at drafting tracks and his history of coming from deep in the field at this exact track. Blaney was installed as a clearer favorite over Byron in their pairing, with Blaney’s Team Penske equipment historically strong at Atlanta’s high-banked oval. Bowman was made a heavy favorite over Gilliland given the seed gap and season-long consistency, while Briscoe and Elliott were priced nearly even, making that the closest call on the board.

Bettors looking to play these props specifically rather than the overall race winner market should shop lines carefully, since head-to-head pricing varies more between books than outright odds do. A DraftKings promo code, FanDuel promo code, or BetMGM promo code can all be useful for comparing the same matchup across multiple sportsbooks before locking in a number, since a few points of difference in a coin-flip matchup like Briscoe-Elliott can matter quite a bit. For bettors who want to weigh implied probability before committing, running the numbers through an odds calculator can help translate the moneyline gaps into a cleaner read on where the real value sits.

The Best Angles to Target

There is a strong case for treating the Elliott and Bell matchups as the two to build around this week, given their track pedigree at EchoPark. Elliott’s two career wins here and Bell’s dramatic 2025 triumph both suggest a level of comfort at this specific 1.54-mile drafting oval that their bracket opponents simply have not shown. Briscoe has been competitive in equipment but lacks a signature Atlanta result, and while Hamlin has plenty of raw speed, Bell’s recent superspeedway-style form gives him a real case in that specific pairing. None of this guarantees anything in a drafting race where a single late caution can scramble the entire finishing order, which is exactly why an EV calculator is worth running before placing anything sizable on a single bracket duel rather than betting purely on gut feel.

The Bowman-Gilliland matchup also stands out for value hunters. Even though Bowman carries the heavier favorite tag, Gilliland’s Round 2 upset over Hocevar shows he can win a close, scrappy finish when it matters, and drafting-track results at Atlanta have been notoriously hard to predict since the reconfiguration. Bettors weighing a longer-shot bracket ticket alongside a safer favorite might also want to compare a Caesars Sportsbook Promo Code against other books before committing, since bracket-prop menus are not always available everywhere.

What’s Next After Atlanta

Whoever wins each of these four matchups moves on to Round 4 at North Wilkesboro, one step closer to a shot at the $1 million Champions Round payday at Indianapolis. For now, the drama is contained to four one-on-one battles at a track that has already produced one of the wildest finishes in recent Atlanta history, and Sunday night’s green flag should tell us plenty about which of these eight drivers has the goods to keep that title chase alive.