The Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway on Sunday busted numerous brackets for those participating in the Denny Hamlin NASCAR Bracket Challenge.
Unlike the NASCAR Million Dollar In-Season Tournament that debuts next season, this is the unofficial version that inspired it, and is hosted by Dale Jr’s Dirty Mo Media. Sunday’s race featured a good bit of attrition, natural upsets and final laps drama that already eliminated numerous perfect brackets.
First, here are the results:
- (1) Denny Hamlin (P2)
(32) Justin Haley(P9) (16) Chase Briscoe(P17)
(17) Joey Logano (P5)- (9) Brad Keselowski (P3)
(24) Carson Hocevar(P8) - (8) Chase Elliott (P13)
(29) Daniel Hemric(P18) (13) Bubba Wallace(P21)
(20) Austin Cindric (P1)(12) Ryan Blaney(P24)- (21) Noah Gragson (P22)
- (5) William Byron (P15)
(28) Ryan Preece(P29) (2) Martin Truex(P34)
(31) Austin Dillon (P6)- (15) Chris Buescher (P14)
(18) Daniel Suarez(P23) - (10) Ross Chastain (P12)
(23) Michael McDowell(P25) - (7) Kyle Larson (P10)
(30) Corey Lajoie(P32) - (14) Kyle Busch (P35)
(19) Josh Berry(P36) - (11) Christopher Bell (P7)
(22) Todd Gilliland(P16) - (6) Tyler Reddick (P4)
(27) Ricky Stenhouse(P20)
Arguably the biggest upset in the Bracket Challenge was the big upset in NASCAR on Sunday in general when Austin Cindric survived Christopher Bell’s engine failure and Ryan Blaney running out of fuel to win the race.
As a result, he also finished higher than Bubba Wallace, to advance despite being a No. 20 seed against a No. 14 seed.
Martin Truex Jr, a No. 2 seed, suffered a left rear failure on Lap 110 and lost two laps in the process. That combined with No. 30 seed Austin Dillon having a tremendous sixth place run was the other major upset on the day.
Also, in running out of fuel on the last lap, defending Cup Series champion (No. 12) Ryan Blaney went from the lead to finishing 24th, two spots behind No. 21 seed Noah Gragson, another more marginal upset.
Here are the match-ups next weekend, which take place on the California road course, Sonoma Raceway.
(1) Denny Hamlin
(17) Joey Logano
(9) Brad Keselowski
(8) Alex Bowman
(4) Chase Elliott
(20) Austin Cindric
(21) Noah Gragson
(5) William Byron
(31) Austin Dillon
(15) Chris Buescher
(10) Ross Chastain
(7) Ty Gibbs
(3) Kyle Larson
(14) Kyle Busch
(11) Christopher Bell
(6) Tyler Reddick
Even if your bracket was already busted, you can continue to play and earn points towards numerous prizes provided by Dirty Mo Media.
The expected prize pool for the contest to be paid by (Dirty Mo Media) will be $3,459.
- The entrant who wins the contest will receive Grand Prize (“1st Prize”):
- RTIC 72 QT Ultra-Light Wheeled Cooler
- RTIC 30-can Soft Pack Dirty Mo Media Cooler
- RTIC Ice Lunch Bag
- RTIC x DMM 40 oz. Road Trip Tumbler
- RTIC x DMM Can Chiller
- Dirty Mo Media swag
- 11 Additional Prizes (“2nd-12th Prize”):
- RTIC 52 QT Ultra-Light Wheeled Cooler
- RTIC x DMM 40 oz. Road Trip Tumbler
- RTIC x DMM Can Chiller
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.