Denny Hamlin’s “Bracket Challenge” with Dirty Mo Media is making a return. But in an even bigger announcement, NASCAR will make this highly anticipated ‘March Madness-style’ head-to-head concept a reality next season, with a grand prize of 1 million dollars.

On Monday, NASCAR sent fans buzzing with the news of an in-season tournament rewarding the top 32 drivers with a chance to claim a seven-figure payday. Nevertheless, Hamlin’s original fan contest will be online for diehards following the conclusion of the Coca-Cola 600 in only a few weeks. Fueled by the rapid success of a year-long idea, the #11 proudly announced these exciting new developments, and fans have been quick to credit the speculated ideator’s evolutionary approaches.

Denny Hamlin’s fan bracket becomes a Million-Dollar NASCAR tourney

As Jeff Gluck lays out the widely-assumed context in a cryptic tweet from his official handle, “NASCAR fed this story to Sportico about an in-season tournament that is coming to the Cup Series starting next year. Oddly, there’s no mention in the story of whose idea this was…”

Many will remember the five-race stint for the inaugural edition of the “Denny Hamlin bracket challenge” that ended with Willam Byron besting Brad Keselowski and 31 other bracket rivals as the sole victor at Sonoma with a P14 finish. From officials to fans, the positive reception has consequently birthed another experimental shakeup awaiting fans for the same number of five unannounced races, to be broadcasted on NASCAR’s newest streaming platforms, Amazon Prime and TNT.

However, a deeper dive into the events leading up to the latest disclosures will reveal Denny’s year-long advocacy last season, for a five-week shot in the arm aiming to “fix” the mid-season ratings lull with some much-needed change of the ordinary.

Regardless, shifting our focus onto the current, aiming to alleviate fan immersion experience in the Cup Series another notch heading out of May and onto June, Denny and his co-host announced on the latest episode of Actions Detrimental, “The Denny Hamlin bracket challenge is back.” 

Elaborating on the details the man himself, then stated, “This bracket is going to open on May 28th we’re going to lock in the top 32 in the standings so that’s after Charlotte… We’re going to lock in the standing, so even though they’re going to change through the bracket, it doesn’t matter. We’re going to lock them in after Charlotte, top-32, 5 weeks. Starting at Gateway (on) June 2nd, and then we’re going to Sonoma, Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nashville for the final round.”

Contemplating his future matchups, Denny continued to drop his own little release on the podcast, stating, “A little birdie told me that Amazon is perhaps picking up this idea next year… Hopefully, there’s a good incentive for it you know because that’s what’s going to get the drivers bought into it for sure.“

To reply, Jared Allen jibed that the prize should be a “free Prime account.” That is ironic considering Dirty Mo Media Network owner Dale Jr will be returning to Amazon and TNT next season, alongside the announced airing of this brand new mid-season elimination tourney on the same broadcast partner. But our favorite racing legend summed up the fans’ feelings perfectly while congratulating the #11 for his efforts to improve the racing experience.

Fans debate a dream realized

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From Dale Jr declaring, You did it @dennyhamlin to Bubba Wallace’s #23 team spotter Freddie Kraft, launching a celebratory hashtag that says “#thanksdenny,”  many chimed in to acknowledge the due credit Hamlin warrants for NASCAR’s newest innovation. Some even playfully inquired, “Do we call it the Dennis Cup?” in light of Hamlin’s extensive efforts in making this initial fan tournament turn into a real-life drivers tournament. One hilarious comment laid out an alternate naming option, as it read, “They can call it the FedEx cup…”

But a gathering crowd has its contrasting opinions. And this fan explains a potential perspective for some viewing the developments with a grayer yet realistic lens, “YAY more gimmicks….. World Racing Entertainment is here, now we have a tournament champ, regular season champ, playoff champion and the non-official full season champ.”

Some went forward to compare this anticipated $1 million, 32-man H2H to the “Cup Series Playoff Challenge 2021” and “the Winston No Bull Million” of the early 2000s, claiming  “that’s what this is and isn’t new lol.” That does not change the fact, that the #11’s words have begun to hold some serious weight within the NASCAR community, as a majority are now claiming that “@dennyhamlin is starting to impact the sport like @DaleJr !” Could that mean a first-ever MPD award at the end of the 2024 season for Joe Gibbs Racing’s current race wins leader?