{"id":45876,"date":"2025-07-07T11:43:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T11:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/45876\/"},"modified":"2025-07-07T11:43:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T11:43:10","slug":"projecting-round-of-8-winners-at-sonoma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/45876\/","title":{"rendered":"Projecting Round of 8 winners at Sonoma"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NASCAR In-Season Challenge advances to the third round next weekend at Sonoma Raceway, with 8 drivers battling for the $1 million prize. Based on what happened at Atlanta and Chicago, it wouldn\u2019t be a surprise whatsoever if everyone\u2019s NASCAR In-Season Challenge predictions keep getting upended by surprising results.<\/p>\n

Ahead of Sunday afternoon\u2019s race at Sonoma Raceway, we\u2019re delivering our predictions for who will win each Round of 8 matchup in the NASCAR In-Season Challenge.<\/p>\n

(8) Alex Bowman over (32) Ty Dillon<\/p>\n

\"NASCARCredit: Daniel Bartel-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Ty Dillon is the Cinderella story of the NASCAR In-Season Challenge. As the lowest-ranked seed entering the tournament, everyone naturally predicted he would lose to Denny Hamlin in Round 1. Then, an early wreck at Atlanta took Hamlin out and allowed Dillon to automatically advance. In a Round 2 matchup against Brad Keselowski, destiny left its mark again: a Stage 1 wreck ended Keselowski\u2019s day, sending the 32nd seed to the \u201cElite Eight\u201d of the tournament at Sonoma Raceway.<\/p>\n

Related:\u00a0Winners, Losers from the Chicago Street Race<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

As much as everyone loves a Cinderella story and extended tournament runs, they all end with one of the powerhouses eventually coming out on top. Sonoma Raceway will be the end for Dillon. Alex Bowman is the superior road course driver, with a 13.9 average finishing position versus 27.2 (DriverAverages.com<\/a>)\u00a0and Dillon doesn\u2019t have a single top-20 finish in five Cup Series races at Sonoma Raceway. It\u2019s been an improbable run, but Dillon\u2019s luck now runs out.<\/p>\n

(20) Erik Jones over (12) John Hunter Nemechek<\/p>\n

\"NASCARCredit: Stan Szeto-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

John Hunter Nemechek is having himself a nice little run lately, recording three top-15 finishes, including sixth place at Mexico City and Pocono, in the last four races. For good reason, he\u2019s favored to advance over Erik Jones in the NASCAR In-Season Challenge. It\u2019s worth noting, however, that Jones has more experience behind the wheel of a Next Gen era Cup Series car at Sonoma Raceway than JHN.<\/p>\n

Related:\u00a0NASCAR predictions for final races, including Sonoma Raceway<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

However, we\u2019re picking Jones for a different reason: he\u2019s simply been the better driver as of late. The Chicago Street Race (25th) was his worst finish since Kansas\u2014a nine-race stretch that featured three top-10 finishes and four additional top-20 finishes. We\u2019re giving Jones the edge on Sunday at Sonoma, predicting he\u2019ll finish top 20 while JHN finishes outside the top 20.<\/p>\n

(23) Tyler Reddick over (15) Ryan Preece<\/p>\n

\"NASCARCredit: Stan Szeto-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Tyler Reddick is one of the better road course drivers in the Cup Series, but that success hasn\u2019t necessarily included Sonoma Raceway. He has just one top-10 finish in his Cup career at Sonoma, with a 50 percent success rate at finishing inside the top 20. However, that top finish came just last season, when he placed 8th and recorded a Stage 1 victory. Ryan Preece is a pretty safe bet to finish inside the top 20\u2014he\u2019s done it in 8 of 14 road course races\u2014but Reddick\u2019s ceiling is considerably higher. The No. 45 will finish inside the top 10 at Sonoma, moving on to the final four.<\/p>\n

Related: NASCAR standings for Cup Series, Xfinity Series and Truck Series<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

(6) Ty Gibbs over (14) Zane Smith<\/p>\n

\"NASCARCredit: Stan Szeto-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

This felt like the easiest of our NASCAR In-Season Challenge predictions to make, which probably means Zane Smith is advancing. While Ty Gibbs still doesn\u2019t have his first career victory in the Cup Series, he\u2019s quickly become one of the 10 best drivers on road courses at this level. He is coming off a second-place finish at Chicago and would have finished even better at the road course in Mexico City if not for a bad strategy call. He\u2019s got a real shot at a top-5 finish this coming Sunday, which would put him well ahead of Smith.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\tNFL, MLB & college football writer for Sportsnaut. Graduated from San Diego State University with BA in Journalism, 2019. … More about Matt Johnson<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NASCAR In-Season Challenge advances to the third round next weekend at Sonoma Raceway, with 8 drivers battling…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":45877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[1406,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-45876","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-nascar","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114811778158360673","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}