“A guy like Denny Hamlin might not feel like it”: Dale Earnhardt Jr. makes a case for NASCAR’s ‘life-changing’ $1,000,000 In-season challenge 

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is all for NASCAR’s In-Season Tournament, the first race of which was held last Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Winning the challenge will yield a million-dollar cash prize, so for many drivers, Dale Jr. thinks it’s life-changing.

Denny Hamlin entered last week’s race, the Quaker State 400, as the No. 1 seed but failed to advance further due to a crash that ended his day early. As things stand, he won’t be able to claim the handsome cash bonus.

But for Hamlin, who currently flaunts a net worth of $65 million (as per Celebrity Net Worth), it’s perhaps not that big of a deal. He has three wins to his name already, and if things go right, the Tampa, Florida native might even log his 60th career victory this year itself.

“I'm not asking everybody to embrace the bracket, but it is going to be fun. I hope NASCAR continues to do it,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said on the Dale Jr. Download (54:35). “It's a million bucks, which is a lot of money. It's life-changing for a lot of drivers in the field.”

“A guy like Denny Hamlin or somebody like that might not feel it, (but) it's still a cool prize. For most of the drivers, it's a big deal,” he added.

While Denny Hamlin dropped out, Ty Dillon (who entered the challenge as the 32nd and last seed) bagged a top-10 finish and advanced to Round 2. This coming Sunday, in Chicago, the Kaulig Racing driver will be up against RFK Racing driver, Brad Keselowski.

Named The Grant Park 165, the 75-lap event is scheduled for July 6. Fans can watch the race live on TNT Sports, 2 pm ET onwards, or listen to exclusive radio updates on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. expects a “big leap forward” with days to go until NASCAR’s Chicago outing

Ahead of last week’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Dale Earnhardt Jr. transitioned from Amazon Prime’s broadcast booth to that of TNT Sports. While the faces of his colleagues were different, the excitement was the same.

There were several issues with the broadcast last week due to inclement weather, which led Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his team to switch the booth to an unplanned spot. However, he is confident that things will get better when the sport arrives in Chicago.

“We've got all the right talent to put on a great show,” said Dale Jr. (quoted by Athlon Sports). “I am also happy with the temperament and approach of the producer.”

“I was pretty pleased by the end of the day with what we did as a broadcast team,” the Hall of Famer added. “I've talked to a lot of people in the past 24 hours with our TNT team, and I expect there will be a big leap forward in how we do the job and how well we do it."

As things stand, only four races remain before USA Network takes over August 3 (Sunday) onwards. That’s also when NASCAR will host the 23rd race of the season, the Iowa Corn 350 at Iowa Speedway.