LONG POND, Pa. — One week ago, Shane van Gisbergen’s victory in Mexico City vaulted him into the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
In some ways, certainly, the victory was an upset for the driver who sits 30th in the points standings. But the reality is that the New Zealander affectionately known as SVG seemed destined to win at least one of the five road-course races on the regular-season schedule to propel him into the postseason.
MORE: Cup standings | Pocono schedule
Provisionally, that means 10 different drivers have locked themselves into the playoffs by virtue of wins this year. Ten races remain in the hunt for one of the final spots in the 16-driver grid to determine this year’s championship contenders.
Entering The Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono Raceway on Sunday (2 p.m. ET, Prime Video, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe sits 14th in the provisional playoff standings, 39 points above the elimination line following van Gisbergen’s historic win. And now that van Gisbergen has won one, Briscoe will be rooting for him at Chicago, Sonoma and Watkins Glen if Briscoe can’t win them himself since multiple SVG wins wouldn’t eliminate another spot available to make the postseason on points.
“You knew that SVG was probably going to win one and (knock out) somebody that was they were going to get in on points,” Briscoe told NASCAR.com Saturday. “So that part was unfortunate, but I was actually talking to my dad about it where, out of everybody to win, if I couldn’t win, I kind of wanted SVG just because odds are he’s probably going to win one of the other ones. So I would rather him win it than somebody else, right? Because now, if I don’t win the other road courses, I hope SVG wins them all just because how it would work out.”
Bubba Wallace of 23XI Racing is 10th in the regular-season standings but 13th in the provisional postseason picture, 57 points above the current dividing line. Plenty of racing lies ahead with roughly two months until the playoffs begin, but with only 10 races ahead, drivers like Wallace know their window of opportunity is closing one week at a time.
“I mean, obviously, look, we wanted to be locked in on a win and whatnot,” Wallace said. “We’re getting to 10 races left and still gets to that. So that mindset hasn’t changed from since post-Kansas 2022 (when Wallace won). We want to (lock in) by going back to Victory Lane. For some it’s easier than others, but for someone like myself, I need to work very hard and put in twice the effort to get the same result. Sleeves are rolled up tight, excited for the task at hand. We’re getting it all figured out. But momentum’s on our side.”
Two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch is currently 20th in the playoff grid, four spots and 50 spots outside the picture entering Pocono. His eyes are set on snapping a career-long 73-race winless streak to lock into the postseason but knows points could still get him there — for now.
“I think there’s even a few more winners that could possibly win a race and continue to move that (elimination line higher),” Busch said. “The whole win-and-you’re-in is certainly alive and well and is the best positive thing for you, so we’ll try to get a win. …
“I mean you could do it on points with where you’re at right now. But if there’s two more winners that are behind you that get in and that puts you to a negative-100 deficit, then obviously that’s not going to be doable.”
| Rank | Driver | Cutoff |
|---|---|---|
| 13 | Bubba Wallace | +57 |
| 14 | Chase Briscoe | +39 |
| 15 | Alex Bowman | +22 |
| 16 | Chris Buescher | +19 |
| ELIMINATION LINE | ||
| 17 | Ryan Preece | -19 |
| 18 | Michael McDowell | -43 |
| 19 | AJ Allmendinger | -45 |
| 20 | Kyle Busch | -50 |
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