The fight to make the NASCAR Cup playoffs

21 of the 26-race regular season are now complete, leaving just five races left before the NASCAR Cup playoff field is locked in for the 2025 season. However, there’s still a road course, two short tracks, a superspeedway, and a crown jewel before we get to that point.

12 drivers have already guaranteed themselves a spot by winning, but four spots still remain up for grabs. While there are several drivers in a must-win situation, there’s still a handful of drivers with a shot of making it in on points alone. Here’s a look at where those drivers stand entering the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway:

Reddick is in a fairly solid position points-wise. Unless he somehow loses almost 100 points to Bowman over the next few weeks, there would need to be four new winners over the next five weeks to knock him out of playoff contention. Reddick is also the only driver who was part of the Championship 4 last year, and yet, hasn’t won a race in 2025.

The last Hendrick Motorsports driver not already locked in, but Alex Bowman has to be feeling fairly good about his position. Outside of Sonoma, Bowman has been looking good in recent weeks with top-five runs in Mexico City, Atlanta, and last weekend at Dover.

Buescher is the highest RFK Racing driver in the standings, and he’s been making steady gains over the cut-line, but one bad race could erase it all. Last year, he was in a similar position, but due to some new winners just before the end of the regular season, he ended up being pushed out of the playoffs.

Sitting on the bubble, Wallace has absolutely zero room for error. And if any driver below the cut-line wins, he automatically ends up on the wrong side of the line. Wallace is also facing a three-year winless streak, so it’s more likely he’ll have to point his way in. He gained some valuable ground at Dover, but he needs to keep that up in the weeks to come.

Ryan Preece, Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford

Photo by: Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Preece has been hovering around the cut-line for what seems like the entirety of the 2025 season. The No. 60 team have been a model of consistency, making the most of what they have. Seven consecutive top 20 finishes and some stage points have helped Preece to remain in contention. He lost some points in a late-race incident at Dover, but he still managed to bring the car home on the lead lap.

Busch has had a very up-and-down season, marred by incidents, but the No. 8 team is going in the right direction at the moment. He has cut his way to within 40 points of the cut-line after being over 70 behind after Atlanta. If he keeps gaining points on the cut-line at that rate, he’ll get there by Race #26, but he can’t afford any surprise winners.

Three Joe Gibbs Racing drivers have already won this year, but Ty remains winless so far in his entire Cup career. However, despite lagging far behind his teammates, Gibbs has really turned his season around. In the first 14 races, he had eight finishes of 24th or worse. But in the last seven, he has finished 14th or higher in every race, including three top fives. He has rapidly climbed up the standings as a result of his efforts, and made it all the way to the finals of the $1 million in-season challenge.