In both 2023 and 2024, the NASCAR Cup Series race winner at Nashville Superspeedway had not won earlier in the season, and that's when the race was contested in late June.
In Sunday night's Cracker Barrel 400, which was contested roughly a month earlier than it had been in recent years, Team Penske's Ryan Blaney kept that trend going, as he became the ninth different winner of the 2025 season.
Blaney held off Spire Motorsports' Carson Hocevar, who is not only seeking his first win of the year but the first win of his career, to win the 300-lap race around the four-turn, 1.333-mile (2.145-kilometer) Lebanon, Tennessee oval.
Hocevar has twice finished second this season, with his first runner-up finish coming at Atlanta Motor Speedway in February, and while he continues to ruffle feathers with his aggressive driving style, he moved to within four points of the playoff cut line with 12 races remaining on the 26-race regular season schedule. He seems to be closing in on his first win, and the consensus is that it appears to be a matter of when, not if.
The driver of the No. 77 Spire Motorsports may have been the "first loser" on Sunday night, but he certainly wasn't the big loser.
That would be Josh Berry.
The Wood Brothers Racing driver presumably secured his playoff spot with a victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway back in March, but he finds himself down in 20th place in the point standings, by far the lowest among the six drivers who have one win so far this season.
And with 12 races remaining on the regular season schedule, the six single-race winners aren't officially locked into the playoffs like the multi-race winners, Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin, plus Hendrick Motorsports' Kyle Larson, are.
The 16 playoff spots go to the regular season champion, the multi-race winners, and the remaining race winners. If there aren't enough winners to fill the postseason field, the standings determine who gets the remaining spots. But if there are more winners than available spots, a points tiebreaker is used to determine which single-race winners get into the four-round, 10-race playoffs and which don't.
Nine drivers who have not yet won this year won last year, so while the Cup Series has never seen a scenario in which there have been more winners than playoff spots, it is still genuinely possible with 12 races remaining before the postseason after Blaney already became winner number nine of 2025.
In that case, Berry is the driver most vulnerable, given the fact that he finds himself all the way down in 20th place in the point standings following a 30th place finish at Nashville. The next lowest single-race winner in the standings is Team Penske's Austin Cindric in 13th, and Cindric would actually be in the top 10 if not for a points penalty earlier in the year.
So if there is one driver who does not want to see new winners emerge at this point in the regular season, it's Berry, as his first career playoff spot is far from secure.
Blaney's win came just one week after Trackhouse Racing's Ross Chastain earned his first win of the year in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Will a third new winner emerge in a row this coming weekend to give the 2025 season 10 different winners?
Michigan International Speedway is scheduled to host the FireKeepers Casino 400 this Sunday, June 8, and Amazon Prime Video is set to provide live coverage beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET.