Trackhouse Racing's Shane van Gisbergen entered Sunday afternoon's Viva Mexico 250, the first ever NASCAR Cup Series race in Mexico, sitting in 33rd place in the point standings. He left Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in 30th, but he had presumably punched his playoff ticket thanks to his dominant victory, the second of his career and first since 2023.
While van Gisbergen's win hasn't technically locked him into the 16-driver postseason field, since there have been 10 different winners already and there are still 10 races remaining on the 26-race regular season schedule, the win vaulted him above all of the non-winners in the provisional playoff picture.
Just three drivers have won more than one race this year, and all three of them have won not two but three races. Those three-race winners are Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin and Hendrick Motorsports' Kyle Larson.
The other winner (not named Shane van Gisbergen) from Mexico
Whenever one of those drivers has gone back to victory lane, we have noted that Wood Brothers Racing's Josh Berry is really the big winner, since he has been the lowest-placed winner in the point standings pretty much since he got his first career victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March.
Why Berry wants to see repeat winners is because of the fact that, in the event that there do end up being more than 16 winners, only the multi-race winners are actually locked in, and as a single-race winner, he would need to rely on a points tiebreaker over the other single-race winners to determine whether or not he actually makes it to the playoffs.
It seems simple, but it's significant. Each time there's a repeat winner, there is one less opportunity for another driver to add his name to the list of winners, and that gives Berry a better chance of not being bumped out.
Van Gisbergen is not a repeat winner this year, yet his victory effectively served the same purpose, because of just how far he is below Berry in the point standings.
So Berry is no longer the driver most at risk of missing the postseason in the event that the series does see more than 16 winners before the regular season ends. He was sixth among the six single-race winners, heading to Mexico, and he is still sixth, albeit now among the seven.
Berry sits in 19th place in the point standings, 11 places (and 78 points) higher than van Gisbergen.
Van Gisbergen has not placed higher than 14th in a single oval race this year, so it's highly probable that he will end up finishing the regular season as the lowest-placed single-race winner in the standings (if he doesn't win another race, which would 100% secure a playoff berth at this point).
Other single-race winners this season include Hendrick Motorsports' William Byron (first place in points), Team Penske's Ryan Blaney (seventh), Trackhouse Racing's Ross Chastain (eighth), Team Penske's Joey Logano (ninth), and Team Penske's Austin Cindric (15th).
The 17th race on the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series calendar is scheduled to take place on Sunday, June 22. The Great American Getaway 400 presented by VISITPA is set to be shown live on Amazon Prime Video from Pocono Raceway beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET. This race is the final race of the year set to be shown live on Prime.