Under the previous NASCAR Cup Series playoff format, which was in place from 2014 to 2025, Carson Hocevar's first career victory in Sunday afternoon's Jack Link's 500 at Talladega Superspeedway would have all but locked him into the postseason.
The previous format technically wasn't a "win and in" format, since there were 16 playoff spots and 26 regular season races, even though it was considered such.
The playoff spots officially went to the regular season champion and the 15 drivers with the most wins, meaning that all multi-race winners were locked in, but single-race winners couldn't mathematically clinch playoff berths this early in the year.
However, there was never a scenario where there were more winners than playoff spots, so for all intents and purposes, Hocevar would have been the sixth driver locked into the playoffs under the old format.
Carson Hocevar not locked into NASCAR Cup playoffs
But this year, there is no "win and in". The 16 playoff drivers are simply set to be the top 16 drivers in the point standings once the 26-race regular season concludes. With just 10 races in the books, nobody is locked in, not even 23XI Racing's Tyler Reddick, who has won five of those 10 races.
In previous years, Hocevar's win would have led to criticism of the "win and in" format, since he was never in the top 16 in the regular season standings during his first two seasons in the Cup Series. However, this year, he has been in the top 16 all year long, and his win vaulted him from 12th to eighth.
Most importantly, while he's not officially locked into the "Chase" postseason, he's in a great spot, sitting 70 points above the cut line between the 16th and 17th place drivers.
All six winners so far this season are in the top eight, and some of that can be attributed to the fact that NASCAR boosted the value of wins from 40 to 55 points over the offseason.
The only two non-winners in the top eight are Hendrick Motorsports' Kyle Larson in sixth (+93) and RFK Racing's Chris Buescher in seventh (+87). However, excluding stage points, the six winners are all inside the top six.
Will a seventh winner emerge in the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season's 12th race? The Wurth 400, won a year ago by Team Penske's Joey Logano, is set to be shown live on Fox Sports 1 from Texas Motor Speedway beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, May 3. Begin a free trial of FuboTV and catch all of the action from the Lone Star State!
Add us as a preferred source on Google