NASCAR fans have collectively determined that winning should mean nothing and Shane van Gisbergen, despite being one of four drivers with multiple wins through the 2025 Cup Series regular season's first 19 races, should not be anywhere close to making the 16-driver playoff field.
Van Gisbergen won at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez back in June, and he added his second win of the season this past Sunday afternoon on the Chicago Street Course.
Gripes with NASCAR's playoff format are nothing new, but you have to go back to 2017, when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won back-to-back superspeedway races at Talladega Superspeedway and Daytona International Speedway, to find the last time fans were actually upset over a driver winning twice getting into the playoffs.
For one win, we get it. Harrison Burton made last year's playoffs with a Daytona win, despite being last of the 34 full-time drivers in the point standings. While everyone plays by the same rules, you'd be hard-pressed to find someone not willing to admit that NASCAR could make things a little bit better on this front.
Still, let's not forget that the playoff format isn't actually a "win and in" format, since there can technically be more than 16 winners in 26 races. To officially lock in, you need to win twice, and given the parity in the Next Gen era, that is no small feat. Van Gisbergen achieved that.
But again, apparently he is undeserving of a playoff spot because of his results in races he hasn't won. I guess everyone sees things differently.
The idea that he is "stealing" a playoff berth from a "more deserving driver", however, is the real kicker.
There have been 12 winners so far this year, and the playoff cut line is currently situated between the drivers in 13th and 14th place in the point standings. 23XI Racing's Bubba Wallace is 13th, and RFK Racing's Ryan Preece is 14th. Wallace would be the driver on the outside looking in had Preece not been disqualified from P2 at Talladega in April.
Are those drivers really "more deserving" than a driver who has won twice, even if he's not as high as they are in points?
Aside from wins (which, contrary to popular belief, do matter, and should matter, because that's the whole idea of racing), Wallace and Preece do have better stats than van Gisbergen overall.
But they're not that much better.
Wallace has just one more top five finish; Preece has one less. Wallace's average finish is 19.9, only three spots better than van Gisbergen at 22.9. Preece's is a bit better at 17.3, but still nothing to write home about.
Van Gisbergen has also led more laps than both: 111 to Wallace's 103 and Preece's 56. And unlike those two, he has converted his time at the front into victories.
That's right; van Gisbergen has more career wins than Wallace and Preece combined, despite being in only his first full season of Cup Series competition. Wallace hasn't won since 2022, and Preece hasn't ever won at the Cup level.
Preece has had a resurgent season in his first year with RFK Racing after having been written off multiple times in the earlier stages of his career; there's no doubt about that. But if van Gisbergen gets in instead of him, is he really "stealing" a playoff spot from a "more deserving" driver?
If a scenario like 2022 unfolded, fans might have a case. Third-place Ryan Blaney was out of the playoffs because he wasn't one of the 16 winners, until Kurt Busch withdrew due to injury. Even with Busch out, Blaney kept the 16th and final spot away from fourth-place Martin Truex Jr. So 13 drivers with fewer points than Truex got in, even though his year, from top to bottom, was better.
But we're talking about Wallace, who would ironically still have zero career playoff berths had it not been for Chase Elliott's injury in 2023, and Preece, who, despite his resurgence, has yet to truly take that next step and emerge as a contender.
Does anybody else not see any real issue here, at least for now?
Of course, there will still be calls for change, as frustration with this modern format, which is now in its 12th season, have been mounting for more than a decade.
Forget the whole "everybody plays by the same rules" line for a second. Everybody knows that, which inherently makes the playoff format "fair".
Those calls for changes should not be ignored, given some of the odd changes NASCAR has made (such as the introduction of stages in 2017 and the removal of the sensible top 30 rule before the 2023 season) over the years. Whether there is a better way to crown a champion will always be up for debate, and believe me, even if changes are made, there would still be complaints.
For now, though, it's hard to sit here and legitimately argue that one of four drivers with multiple well-earned wins in a single season shouldn't be eligible for the playoffs, regardless of where those wins came.