The rough start to the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season for the three-time and reigning series champion Joey Logano continued at Talladega Superspeedway, when a fifth place finish turned into a 39th (last) place finish in Sunday's Jack Link's 500 after his No. 22 Team Penske Ford was disqualified.
Logano, who was disqualified after his car was found to be missing a spoiler bolt, was not the only driver disqualified from the 188-lap race around the four-turn, 2.66-mile (4.281-kilometer) high-banked Lincoln, Alabama oval.
RFK Racing's Ryan Preece, who initially finished in second, was also disqualified after his No. 60 Ford was discovered to have three shims on the spoiler rather than two.
But the big loser, from a big picture standpoint, was Wood Brothers Racing's Josh Berry.
Berry, who won at Las Vegas Motor Speedway back in March, is technically not yet locked into the playoffs. He is one of six winners so far this year, and he is one of three with one win.
Drivers who win more than once are locked in, but the playoff format technically is not a "win and in" format, since there can be more than 16 different winners during the 26-race regular season. Team Penske's Austin Cindric became the season's sixth different winner on Sunday, and there are still 16 races remaining on the regular season calendar.
The 16 playoff spots go to the regular season champion, whether he is a winner or not, and the 15 drivers who rank next highest in wins. If there aren't enough winners to fill the playoff field, the tiebreaker among non-winners becomes points.
On the flip side, if there are more winners than available playoff spots, the tiebreaker to determine which single-race winners are in and which aren't also becomes points.
The three multi-race winners this season are Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell, plus Hendrick Motorsports' Kyle Larson. All of them are unsurprisingly in the top five in the point standings.
The three single-race winners are Hendrick Motorsports' William Byron, Cindric, and Berry. Byron leads the standings, while Cindric finds himself in 14th place. Berry, however, is down in 21st.
So if there do end up being more winners than playoff spots, the driver of the No. 21 Ford looks like he could be the one to end up in a bit of a precarious situation, potentially needing to out-score another single-race winner or two to ensure his playoff spot.
Of course, winning twice solves everything, and there still isn't a huge chance of there being more winners than playoff spots. But if there is anybody whose playoff chances took a slight dip as a result of Cindric emerging as the 2025 season's sixth winner on Sunday, it was Berry.
Will a seventh different winner emerge in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season's 11th race at Texas Motor Speedway? The Wurth 400 presented by Liqui Moly is set to be shown live on Fox Sports 1 beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET this Sunday, May 4. Begin a free trial of FuboTV today and don't miss any of the action!