Among non-superspeedway races and non-road course races, you'd have to do a serious deep dive to find a more unexpected top three than what we saw in Sunday afternoon's NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
It was Wood Brothers Racing's Josh Berry who held off Trackhouse Racing's Daniel Suarez and RFK Racing's Ryan Preece to take his first career victory in the Pennzoil 400.
The win brought an end to Christopher Bell's three-race winning streak, preventing the Joe Gibbs Racing driver from becoming the first driver to collect four consecutive checkered flags since Jimmie Johnson did so en route to his second championship in 2007.
Between Berry, Suarez, and Preece, it was Suarez, with two wins in nine seasons, who had been the only former Cup Series race winner, and also the only one of the trio with any playoff experience.
Now Berry is a race winner as well, and for all intents and purposes, he is playoff-bound.
But as we typically do when a new winner emerges, we want to take this time to remind fans how the playoff system actually works.
Because there can be more than 16 race winners in 26 regular season races, the only driver who is technically locked into the playoffs so far this season is Bell, since he has won more than once.
The 16 playoff spots go to the regular season champion, whether he is a race winner or not, and the 15 drivers who rank next highest in wins.
There can be no more than 13 regular season multi-race winners, so winning twice at any point during the regular season locks a driver in.
But winning once doesn't mathematically do that yet.
Yes, the format is considered a "win and in" format, and that has historically been true (save for encumbered victories). But in the event that there are more winners than playoff spots, the playoff field is not expanded; it stays at 16 drivers. The tiebreaker to determine which single-race winners get in and which don't becomes points.
Even though Berry's 13th place standing in points isn't particularly strong, however, he should still feel relatively safe, thanks to the fact that he is one of only three winners through five races.
Yes, Berry's massive upset does show that anybody can win on any given weekend, thus opening up the possibility for there to be 17 or 18 or even more regular season race winners. There could technically still be as many as 24.
But the first four races were all won by Bell or Hendrick Motorsports' William Byron, two playoff regulars who have combined for four Championship 4 appearances since 2022. Byron leads the point standings through five races, ahead of Bell in second, so it's not like the 2025 season has been littered with upset winners.
As a result, it's highly unlike that Berry will end up needing to point his way in against other drivers with one win. And for all we know, he may end up with more than one win anyway, given the major statement he made on Sunday.
That said, his playoff spot is not yet a 100% mathematical certainty.
The sixth race of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season is scheduled to take place at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday, March 23. The Straight Talk Wireless 400 is set to be shown live on Fox Sports 1 beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET. Start a free trial of FuboTV and don't miss any of the action!