After entering the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series regular season-ending Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway 31 points behind Trackhouse Racing's Shane van Gisbergen, RFK Racing's Ryan Preece earned his first career victory and secured the 16th and final spot in this year's "Chase" postseason field by 17 points over SVG, even after SVG won the race's first stage.
Preece didn't clinch the spot via "win and in", which made the outcome somewhat ironically funny, since it was still a walk-off victory. But he actually would have gotten in by two points over SVG even with a runner-up finish on Saturday night.
Had he just missed out on the 16th playoff spot, however, Preece would've effectively become the 17th playoff driver, as he would still have a championship to drive for.
Yes, Preece himself would have been eliminated, unable to finish higher than 17th in the point standings. But his No. 60 team would have qualified over SVG's No. 97 team, even had SVG qualified for the playoffs over Preece (by 25 or fewer points).
How NASCAR nearly had 17 Cup Series playoff drivers
In May, Preece was docked 25 points for intentionally retaliating against Ty Gibbs at Texas Motor Speedway, But that same penalty was not applied to the No. 60 team in the owner standings.
So while Preece himself needed to overcome a 31-point deficit to van Gisbergen, the No. 60 team only needed to outscore the No. 97 team by seven (rather than six, since SVG's team owned the tiebreaker with their two wins) to get the 16th and final playoff spot in the owner playoffs.
For the sake of avoiding confusion, fortunately Preece was able to erase that 31-point deficit to get into the playoffs himself, so the 16 playoff drivers are also the drivers whose teams are in the postseason.
But if it had turned out that SVG qualified for the playoffs over Preece, while Preece's No. 60 team beat out SVG's No. 97 team, it wouldn't have been the first time.
In 2022, Kurt Busch won his way into the playoffs at Kansas Speedway, but he withdrew due to injury. The No. 45 23XI Racing team, however, retained its spot in the owner playoffs. So while Ryan Blaney was the last driver in on points, his No. 12 Team Penske team failed to qualify on the owner side.
Then in 2023, Bubba Wallace got in on points over Chase Elliott, but Elliott's No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports team eliminated Wallace's No. 23 23XI Racing team, due to the points that were scored in the seven races that Elliott missed earlier in the year.
Both scenarios set up the possibility for the 17th-place team's driver to win the championship, while the 17th-place driver could still win the owner championship for his team.
There were effectively 15 drivers competing for both titles, one competing as the 16th playoff driver, and one non-playoff driver competing as the 16th eligible to win the owner title.
But thanks to Preece's win on Saturday night, coupled with SVG's disappointing 28th place finish, that will not happen this year.
USA Network is set to provide live coverage of the Cook Out Southern 500 from Darlington Raceway starting at 5:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, September 6. Don't miss the first of 10 races on the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series playoff schedule!
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