Team Penske's Ryan Blaney and Hendrick Motorsports' Chase Elliott made contact coming to the checkered flag in Sunday night's Cracker Barrel 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at Nashville Superspeedway, resulting in 23XI Racing's Tyler Reddick being sent head-on into the outside wall.
Those three drivers crossed the finish line alongside Trackhouse Racing's Shane van Gisbergen. Elliott was scored fifth, with Reddick in sixth, SVG in seventh, and Blaney in eighth.
Upon further review, NASCAR swapped Elliott and SVG, moving SVG into an oval career-high fifth place and dropping Elliott to seventh. Reddick remained sixth, even with a demolished race car, while Blaney remained eighth.
It's not the first time that NASCAR has changed the results of a race after the checkered flag this season, and it's why the initial results that flash on your screen, or even those shown on the NASCAR website, are considered unofficial until the official report is released a little bit later on.
This one, however, had an immediate direct impact on the standings.
Elliott stayed fourth, albeit now 197 points out of the lead rather than 195 – and 156 points above the playoff cut line rather than 158. But SVG moved up a full spot.
He was 13th, 42 points above the cut line, but the results change moved him ahead of RFK Racing's Brad Keselowski for 12th, 44 points ahead. Keselowski is 43 points to the good.
Under the new NASCAR postseason format, points for the top 16 drivers are set to be reset after the 26-race regular season, ahead of the 10-race "Chase", and the new point values are predetermined, based on where each driver finishes in the regular season standings; there are no more playoff points for wins or stage wins.
The 12th place driver in the regular season is set to begin the playoffs with 2,020 points, 80 shy of the leader. The 13th place driver is set to start with 2,015.
A full list of values was confirmed before the 2026 season started, when NASCAR announced their decision to do away with the old "win and in" format that had been used from 2014 to 2025.
So not only does every point matter when it comes to getting into the playoffs, but every point matters when it comes to the points with which each driver starts the postseason.
And the difference between positions to start the postseason could ultimately be what determines who wins the championship.
The 15th race on the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series regular season schedule is the FireKeepers Casino 400, which is set to be shown live on Amazon Prime Video from Michigan International Speedway beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, June 7.
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