NASCAR disqualifications have been somewhat of a theme so far in the 2025 season across all three national series, and there have now been nine already this year, with the latest coming in this past weekend's NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Nashville Superspeedway.
Kaulig Racing's Daniel Dye originally scored his sixth top 10 finish of the year in this 188-lap race around the four-turn, 1.333-mile (2.145-kilometer) Lebanon, Tennessee oval with a ninth place finish, and he collected seven stage points as well to finish the race with 35 total points scored.
The 23-year-old DeLand, Florida native, who is in his first season as a full-time driver in the series, left Music City sitting in 13th place in the point standings and 14th in the playoff picture, just 13 points below the cut line to get into the 12-driver postseason.
But his No. 10 Chevrolet failed height checks after the race, and he was stripped of his result, demoted to 38th (last) place, and stripped of 34 of the 35 points he scored.
Dye disqualification a massive playoff blow
As a result, he is now 15th in both the standings and the playoff picture, making him the third driver below the cut line, and he sits 48 points below that cutoff with 12 races remaining on the 26-race regular season schedule.
The reason he isn't only 47 points back is because AM Racing's Harrison Burton, the 12th and final driver above the cut line, gained a point by moving up from 13th to 12th at Nashville following Dye's disqualification.
It's a significant blow for Dye, given how tight the points battle could be for those final few playoff spots. He also lost some of the momentum that he had gained back following his DNF at Charlotte Motor Speedway the week prior, which was his first DNF since the season opener at Daytona International Speedway.
Dye's best finishes of the season are seventh place finishes at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Martinsville Speedway. He also finished in seventh in last year's race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway as a part-time driver.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series has off this weekend, even though both the Cup Series and the Truck Series are scheduled to be in action at Michigan International Speedway.
The next race on the Xfinity Series schedule is the Chilango 150, which is set to be the series' first race at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez since 2008. It is set to be shown live on the CW Network beginning at 4:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, June 14. Begin a free trial of FuboTV and don't miss it!