RFK Racing's Ryan Preece had a solid points day at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on Sunday afternoon after qualifying on the front row in Saturday afternoon's rain-shortened qualifying session.
He won stage one, though he would have been hoping for better than a 15th place finish in the 100-lap Viva Mexico 250 around the 15-turn, 2.429-mile (3.909-kilometer) road course in Mexico City, Mexico.
Still, he started the race in a 14th place tie in the point standings with Richard Childress Racing's Kyle Busch, and he broke that tie for 14th and now sits four spots ahead of Busch. However, after entering the day on the inside of the provisional 16-driver playoff picture, he now sits on the outside looking in.
Ryan Preece out of NASCAR playoff picture
Trackhouse Racing's Shane van Gisbergen won the race after entering the weekend in 33rd (out of 36 full-time drivers) in the point standings. Even with the win, he is only in 30th, but the win made him the 10th different winner through the season's first 16 races and thus vaulted him above all the non-winners in the playoff picture.
With Preece currently sitting seventh among non-winners in points scored, he finds himself in 17th in the playoff picture and thus below the cut line, ironically because of his own team's decision to appeal teammate Chris Buescher's penalty from Kansas Speedway last month.
Buescher had a 60-point penalty reduced to a 30-point penalty, and he now leads Preece by 19 points for the 16th and final spot above the playoff cut line with 10 races remaining on the 26-race regular season schedule.
Hendrick Motorsports' Alex Bowman sits just three points above Buescher, and Joe Gibbs Racing's Chase Briscoe sits just 17 points ahead of Bowman.
As for those below the cut line, Preece is 24 points clear of the next driver, that being Spire Motorsports' Michael McDowell. Two points behind McDowell is Kaulig Racing's A.J. Allmendinger, and Busch is five points behind Allmendinger.
The 17th race on the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Great American Getaway 400 presented by VISITPA, which is set to be shown live from Pocono Raceway starting at 2:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, June 22 on Amazon Prime Video. This race is the fifth and final race on Prime's portion of this year's broadcast schedule.