Trackhouse Racing's Ross Chastain started in 40th (last) place in Sunday night's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and he managed to work his way to the front and pass Hendrick Motorsports' William Byron, who had led 283 laps, in the closing laps before taking the checkered flag.
Chastain missed last year's Cup Series playoffs, marking his first missed postseason since joining Justin Marks' team in 2022, and his win in Sunday's 400-lap race around the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) Concord, North Carolina should theoretically be enough to get him back to playoffs in 2025.
But his spot is not yet mathematically secure.
Ross Chastain not officially locked into NASCAR playoffs
Chastain is one of eight winners so far this season, and he is one of five drivers with a single win. There are still 13 races remaining on the regular season schedule, so there can still be more than 16 winners.
The three multi-race winners, Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin and Hendrick Motorsports' Kyle Larson, are the only drivers locked into the playoffs, as the 16 playoff spots go to the regular season champion and the 15 drivers who rank next highest in wins; there can't be more than 13 multi-race winners in a 26-race regular season.
Should there be more winners than available playoff spots, which has never happened since the modern playoff format was introduced in 2014, the tiebreaker to determine which single-race winners get in and which single-race winners don't get in would become points.
Chastain is in a pretty favorable position in points among single-race winners, however, so even if the regular season ends up having more than 16 different winners, he should be fine.
Byron leads the way as the points leader, while Chastain is next behind him in eighth place. Team Penske teammates Joey Logano and Austin Cindric are in ninth and 15th, respectively, ahead of Wood Brothers Racing's Josh Berry in 16th.
So for all intents and purposes, Chastain, whose career-high championship finish of second place came after his "Hail Melon" move secured him an unlikely Championship 4 appearance in his first season with Trackhouse Racing three years ago, is back in the playoffs. It's simply not completely accurate to say that he's "locked in" yet.
The Cracker Barrel 400 is the 14th race on the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series schedule, and it is set to be shown live on Amazon Prime Video from Nashville Superspeedway beginning at 7:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, June 1.