Ryan Blaney earned his first win of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season in the season's 14th race on Sunday night at Nashville Superspeedway, making him the ninth different winner so far this season.
Blaney held off Spire Motorsports' Carson Hocevar, who matched his career-high with a second place finish, to win the 300-lap Cracker Barrel 400 around the four-turn, 1.333-mile (2.145-kilometer) Lebanon, Tennessee oval.
With 12 races remaining on the 26-race regular season schedule, there can technically still be more than 16 different winners before the playoffs get underway, in which case not all winners would advance to the four-round, 10-race postseason.
The 16 playoff spots go to the regular season champion, all multi-race winners, and remaining single-race winners. If there are more winners than available playoff spots, a points tiebreaker is used to determine which single-race winners are in and which aren't. If there aren't enough winners to fill the spots, points simply determine which non-winners get the remaining spots.
So with one win, Blaney technically isn't yet locked into the playoffs like Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell, as well as Hendrick Motorsports' Kyle Larson, are.
Ryan Blaney not locked into NASCAR playoffs, but he might as well be
The good news for the driver of the No. 12 is that, while his playoff spot technically isn't yet mathematically guaranteed, it's about a 99.99% likelihood, if not greater.
Blaney ranks second among the six single-race winners in the point standings, as he sits in seventh place in points following his win. He trails only points leader William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports in this category.
Fellow single-race winners include Team Penske teammates Joey Logano and Austin Cindric, who are eighth and 13th, respectively, Trackhouse Racing's Ross Chastain, who sits ninth, and Wood Brothers Racing's Josh Berry, who sits in 20th.
Of the full-time drivers who have not yet won this year, nine found victory last year, so there is still a legitimate chance that the regular season concludes with more than 16 winners, even though it hasn't happened since the modern playoff format was introduced in 2014.
But Blaney is in a strong enough points position that, even with as many as 21 different winners, he should have nothing to worry about.
Race number 15 on the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the FireKeepers Casino 400, which is set to be shown live on Amazon Prime Video from Michigan International Speedway beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, June 8.