Ask any average NASCAR fan who the poster child for abolishing the "win and in" nature of the playoff format would have been in 2025, and the answer would have been Shane van Gisbergen nine times out of 10, with the dissent likely coming from the obligatory Austin Dillon hater of the group.
Van Gisbergen tied for the regular season lead in victories with four, but all four wins came in consecutive road or street course races. His oval results left a lot to be desired, and the fact that he was still only 25th in the regular season standings despite winning that many races led fans to call for a change.
NASCAR fans got their wish with a major format change for 2026, but even if the 2026 format had been in place for the 2025 season, SVG still would have made the playoffs, or the "Chase"; whatever you want to call it.
Yep, SVG still would have made the NASCAR playoffs.
One of the balances NASCAR needed to strike when introducing a new format pertained directly to how much winning should matter. Yes, the "win and in" concept needed to go, but wins still needed to be weighted a lot more than they were.
Otherwise, there was literally more incentive to run around mid-pack staying out of trouble collecting points than there was to actually challenge for victories.
So NASCAR made wins worth 55 points instead of 40, while leaving all other point totals the same.
Van Gisbergen finished the regular season with 485 points. If you add 15 points per win, that would have put him at 545. It would have shot him all the way up from 25th to 16th place in the standings, and because points and points alone are the determining factor for who qualifies for the new 16-driver Chase, he would have gotten in.
Funny how that works.
The only two playoff drivers from 2025 who would not have made it are Dillon and Josh Berry, who each won one race but finished outside of the top 20 in regular season points. RFK Racing teammates Chris Buescher and Ryan Preece, who missed out despite finishes of 11th and 14th during the regular season, would have made it.
Because of SVG's jump, 16th place finisher Ty Gibbs would have dropped to 17th and still missed out with 543 points, two shy of van Gisbergen's would-be total.
Aside from van Gisbergen's road course prowess, which of course included a fifth straight victory in the actual playoffs, we also cannot ignore just how much he improved on ovals throughout the year, either. He finished in the top 14 in three of the season's final four oval races after having recorded just two top 15 finishes on ovals up to that point in the year.
Sure, he will likely still need to rely on the points bonuses from winning road course races to have a shot to qualify for the Chase, but if he can do that again, even with fewer road course races on the regular season schedule, don't write him off as the automatic last place playoff driver, even with no more road course races left on the postseason schedule.
Fox is set to provide live coverage of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season's second race, the Autotrader 400, from EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway) starting at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, February 22. Catch all of the action with a free trial of FuboTV!