Sunday night's Cracker Barrel 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at Nashville Superspeedway produced quite a bit of movement around the provisional playoff cut line, which was expected after so many drivers entered the second half of the regular season so close to the cutoff.
Leaving race number 14 of 26 on the regular season schedule, two drivers who had entered the 300-lap race around the four-turn, 1.333-mile (2.145-kilometer) Lebanon, Tennessee oval sitting above the playoff cut line are now on the outside looking in.
Those two drivers are Hyak Motorsports' Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who entered the race sitting 10 points above the cut line, and RFK Racing's Ryan Preece, who entered the race sitting six points above the cut line.
Nashville produces multiple NASCAR playoff picture changes
These two drivers had been slightly further ahead of the cut line, 17 and 13 points, respectively, to be exact, before a mid-week appeal reduced the 60-point penalty issued to RFK Racing's Chris Buescher after the recent race at Kansas Speedway, turning it into a 30-point penalty and making Buescher, not Kaulig Racing's A.J. Allmendinger, the first driver below the cut line.
Stenhouse was wrecked by Spire Motorsports' Carson Hocevar on Sunday, resulting in a 39th (last) place finish, while Preece himself was involved in a late incident and could only recover to finish in 28th.
Moving into the provisional playoff picture in their place were Buescher and Richard Childress Racing's Kyle Busch. Buescher finished in 14th, two spots behind Busch in 12th. They now sit eight and two points above the cutoff, respectively.
Preece is now the top driver below the playoff cut line, and he sits just two points behind Busch. Stenhouse is six points behind, but he is the third driver below it rather than the second, as Hocevar used his runner-up finish behind Team Penske's Ryan Blaney to vault himself up to just four points back.
Allmendinger is only seven points behind after entering the race 13 behind, as he was able to overcome his pre-race penalties to finish in a respectable 20th place. With him seven points back, there are a whopping six drivers within just eight points of the cutoff with 12 races remaining on the regular season calendar.
The full point standings can be found here.
Will the cut line change again in the 15th race on the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series schedule? The FireKeepers Casino 400 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.