Through the first five races of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, no driver had a better worst finish than 23XI Racing's Bubba Wallace, and no driver had scored more stage points than Bubba Wallace.
It's why Wallace, despite the fact that he was without a top five finish during that five-race stretch, found himself in second place in the point standings behind teammate Tyler Reddick, who became the first driver in Cup Series history to open up a season with three consecutive victories.
But things have gone south for the driver of the No. 23 Toyota in recent weeks. He was collected in another driver's accident at Darlington Raceway and could only recover to finish 34th, and he triggered an 11-car pileup in the series' most recent race at Martinsville Speedway before the Easter break. After scoring no stage points for the first time in 2026, he left Martinsville with only a single point, courtesy of a P36 DNF.
There are now seven drivers ahead of Wallace in the point standings. However, he's officially scored in 11th, as opposed to eighth.
How does NASCAR's tiebreaker work?
Under NASCAR's new postseason format, points matter more now than they did at any point from 2014 to 2025, under the old "win and in" knockout Championship 4 setup. So while there are still 19 races remaining on the 26-race regular season calendar, and this particular tie may end up completely meaningless, it's an early indication that the subject could be worth a look.
Wallace, Hendrick Motorsports' Kyle Larson, and RFK Racing teammates Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher have all scored 206 points this season.
The tie goes to the driver with the best top finish of the group, so Keselowski is officially scored in eighth, since he placed second at Darlington. Larson is scored in ninth, since he placed third at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Wallace and Buescher both own top finishes of sixth place, with Wallace's coming at Phoenix Raceway and Buescher's coming at Las Vegas, so the second tiebreaker is simple: second best finish.
Buescher wins that tiebreaker as a result of his seventh place finish in the season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, as Wallace's next best result is only an eighth place effort at EchoPark Speedway (Atlanta Motor Speedway).
All four drivers find themselves 48 points above the playoff cut line, which is currently between Spire Motorsports teammate Daniel Suarez and Michael McDowell.
The 16 playoff spots are set to be awarded to the 16 drivers who finish the regular season in the top 16 in the point standings, regardless of whether or not they win any regular season races.
Race number eight on the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Food City 500, and it is set to be shown live on Fox Sports 1 from Bristol Motor Speedway starting at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, April 12, following the first off weekend of the season for Easter. Start a free trial of FuboTV and catch all of the action from the "Last Great Colosseum"!