The regular season now complete, the NASCAR Cup Series standings have a new look ahead of the Cup Series playoffs.
Rather than the standings being based on stage points and traditional race points as they’ve been all season, the top 16 positions are now a reflection of playoff points — which drivers can earn in four ways. One is by winning a race. Another is by winning a stage. Another is by recording the fastest lap in a race. And the last is by finishing in the top 10 of the regular season standings.
Every driver who’s in the top 16 of the standings now has a revised baseline point total of 2,000 points, plus the playoff points they earned in the regular season.
Here’s a quick breakdown of the new top 16, which consists exclusively of the 16 playoff drivers and will continue to do so for the remainder of the 2025 season.
Hendrick Boys Lead The Way In Cup Series Playoff Standings
As the NASCAR Cup Series prepares to head to Darlington Raceway this weekend for Race No. 1 of 3 in the Cup Series Playoffs’ Round of 16, Kyle Larson and William Byron are in an enviable position.
After accruing the exact same number of playoff points — 32 — in the regular season, the Hendrick Motorsports teammates are tied atop the standings.
Next in line, and only three points behind Larson and Byron, is Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, who has sole possession of third-place.
Three points behind Hamlin and six behind the leaders is Ryan Blaney, the winner of Saturday night’s regular season finale at Daytona International Speedway. Rounding out the top five, and nine points in arrears of the co-points leaders, is Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell.
For all practical matters, the drivers who make up the new top five in points — Larson, Byron, Hamlin, Blaney and Bell — represent the top tier of championship contenders. That’s because they’re the only drivers, other than sixth-place Shane van Gisbergen, who won multiple races in the regular season.
Drivers Outside Of Top 5 Face An Uphill Climb In The Playoffs
As for Shane van Gisbergen, he trails Kyle Larson and William Byron by only 10 points, having won four regular season races. But van Gisbergen being so high in the standings comes with a bit of an asterisk, since he collected all four of his wins — and all 22 of his playoff points — at road courses.
Given that van Gisbergen struggles at ovals and the playoffs feature only one road course, which doesn’t come until the Round of 12, the New Zealander is unlikely to advance beyond the Round of 16.
Nine points back of van Gisbergen but much more likely to survive the opening three-race round is NASCAR’s perennial Most Popular Driver, Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports. Elliott, who owns one points win on the season, is three points ahead of the other Chase — Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe. Bubba Wallace and Austin Cindric, who, like Elliott and Briscoe, scored a single win in the regular season, are tied for 10th and just two points behind Briscoe.
Holding down positions 11-16, respectively, are Ross Chastain, reigning and three-time Cup Series champion Joey Logano, Josh Berry, Tyler Reddick, Austin Dillon and Alex Bowman. Of those final six, Reddick and Bowman are winless in 2025 and qualified for the playoffs based on their regular season point total. Chastain, Logano, Berry and Dillon each notched a lone victory in the regular season.
Bowman, the last driver to clinch a playoff berth, is just 30 points out of first. But he, Berry, Reddick and Dillon start the playoffs on the wrong side of the cutline for advancing to the Round of 12. That could quickly change, however, since a win by any playoff driver in any of the three races in this round automatically advances that driver to the next round.
