The 2025 NASCAR regular season is over, and the playoffs are here! Check out everything you need to know as we speed into the opening round:
2025 NASCAR Playoff Schedule
When do the NASCAR Playoffs start?
The NASCAR Playoffs open at Darlington Raceway on August 31, 2025. Check out the full schedule below:
Opening Round (Round of 16)
- Darlington (1.36-mile oval)
- World Wide Technology Raceway (commonly called Gateway, a 1.25-mile oval)
- Bristol (0.533-mile concrete oval)
Quarterfinal Spherical (Spherical of 12)
- New Hampshire (1.058-mile oval)
- Kansas (1.5-mile oval)
- Charlotte road course (2.28-mile road course)
Semifinal Spherical (Spherical of Eight)
- Las Vegas (1.5-mile oval)
- Talladega (2.5-mile high-banked superspeedway)
- Martinsville (0.528-mile oval)
Championship
Ryan Blaney on Thrilling Daytona Win & Confidence Heading Into NASCAR Playoffs
Contemporary off his dramatic win at Daytona, Ryan Blaney joins Kevin Harvick for this week’s Victory Lap. The 2 break down the ultimate laps at Daytona, how Blaney sealed the deal in one of the crucial thrilling finishes of the season, and what the victory means heading into the postseason. Blaney additionally opens up about his playoff preparation, how he’s approaching every spherical of tracks, and the mindset it takes to outlive the postseason grind.
So how do the playoffs work?
The 16-driver discipline is comprised of the regular-season champion after which 15 drivers primarily based on the variety of regular-season wins with ties damaged by factors. If there usually are not sufficient winners to fill all of the slots, winless drivers highest in factors make the sector.
Drivers earn playoff factors all through the season. They earn 5 playoff factors for a race win and one playoff level for a stage win. Playoff factors are also awarded to the highest 10 within the regular-season standings on a 15-10-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 scale.
Initially of every of the primary three playoff rounds, drivers have their factors reset — 2,000 to begin the opening spherical; 3,000 to begin the second spherical; 4,000 to begin the third spherical — plus the playoff factors they’ve earned all through the season as much as that time (together with these earned within the playoffs).
4 drivers are eradicated in every spherical nevertheless it is not simply by factors — a win in any of the three races mechanically advances a driver into the subsequent spherical. The 4 drivers winless within the spherical and lowest in factors after the three races are being knocked out of competition.
What if drivers are tied in factors on the finish of the spherical? The tiebreaker is greatest end within the spherical. If drivers have the identical greatest end, it could be the second-best end after which, if nonetheless tied, the third-best end. If drivers have the identical three finishes within the spherical, then whoever had the most effective end earliest within the spherical earns the tiebreaker.
For the championship race, every driver has factors reset to five,000 with no playoff factors added. The championship drivers don’t earn stage factors in the course of the championship race, so the best finisher within the championship race amongst these 4 drivers ends the season with essentially the most factors and is said the champion.
Drivers eradicated in the course of the playoffs have their factors reset to 2,000 plus the playoff factors earned in the course of the season besides within the spherical the place they’re eradicated plus the common factors earned within the playoff races. So any playoff driver eradicated, whatever the spherical, can end anyplace from fifth to sixteenth within the standings.
Which drivers are in? Present standings
16 drivers will compete within the 2025 NASCAR Playoffs. Listed below are the drivers so as of the present standings and cutoff line for after the opening spherical of races:
- Kyle Larson (+26)
- William Byron (+26)
- Denny Hamlin (+23)
- Ryan Blaney (+20)
- Christopher Bell (+17)
- Shane van Gisbergen (+16)
- Chase Elliott (+7)
- Chase Briscoe (+4)
- Bubba Wallace (+2)
- Austin Cindric (+2)
- Ross Chastain (+1)
- Joey Logano (+1)
- Josh Berry (−1)
- Tyler Reddick (−1)
- Austin Dillon (−2)
- Alex Bowman (−5)
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