NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Grid After Kansas

Chase Elliott was able to sneak around Bubba Wallace and Denny Hamlin in the final set of corners in Sunday's Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway to claim his second victory of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series campaign.

With the victory, Elliott automatically clinched himself a spot in the 'Round of 8' in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, joining Ryan Blaney, whose victory at New Hampshire also secured the No. 12 Ford Mustang team a spot in the semifinal round.

RACE RESULTS: 2025 NCS Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas

Nine of the 12 drivers currently still alive in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs recorded top-11 finishes on the afternoon at Kansas Speedway, leaving very little separation between the highest and lowest scoring drivers in the middle race of the Round of 12.

In the end, things were just as they began -- with the three drivers from Team Penske being the worst finishing of the post-season drivers. As it turns out, things didn't improve from Saturday to Sunday. Both Austin Cindric and Joey Logano sustained damage in a wreck at Lap 218.

Austin Cindric, driver of the No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang, suffered extensive damage from the incident and stayed in the pits for an extended period of time to fix the damage, resulting in an off-the-pace vehicle and a finish four laps down in 30th.

Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney, on the other hand, weren't critically damage, but just found themselves with minor damage, which left them slow enough to finish in 21st and 24th, respectively.

Leaving Kansas and heading to Charlotte Motor Speedway's ROVAL, Kyle Larson is in the best shape of those that haven't guaranteed their spot into the next round, sitting 54 points above the cutline. Denny Hamlin (+48), Christopher Bell (+44), and William Byron (+44) also have solid margins to the cutline.

Back around seventh on the Playoff Grid is where things start to get a little bit sketchy. Despite not finishing outside the top-10 during the Playoffs, Chase Briscoe enters the second elimination event of the post-season with a 21-point gap over the cutline.

Joey Logano, after a near-miss last weekend at New Hampshire, now only sits 13 points above the cutline, with the chaos left to be faced at the purpose-built road course in Charlotte, North Carolina. Ross Chastain is on the negative side of the cutline, and is realisitcally the onyl driver who could find himself in the post-season on points -- barring some ridiculous rally.

Tyler Reddick (-26), Bubba Wallace (-29), and Austin Cindric (-48) are in a little bit more of a precarious position heading to next weekend's Bank of America ROVAL 400.