Three surprise playoff contenders in the NASCAR Cup Series

The second half of the Cup Series regular season is in full swing following Ryan Blaney's win at Nashville Superspeedway. 

Only 12 races remain until the playoffs begin, starting with this Sunday's stop at Michigan International Speedway (2 p.m. ET, Prime Video, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

As the summer grind gets set to pick up and the playoffs draw near, here are three drivers who have surprised and find themselves in playoff contention.

Ryan Preece, No. 60 RFK Racing Ford

Preece is having a career year during his first season at RFK Racing. He currently finds himself two points behind Kyle Busch for the final playoff spot. 

His five top-10s this season are already tied for the most he has had in any of his prior full-time seasons, highlighted by his season-best third-place finish at Las Vegas in March. 

Being as close as he is to the cut line, it is hard to ignore his the spoiler violation that disqualified his No. 60 Mustang from a runner-up finish at Talladega earlier this season. As the season rolls on, time will tell if that costly penalty comes back to haunt Preece and his RFK Racing team.

Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet

Good luck finding a driver who has been in the spotlight more than Hocevar lately. Despite all the talk surrounding his latest aggressive move at Nashville, Hocevar is 18th in the playoff standings, four points below the cutline in his second full-time season as a Cup Series driver.

With his first career pole at Texas and a pair of runner-up finishes at Atlanta and Nashville, Hocevar has certainly not lacked any speed this season. He was also running up front in the Coca-Cola 600 before his engine expired as the final stage got underway.

Hocevar would be even higher in the standings if not for his four DNFs. If he can put himself in better positions throughout each race and continue to run up front, Hocevar may not have to rely on points to make the playoffs and instead lock himself in with his first career win.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet

Stenhouse was on the other end of the incident with Hocevar at Nashville, resulting in his first DNF of the season and a disappointing 39th-place result. Even with the early exit from Music City, Stenhouse's consistency this season still has him 19th in the standings, only six points outside the playoff field.

Two top-10s in 14 races do not fly off the page, but 11 top-20 finishes show a driver who has taken care of his stuff and overachieved in lesser equipment. His 18.4 average finish is on pace to be the third-best in his 13-year career, only behind 2023 (17.8) and his two-win 2017 season (17.1).

Until his last-place finish at Nashville, Stenhouse had not posted a finish worse than 25th (Darlington). With fewer resources and less horsepower underneath him, those are the type of results he is going to need to contend for a playoff spot as the regular season moves along.