NASCAR Cup Series playoffs: Drivers eliminated after Round of 16 finale at Bristol

The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs began with 16 drivers vying for a championship. After Saturday’s Bristol Night Race won by Christopher Bell, 12 remain.

Alex Bowman, Austin Dillon, Shane van Gisbergen, and Josh Berry have been eliminated from the playoffs. All four drivers came into the race below the cutline, and none of them did enough to advance to the Round of 12.

Berry saw his championship hopes — quite literally — go up in smoke after his No. 21 Ford caught on fire on Lap 76. Van Gisbergen and Dillon had tough nights that took them out of contention early.

It was Bowman, -35 below the cutline entering the night, who ended up having the best shot of advancing. If he wasn’t going to win the race, he needed a lot of things to fall his way to get in on points and for a while, they did. Chase Elliott crashed out and Austin Cindric‘s car caught on fire late in the race. Bowman was just a point short of Cindric for the final advance spot late in Stage 3, but he had to come down pit road for tires. At the time, he was running second.

Bowman finished eighth. Good, but not good enough to advance. Cindric finished 30th but stayed 10 points clear of Bowman for the 12th and final spot.

NASCAR Cup Series playoff standings after Bristol

Driver	Points
1. Denny Hamlin	+26
2. Kyle Larson	+24
3. William Byron	+24
4. Christopher Bell	+20
5. Ryan Blaney	+19
6. Chase Briscoe	+10
7. Chase Elliott	+5
8. Bubba Wallace	+1
9. Austin Cindric	-1
10. Ross Chastain	-2
11. Joey Logano	-2
12. Tyler Reddick	-3