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 Round (Round of 12)

• New Hampshire (1.058-mile oval)
• Kansas (1.5-mile oval)
• Charlotte road course (2.28-mile road course)

Semifinal Round (Round of Eight)

• Las Vegas (1.5-mile oval)
• Talladega (2.5-mile high-banked superspeedway)
• Martinsville (0.528-mile oval)

Championship

So how do the playoffs work? 

The 16-driver field is comprised of the regular-season champion and then 15 drivers based on the number of regular-season wins with ties broken by points. If there are not enough winners to fill all the slots, winless drivers highest in points make the field.

Drivers earn playoff points throughout the season. They earn five playoff points for a race win and one playoff point for a stage win. Playoff points also are awarded to the top 10 in the regular-season standings on a 15-10-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 scale.

At the start of each of the first three playoff rounds, drivers have their points reset — 2,000 to start the opening round; 3,000 to start the second round; 4,000 to start the third round — plus the playoff points they have earned throughout the season up to that point (including those earned in the playoffs).

Four drivers are eliminated in each round but it isn’t just by points — a win in any of the three races automatically advances a driver into the next round. The four drivers winless in the round and lowest in points after the three races are being knocked out of contention.

What if drivers are tied in points at the end of the round? The tiebreaker is best finish in the round. If drivers have the same best finish, it would be the second-best finish and then, if still tied, the third-best finish. If drivers have the same three finishes in the round, then whoever had the best finish earliest in the round earns the tiebreaker.

For the championship race, each driver has points reset to 5,000 with no playoff points added. The championship drivers do not earn stage points during the championship race, so the highest finisher in the championship race among those four drivers ends the season with the most points and is declared the champion.

Drivers eliminated during the playoffs have their points reset to 2,000 plus the playoff points earned during the season except in the round where they are eliminated plus the regular points earned in the playoff races. So any playoff driver eliminated, regardless of the round, can finish anywhere from fifth to 16th in the standings.

Which drivers are in? Current standings

16 drivers will compete in the 2025 NASCAR Playoffs. Here are the drivers in order of the current standings and cutoff line for after the opening round of races:

1. Kyle Larson (+26)
2. William Byron (+26)
3. Denny Hamlin (+23)
4. Ryan Blaney (+20)
5. Christopher Bell (+17)
6. Shane van Gisbergen (+16)
7. Chase Elliott (+7)
8. Chase Briscoe (+4)
9. Bubba Wallace (+2)
10. Austin Cindric (+2)
11. Ross Chastain (+1)
12. Joey Logano (+1)
13. Josh Berry (−1)
14. Tyler Reddick (−1)
15. Austin Dillon (−2)
16. Alex Bowman (−5)

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