BRISTOL, Tenn. — The first round of the Cup Series playoffs are complete after Saturday night's tire wear race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Twelve drivers have advanced while four others have watched their championship dreams fade away.
Videos by FanBuzz
The remaining 12 drivers will now take on the next round of the playoffs, which features New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Kansas Speedway, and the Charlotte Roval elimination race.
MORE: Full Bristol Night Race results
The drivers who advanced
The second round of the playoffs will feature the following drivers: Chase Briscoe, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, Bubba Wallace, Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell, Chase Elliott, Austin Cindric, William Byron, Ross Chastain, Joey Logano, and Tyler Reddick.
The Round of 12 gained its first two members ahead of the trip to Bristol Motor Speedway. Briscoe secured his spot by winning the Southern 500 that opened the playoffs. Hamlin joined him by winning the playoff race at World Wide Technology Raceway.
Larson and Wallace advanced on points after the first stage at Bristol. Blaney then joined them after winning stage 1 and finishing second in stage 2. Bell won the elimination race and ensured that he would join teammates Hamlin and Briscoe in the Round of 12.
Larson advancing on points early greatly benefited him and the No. 5 team considering that they struggled all night. They spun and had to replace a broken toe link, they had handling issues, and damage from other incidents. Larson finished 32nd, but that did not matter in the long run.
"Just kind of fighting through it all," Larson told FanBuzz after the race. "And I don't know, just one of those nights where no decision kind of went our way, whether it was on track, behind the wheel, lane selection, pit calls.
"Just... yeah, nothing we did or didn't do was right, and we kind of paid the price for it."
Elliott had a stressful final stage at Bristol Motor Speedway. He was sent into the outside wall after John Hunter Nemechek hit him from behind. Nemechek received contact from Hamlin, but the replay did not make it clear whether this contact caused Nemechek to hit Elliott.
Big trouble for @chaseelliott!
There's major damage on the No. 9! #NASCARPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/6j93chO4Au
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) September 14, 2025
The Hendrick Motorsports driver exited the race with a 23-point cushion to the cutline and teammate Alex Bowman. He had to wait, watch, and see if any of the three remaining drivers below him pulled off a stunning upset.
None pulled off the feat, so he advanced. Elliott also gained a cushion late in the race when a fire in Cindric's No. 2 Ford dropped the Team Penske driver down the standings. Yet, both drivers advanced while avoiding a new winner.
"It's never over until it's over," Cindric told FanBuzz. "There's a good side of it and a bad side of it. It's a good thing we were able to capitalize on some of those stage points and give it some flexibility. But our car was really fast tonight, really good on the long run where it needed to be. Not that we could have predicted the conditions there.
"But, yeah, just really proud of my team for being prepared. Unfortunate what happened to the 21 (a fire), but that definitely gave us a good indication on what we're going to need to do in that scenario."
.@AustinCindric back on the track trying to hold on to his #NASCARPlayoffs points!
📺: @USANetwork pic.twitter.com/dSuLyKefUb
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) September 14, 2025
The drivers who did not advance
The four drivers who did not advance to the Round of 12 are Josh Berry, Shane van Gisbergen, Alex Bowman, and Austin Dillon.
Berry exited the race first. A fire broke out behind the right front tire in the opening stage. The Wood Brothers Racing driver had to quickly exit the car after pulling onto pit road. This marked his third consecutive DNF.
Van Gisbergen entered the elimination weekend needing to deliver a strong performance. This did not happen as he spun once after contact from Byron. He then spun a second time after contact from Ty Dillon. He dropped to three laps behind the leaders early in the final stage.
"It was pretty wild," van Gisbergen told FanBuzz. "I got run over once by a guy that was pretty average, but the rest of it, yeah, just, I don't know.
"I'm not good enough. I need to put myself in better spots and understand what was going on earlier, I guess."
Dillon's night quickly went off the rails. He was one of the first drivers to experience a tire issue. He made an early trip down pit road and received a speeding penalty. This dropped him two laps behind the leaders and then he lost more positions with another pit stop late in stage 1.
Dillon's issues continued after stage 2 ended. He received another penalty for a safety violation on pit road. He remained two laps behind the leaders and outside the top 30 as the final stage began. He only advanced as far as 28th while dealing with persistent right front tire issues.
"Our setup wasn't conducive for that," Dillon said about running long on his tires. "And then, no matter how easy I went, it was just chewing tires. You know, it sucks because... I mean, I wish we just had the ability to run as long as the other guys and we would have been okay. I tried a lot to save it, but it was just out of my hands."
Bowman put himself in position to score a win that would send him to the second round of the playoffs. He lined up on the second row for the final restart. However, he lost several positions as his No. 48 Chevrolet could not make the moves he needed. He had to settle for an eighth-place finish while failing to advance.
"I don't think you can really point at something that cost us," Bowman said. "Being out of tires at the end isn't good, right, and honestly, we just played the hand that we could and stayed out.
"But if I had to pick one thing, our cycle tire restarts were just really poor. I couldn't go at all. Zero grip. Our restarts on stickers or even when we'd put our qualifying scuffs on and stuff, it was fine, but cycle tires was really bad."
