INDIANAPOLIS -- Bubba Wallace soaked up the moment after winning the biggest race of his career on Sunday night, but all of this season's winless drivers only felt the pressure increase. Only three spots remain in the 16-driver playoff field.
Heading into the weekend, Wallace was the final driver in the playoffs by virtue of points. He had a lead over RFK Racing's Ryan Preece while he trailed Tyler Reddick, Alex Bowman, and Chris Buescher.
Now, however, Wallace is ahead of Reddick, Bowman, and Buescher. He has a secure spot in the playoffs while they currently hold the final three playoff spots on points.
Reddick is now 138 points above the cutline with four races remaining in the regular season. Bowman is 63 points to the good while Buescher is 42 points above the cutline. Preece, who finished fourth in Sunday's race, actually fell further below the cutline. He is now 42 points back of a playoff spot.
Plenty of great runs up and down the field.
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The pressure also increased for the drivers trailing Preece in points. This includes two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Busch, who is now 81 points out of a playoff spot after limping a damaged car to a 25th-place finish. Busch was one of the many drivers involved in a restart stack-up at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
"We did the best we could with a tough situation today," Busch said after the race. "We could fire off strong for the first five laps in our zone Chevrolet, then started to lose grip. Thought we would be okay and ran in the top six for the beginning of the race.
"The field got bunched together on a restart and we ended up with damage that ruined our chances of a decent day. Had we executed the way we needed to execute, we would have been there, but we will keep working together to get to where we need to be."
Ty Gibbs, the driver who won the in-season challenge, is behind both Preece and Busch in the Cup Series standings. He is 95 points below the cutline after making the playoffs last season.
The good news for all of the drivers within close proximity to the playoff cutline is that four races remain in the regular season schedule. These take place at Iowa Speedway, Watkins Glen International, Richmond Raceway, and Daytona International Speedway.
The potentially bad news is that multiple races could feature a wild card winner. After all, Austin Dillon would have upset the playoff field with his Richmond win last season if not for a penalty. Harrison Burton also eliminated numerous drivers from contention last season when he won at Daytona from well below the cutline.