With Sam Mayer winning at Iowa Speedway, one fewer playoff spot is available. Yet, this was far from the only change after a race that altered the Xfinity Series standings.
Mayer, who scored the first win for Haas Factory Team, did not move up or down in the standings. He remains third overall. However, he became the eighth driver to lock himself into the playoffs with a win. Now, only four spots remain with four races remaining in the regular season.
While Mayer scored another Xfinity Series win, Connor Zilisch made yet another move up the leaderboard. The rookie, who leads the series with five wins, added another playoff point by winning a stage before finishing fourth.
Zilisch moved into a tie with Justin Allgaier for the points lead and put himself in position to win the regular-season championship.
Zilisch now has 30 playoff points on the season. This is the most in the series and eight more than Allgaier (22). No other driver has more than eight playoff points after NASCAR suspended Austin Hill for a wreck at Indianapolis and took away his 21 playoff points.
The intrigue at the top of the Xfinity Series standings only increased after Iowa, but the biggest change took place down at the playoff cutline.
Harrison Burton, who entered the weekend 10 points out of a playoff spot, jumped above the cutline with his second-best result of the season. He scored five stage points and finished fifth in the race, which helped him jump to 17 points above the cutline.
"For our team, such a great race," Burton said. "Great execution and just unloading (from the truck) fast. A big sign for our team to unload and be second fast in practice. We fired off really well in the race. I could unleash at the beginning of the run.
"I would just fall off too tight. That was our trend all day. Luckily, we got some cautions so I could be aggressive at the end. A huge thanks to Morton Buildings, DEX Imaging, Dead-On Tools, Ford Performance and just everyone that is on this team."
Meanwhile, Jeb Burton finished the race in 29th place on a day when the entire Jordan Anderson Racing roster struggled. He lost three spots in the standings, which put him below the cutline for the first time. Jeb is now 19 points behind his cousin and two points behind Ryan Sieg.
The battle for the final playoff spot will only continue during the final four races as the standings continue to change. The locations of these races will only add to the intrigue considering that the drivers take on Watkins Glen (road course), Daytona (superspeedway) Portland (road course), and Gateway (intermediate).
Oh, and Gateway hosting the regular-season finale is an extra twist considering that Xfinity Series teams haven't competed at the track since 2010.