NASCAR Cup Series winners and losers after Watkins Glen

After 90 laps of racing at the historic Watkins Glen, another weekend of NASCAR Cup Series action is in the books.

The hot favorite ahead of the race, Shane van Gisbergen duly delivered, demonstrating his road course prowess once again to take his fourth win of the 2025 campaign.

Others, as we will get on to, didn't have quite such a good day in upstate New York. Let's start with the man of the hour though, shall we?

NASCAR winners and losers after Watkins Glen

Shane van Gisbergen - Winner

No, we haven't only selected SvG because he won Sunday's race. Instead, this is all about the knock-on effects his victory has on the postseason.

The Trackhouse Racing star locked himself into the playoffs with his win in Mexico City, but given his form on ovals, he seemed like he would be a certainty to exit in the first round at the time. However, since then, van Gisbergen has dominated on road courses, winning three further races and crucially, collecting the precious playoff points that come with them.

That, combined with the fact he has shown a vast improvement on ovals of late - not winning speed by any stretch, but enough to be somewhat competitive - means he genuinely could exceed expectations.

If he can survive the Round of 16, there is a road course race at the Roval to come in the Round of 12, and when you factor in his dominance on that type of track this season, suddenly, a deep playoff run and a trip to the Round of 8 isn't beyond the realms of possibility.

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Kyle Larson - Loser

Having shown promising pace in practice on Saturday (5th), things quickly unravelled for the No. 5 team from there on out at Watkins Glen.

Despite his practice speed, Kyle Larson went on to have an unexpectedly poor qualifying session, finishing down in 26th and over seven-tenths off Ryan Blaney's pole time. Of course, the points are awarded on a Sunday, but unfortunately for Larson and his crew, things only got worse as the weekend progressed.

On lap 6, the No. 5 car suddenly went spinning into turn one, with Larson complaining of 'no brakes' over the team radio. He quickly headed down pit road and back to the garage for repairs, but by the time the No. 5 returned to the track, he was 15 laps down on the leaders.

That was how it finished in the end, too, with Larson classified 39th when the official results came in. Not exactly how he wanted to follow up a disappointing weekend at Iowa last weekend where he finished 28th.

With two races to go until the playoffs begin, Larson and the No. 5 team could really do with finding the consistency that saw them take three victories and nine top 10s in the opening 12 races. Their recent form has not been good enough if they want to contend for a championship.

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William Byron - Winner

Despite never really being in contention for the victory, it was a very solid weekend for the No. 24 crew fresh off the back of their victory at Iowa.

That win in Iowa saw William Byron regain the lead at the top of the regular season standings, and having a strong day at Watkins Glen has further cemented his place at the top, particularly with his title rivals floundering.

Heading into the race, Byron had an advantage of 18 points over Chase Elliott, with Larson in third and 45 points behind. However, the No. 9 could only finish 26th at Watkins Glen, and we've already discussed the struggles that Larson had.

As a result, Byron now tops the standings by 42 points over Chase Elliott, whilst Larson is now 85 points behind and in fifth place, with Denny Hamlin (-81) now third.

With just two regular season races to go, Byron so very nearly has his hands on the regular season championship, which all three of the Hendrick Motorsports drivers have made no secret is something they want to secure this summer.

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Kyle Busch - Loser

Kyle Busch's playoff hopes are fading evermore with every race that passes, with the Richard Childress driver now having only two rounds to get the win that he now realistically requires if he wants to make the cut.

Heading into Watkins Glen, Busch was full of optimism regarding his playoff chances, and he had good reason to be. The two-time champion is a two-time winner at the historic track in upstate New York, and repeating the success he had there earlier in his career would see him locked in.

Things were looking pretty good for the 40-year-old after qualifying, too, putting his No. 8 Chevrolet in fifth to start the race, less than two-tenths behind the pole time.

As they have so many times this season, however, things got away from Busch and his team on Sunday, eventually finishing 22nd and adding just 15 points to his total.

Pointing his way in was always going to be a massive task, but his hopes of doing so are all but mathematically over, with Chris Buescher finishing third and taking home the most points of any driver at Watkins Glen (44), resulting in Busch now being 101 points below the cut line.

The only glimmer of hope Busch has is that he has won at Richmond and Daytona previously, and he will have to rediscover some of his former magic if he is to avoid a second consecutive season not being involved in the playoffs.

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