Explaining how NASCAR drivers earn points per race

The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series regular season will begin soon with the Daytona 500 taking place next weekend, and drivers will begin their battle for points at the season's first points-paying race. Participants have an opportunity to score points at every race during the regular season to make their way to the top of the leaderboard, securing points at three different times during a race - scoring playoff points as well as regular season points.

The first two opportunities to score points come at the end of the first and second stages of the race. There are usually three stages per race (except the Coca Cola 600, which has four), and each stage begins whenever the green flag is waved, which happens at the start and whenever there's a restart after a caution period. The top-10 drivers at the end of each stage win points, starting with 10 points for the driver who finishes the stage in the lead, 9 points for second, 8 for third, and so on. Drivers' stage points are accumulated and added to the points they achieve at the end of the race.

NASCAR Cup Series races allow for 40 cars on the grid, and after they cross the finish line, the driver who has achieved race victory will score 40 points, the driver in second will score 39, the third one scores 38, and so on until the drivers in 36th to 40th place take home just one point. At the Regular Season finale at the Daytona International Speedway in the summer, the driver who has accumulated the most points will be crowned the NASCAR Regular Season Champion.

Throughout the regular season, race winners and stage winners are also awarded bonus playoff points. The race winner gets five points, and a stage winner gets one point. At the end of the regular season, the top 10 drivers are also awarded with further playoff points, with the regular season champion being awarded 15 points, the second driver getting 10, and then getting awarded on a scale of 8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1. Once the 16 drivers are decided for the Cup Series playoffs, their points are reset. However, they get to keep their playoff points as they battle it out for the NASCAR Cup Series Championship.

In the final race of the playoff season, the Championship Four are ineligible to receive any bonus points.

NASCAR announces 2025 rule to award a single bonus point

Earlier this week, NASCAR announced that they will be giving drivers another opportunity to score a singular point during races. In partnership with Xfinity, the organization will award one point to the driver who achieves the fastest lap in the race.

This rule will be instituted across all three NASCAR series, with the point only being given to the driver who is eligible to receive championship points in that series. So, a driver who is competing for the Cup Series Championship, but achieves the fastest lap in a visit to the Xfinity Series will not be eligible to receive the point at the end of the race.

The NASCAR Cup Series Regular Season will kick off on February 16 with the Daytona 500 taking place at 2:30 PM ET.