NASCAR: Winners And Losers From Phoenix

Winner: Points As They Run

NBC’s “points as they run” sidebar has had some haters this season, whether it’s been drivers or fans. People like to point out that the points don’t matter until the end of the race and they wonder why they are even shown.

But today, points mattered throughout the course of the afternoon, and there were a few late-race battles stemming from separation in the standings.

The real action got going with about 50 laps to go as drivers like Matt Kenseth, Joey Logano, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin were all stacked up in the top six to seven positions. Entering the day, these drivers were separated by just a few points and that was the case all the way up until the final lap of the race.

At one point it was Kenseth and Logano in the Chase, but Busch had passed a few cars to tie up the points between him and Logano as Hamlin was running closely behind them.

In the final few laps of the race before the last caution, Kevin Harvick was all over Logano’s bumper, and if he had passed him, Logano would’ve been bumped from the Chase.

After Kenseth was wrecked the standings took a more clear-cut form and you could tell who was going to move on, but the “points at they run” served as a tool that made the race that much more exciting throughout the final laps of the race.