NASCAR has a new Cup Series points leader

The NASCAR Cup Series has a new points leader after the 2022 season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway.

Team Penske’s Austin Cindric took the checkered flag ahead of 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace by 0.036 seconds to win the 64th annual Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway to open up the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season.

Cindric replaced Brad Keselowski behind the wheel of the #2 Ford ahead of the 2022 season after Keselowski had spent the last 12 years driving full-time for Roger Penske’s team, and after Keselowski went 0 for 12 for the Captain on NASCAR’s biggest stage, Cindric is now 1 for 1 as a full-time driver.

While this wasn’t actually his first Daytona 500 attempt, as Team Penske added a fourth entry, the #33 Ford, for Cindric for last year’s running of the “Great American Race”, this was the 23-year-old Columbus, Ohio native’s first start as a full-time Cup Series driver.

And after race number one as a championship-eligible Cup driver, Cindric is the points leader.

This is actually not a guarantee in this day and age of NASCAR racing, due to all of the points from not only the race finish but the first two stage finishes and Thursday night’s Bluegreen Vacations Duels.

In fact, the Daytona 500 winner hadn’t led the standings after the race since Denny Hamlin won it in 2020, as Michael McDowell was not the points leader after winning last year’s race.

With all of those points factored in, Cindric is technically tied atop the standings with none other than the driver he replaced.

Interestingly, the points leader after last year’s Daytona 500 was Austin Dillon, who went on to fail to qualify for the playoffs. But Cindric actually won this year’s race, effectively solidifying himself a playoff berth.

Here are the full NASCAR Cup Series championship standings after the 2022 season opener.

Rank – Driver – Points (Behind)
1 – Austin Cindric – 54 (0)
1 – Brad Keselowski – 54 (0)
3 – Martin Truex Jr. – 49 (-5)
4 – Bubba Wallace – 47 (-7)
5 – Chase Briscoe – 41 (-13)
5 – Ryan Blaney – 41 (-13)
7 – Michael McDowell – 39 (-15)
8 – Kyle Busch – 38 (-16)
9 – Chris Buescher – 35 (-19)
10 – Chase Elliott – 34 (-20)
11 – Joey Logano – 33 (-21)
12 – Aric Almirola – 32 (-22)
13 – David Ragan – 29 (-25)
14 – Ty Dillon – 26 (-28)
15 – Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – 25 (-29)
16 – Kurt Busch – 24 (-30)
17 – Corey LaJoie – 23 (-31)
18 – Cody Ware – 20 (-34)
19 – Daniel Suarez – 19 (-35)
20 – Cole Custer – 17 (-37)
20 – Austin Dillon – 17 (-37)
22 – Erik Jones – 16 (-38)
23 – Jacques Villeneuve – 15 (-39)
24 – Justin Haley – 14 (-40)
25 – Alex Bowman – 13 (-41)
25 – Kyle Larson – 13 (-41)
25 – Todd Gilliland – 13 (-41)
28 – Kevin Harvick – 11 (-43)
29 – B.J. McLeod – 10 (-44)
30 – Christopher Bell – 9 (-45)
30 – Harrison Burton – 9 (-45)
32 – Tyler Reddick – 5 (-49)
33 – Ross Chastain – 2 (-52)
34 – Denny Hamlin – 1 (-53)
34 – William Byron – 1 (-53)

Five drivers who competed in the Daytona 500 are not eligible to score Cup Series points: Kaulig Racing’s Daniel Hemric, Spire Motorsports’ Landon Cassill, The Money Team Racing’s Kaz Grala, Beard Motorsports’ Noah Gragson and NY Racing Team’s Greg Biffle. They finished in 12th, 15th, 26th, 31st and 36th place, respectively.

The next race on the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the WISE Power 400, which is set to be broadcast live on Fox from Auto Club Speedway beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, February 27. If you have not yet begun your free trial of FuboTV, do so now!