NASCAR: Full 2023 point standings without playoffs

Ryan Blaney secured his first career NASCAR Cup Series championship on Sunday at Phoenix Raceway. Who finished the 2023 season with the most total points?

With a late pass for second place on Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson, Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney denied the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion his second title and claimed the 2023 crown as his own, giving Roger Penske consecutive Cup Series championships for the first time ever after Joey Logano won it last year.

In addition to Larson, Blaney beat out Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell at Phoenix Raceway to win the title. Blaney finished the race in second place while Larson finished in third, Byron finished in fourth, and Bell finished in 36th after a brake rotor failure.

Due to the playoffs and the points resets, Blaney won this year’s championship with 5,035 points, becoming the first driver of the Championship 4 era to win it with a point total other than 5,040.

All nine previous champions since the Championship 4 format was introduced in 2014 won the title by winning the season finale, but it was Trackhouse Racing Team’s Ross Chastain who won Sunday’s race at Phoenix.

But how would the final standings have looked — assuming all other things remained equal — without any playoff resets?

Byron would have been this year’s champion, marking the 12th time in 20 seasons of Cup Series playoffs in which the driver who scored the most total points did not actually become the official champion.

Blaney racked up the sixth highest point total throughout the season, while two of the top four did not even make it to the Championship 4.

2023 NASCAR Cup Series points

Rank – Driver – Points (Gap)
1 – William Byron – 1215 (0)
2 – Denny Hamlin – 1190 (-25)
3 – Christopher Bell – 1128 (-87)
4 – Martin Truex Jr. – 1119 (-96)
5 – Kyle Larson – 1116 (-99)
6 – Ryan Blaney – 1073 (-142)
7 – Brad Keselowski – 1034 (-181)
8 – Tyler Reddick – 1030 (-185)
9 – Chris Buescher – 1026 (-189)
10 – Ross Chastain – 1006 (-209)
11 – Kevin Harvick – 966 (-249)
12 – Joey Logano – 955 (-260)
13 – Kyle Busch – 941 (-274)
14 – Bubba Wallace – 900 (-315)
15 – Chase Elliott – 820 (-395)
16 – Ty Gibbs – 771 (-444)
17 – Daniel Suarez – 756 (-459)
18 – Michael McDowell – 755 (-460)
19 – Ricky Stenhouse Jr – 732 (-483)
20 – Alex Bowman – 701 (-514)
21 – A.J. Allmendinger – 692 (-523)
22 – Aric Almirola – 675 (-540)
23 – Ryan Preece – 637 (-578)
24 – Austin Cindric – 626 (-589)
25 – Corey LaJoie – 603 (-612)
26 – Justin Haley – 593 (-622)
27 – Erik Jones – 578 (-637)
28 – Todd Gilliland – 554 (-661)
29 – Austin Dillon – 545 (-670)
30 – Chase Briscoe – 534 (-681)
31 – Harrison Burton – 452 (-763)
32 – Ty Dillon – 364 (-851)

It is worth noting that Byron actually finished the season with the most total points scored at 1,198, not 1,215. However, stage points are not counted for the four Championship 4 drivers in the season finale, so the stage points that they would have scored were added to their totals.

It is also worth noting that Byron was actually docked 60 points during the regular season after a violation was discovered on his No. 24 Chevrolet at Richmond Raceway, yet he still managed to outscore everybody else.

Unfortunately for him, it doesn’t matter in the long run, as he ultimately had to settle for third place in the championship standings. Still, it was a successful season for the 25-year-old, who led all drivers with six wins after entering his sixth season with just four career victories to his name.

The 66th annual Daytona 500 is scheduled to get the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season underway on Sunday, February 18. Fox is set to provide live coverage beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET.