With 304 points on the table throughout the remainder of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series regular season heading into Sunday's Iowa Corn 350 (or 300 points if you assume that all full-time drivers run all remaining races, since the last-place finisher scores at least one point), there were still 11 drivers mathematically eligible to win the regular season championship.
At 303 points behind, Spire Motorsports' Daniel Suarez was basically eliminated, and that elimination was indeed made official at Iowa, since he's now 326 points behind Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin with 228 points on the table (225 if all drivers run each race) with races at Richmond Raceway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and Daytona International Speedway remaining on the regular season calendar.
Six other drivers entered Iowa at least 248 points behind Hamlin, meaning they all needed to make up significant ground on him to stay within that 228-point threshold. Only one of them even finished ahead of the driver of the No. 11 Toyota.
7 more drivers eliminated, leaving 3 to challenge Denny Hamlin
That driver, teammate Christopher Bell, entered the race 10th in points, 277 behind Hamlin, and finished second, moving him up to sixth. But at 264 points behind, he has been mathematically eliminated from regular season title contention.
Other drivers eliminated at Iowa include teammate Chase Briscoe (-260), Hendrick Motorsports teammates Chase Elliott (-266) and Kyle Larson (-294), Spire Motorsports' Carson Hocevar (-279), and RFK Racing's Chris Buescher (-286).
The three drivers still within that 228-point window are actually all well within it, but none of them are particularly close to Hamlin. Teammate Ty Gibbs jumped up to second in points, his best position of the year, by winning Sunday's race, but he's still 103 points behind.
Team Penske's Ryan Blaney is 110 points back, while 23XI Racing's Tyler Reddick, who once led Hamlin by 129, Blaney by 162, and Gibbs by 195, continued his freefall and dropped to fourth, his worst position of the year, at 120 points behind.
Hamlin can technically clinch the regular season title as early as this coming weekend at Richmond Raceway, since there will be just 152 points up for grabs (150 if nobody misses any races) in the additional two races on the calendar before the playoffs.
The seeding for the 16-driver postseason under the new "Chase" format is based strictly on the regular season point standings, with bonus points, up to 100 for the regular season champion, issued to the top 15 drivers.
Each position from 15th to third is worth an additional five points, whereas the jump to second is worth 10 extra and the jump to first is worth 25 extra.
USA Network's live coverage of the Cook Out 400 is set to begin at 7:00 p.m. ET this Saturday, August 15, so begin a free trial of FuboTV now and catch all of the action from Richmond Raceway!
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