All 16 drivers who qualified for the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series postseason with a chance to win the championship were still mathematically eligible to win this year's championship heading into Sunday's YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, the eighth of 10 races on the Chase schedule.
Just seven are still in contention.
Heading into Sunday's 188-lap race around the four-turn, 2.66-mile (4.281-kilometer) high-banked Lincoln, Alabama oval, all 15 playoff drivers other than championship leader Kyle Larson were within 211 points of Larson, and there were still 228 points maximum remaining on the table (76 per race).
With 152 points left on the table, nine of those drivers have fallen to more than 152 points behind. In fact, all nine of them are at least 183 points back, thanks to the fact that Larson collected 16 of 20 possible stage points en route to his first career superspeedway victory and the 55 points that came with it.
9 of 16 NASCAR Cup Series playoff drivers eliminated in one race
Both Joe Gibbs Racing and Team Penske saw their first drivers eliminated this season, as Ty Gibbs and Austin Cindric are tied for eighth in the standings at 183 points.
Behind them is Spire Motorsports' Carson Hocevar, who is 198 points behind in 10th. Teammate Daniel Suarez is 240 points behind in 14th.
While Larson could very well be on his way to a third title, both of the other Hendrick Motorsports playoff drivers were eliminated. William Byron is 214 points behind in 11th, and Chase Elliott is 218 points behind in 12th.
Tied with Elliott is 23XI Racing's Bubba Wallace. And that leaves us with RFK Racing's two playoff drivers: Ryan Preece and Chris Buescher. They are 249 and 255 points behind in 15th and 16th, respectively.
With a 77-point lead over whoever is in second place after this coming Sunday's race at Martinsville Speedway, Larson would clinch the championship even before the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He would also effectively clinch with a 76-point lead over whoever is in second place, provided he simply shows up to Homestead.
He would clinch with a 75-point lead over any driver who cannot match his playoff win total and thus could not beat him in a tiebreaker scenario. Larson has three postseason wins, and Chase Briscoe (-79) is the only other playoff driver with two postseason wins.
Larson also leads all playoff drivers with two runner-up finishes in the postseason; among remaining title contenders, only Christopher Bell and Ryan Blaney even have one. So he has effectively clinched the tiebreaker over anybody other than Briscoe, who would still need to win both of the season's final two races to be able to beat Larson on a tiebreaker if the two do end up tied.
Sunday afternoon's Xfinity 500 is set to be shown live on NBC from Martinsville Speedway starting at 2:00 p.m. ET. Begin a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss any of the action from the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series postseason's penultimate race!
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