It took only three races into the 10-race NASCAR Cup Series "Chase" postseason for a new points leader to emerge, with regular season champion Denny Hamlin having been unseated on Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway.
It's reigning series champion Kyle Larson who now leads the way, after getting the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet back to victory lane for the first time in 52 races two weekends ago at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway and backing that up with a runner-up at Bristol.
Unsurprisingly, Larson leads all drivers in total points scored when you look just at the three playoff races that have been run so far, with Team Penske's Joey Logano not far behind after winning at Bristol.
Because of the 15 bonus points that are now awarded to winners (compared to 2025), to make up for the removal of "win and in", it's also no surprise that Joe Gibbs Racing's Christopher Bell, who won the playoff opener at Darlington Raceway, is third.
Interestingly though, those three would all be in the top three under the old scoring format also. Between them, they have been incredibly consistent, recording just one finish outside of the top nine this postseason.
There are, however, a few surprises. Despite having not yet placed higher than eighth in a postseason race this year, Hamlin is fourth, thanks to the 29 stage points he has collected. Without them, he'd be outside of the top 10, and he would be a lot further than one point behind Larson in the actual standings.
And now the series is set to visit three straight 1.5-mile ovals, where he is expected to be the man to beat. It's no surprise that, despite having gone more than three months without a win, and having just lost the points lead for the first time since late June, he is still the favorite to win the title.
Additionally, Wood Brothers Racing's Josh Berry, who did not qualify for the postseason, is eighth, with his late regular season hot streak having continued into the playoffs. He is the only non-playoff driver in the top 12.
Among the 16 playoff drivers, Hendrick Motorsports' Chase Elliott and Spire Motorsports' Daniel Suarez are bringing up the rear, with Elliott 24th and Suarez tied for 25th. For what it's worth, under the old "win and in" format, they would have both been eliminated after Bristol, since the Bass Pro Shops Race would have been the round of 16/round of 12 cutoff race.
NASCAR Cup Series points scored during the postseason
Note that all drivers competing full-time, including Austin Hill (who is not actually points eligible), are included. Playoff drivers are in bold.
Rank | Driver | Points |
|---|---|---|
1 | Kyle Larson | 161 |
2 | Joey Logano | 155 |
3 | Christopher Bell | 139 |
4 | Denny Hamlin | 105 |
5 | Ty Gibbs | 104 |
6 | Bubba Wallace | 104 |
7 | Carson Hocevar | 101 |
8 | Josh Berry | 87 |
9 | Austin Cindric | 85 |
10 | Ryan Preece | 82 |
11 | Tyler Reddick | 80 |
12 | Ryan Blaney | 79 |
13 | Ross Chastain | 74 |
14 | Brad Keselowski | 72 |
15 | William Byron | 70 |
16 | Alex Bowman | 65 |
17 | Chase Briscoe | 64 |
18 | Austin Dillon | 59 |
19 | Michael McDowell | 53 |
20 | Chris Buescher | 52 |
21 | Todd Gilliland | 52 |
22 | Erik Jones | 51 |
23 | A.J. Allmendinger | 51 |
24 | Chase Elliott | 49 |
25 | Daniel Suarez | 47 |
26 | John Hunter Nemechek | 47 |
27 | Connor Zilisch | 46 |
28 | Shane van Gisbergen | 42 |
29 | Cole Custer | 41 |
30 | Austin Hill | 33 |
31 | Noah Gragson | 30 |
32 | Zane Smith | 22 |
33 | Cody Ware | 22 |
34 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 20 |
35 | Ty Dillon | 14 |
36 | Riley Herbst | 13 |
These are basically what the standings would look like (minus the non-playoff drivers) if NASCAR actually did a total reset following the regular season.
The real standings are simply calculated by adding the totals below to the predetermined bonus point values assigned to each of the 16 playoff drivers post-regular season, based strictly on the regular season standings. None of those 16 drivers are eliminated with seven races remaining on the 2026 schedule.
And nobody can be eliminated this weekend at Kansas Speedway (or even next weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway) either. Tune in to USA Network this Sunday, September 27 at 3:00 p.m. ET for the live broadcast of the Hollywood Casino 400 from Kansas.
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