In a race that started with Denny Hamlin leading a Joe Gibbs Racing 1-2-3-4 from pole at a track where he had won two consecutive NASCAR Cup Series races, it was Hendrick Motorsports' Kyle Larson who overcame early struggles to finish second an extend his championship lead over Hamlin, who scored no stage points and could only recover to finish 16th after a spin.
Larson took his first lead of the year after finishing second at Bristol Motor Speedway two weeks ago, one week after earning his first victory of the season at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.
He extended his lead with a perfect 76-point performance at Kansas Speedway the following weekend, and his Las Vegas resulted moved him just a little bit closer to becoming NASCAR's first back-to-back champion since Jimmie Johnson won five titles in a row from 2006 to 2010.
Larson now finds himself 40 points ahead of Hamlin, who clinched the regular season title battle over Team Penske's Ryan Blaney with one race to spare. Hamlin has fallen back after every single one of the five playoff races thus far, and six in a row if you include Daytona International Speedway's regular season finale.
He won the regular season title by 89 points over Blaney, but the predetermined values of the Chase playoff reset meant he started the postseason with a 25-point lead. That lead fell to 12 points over teammate Christopher Bell after Bell won the postseason opener at Darlington Raceway, and it dropped to nine points over Larson after Larson's Gateway win.
Larson took a one-point lead over Hamlin after the Bristol race, and he extended it to 26 with his Kansas performance. Now it's at 40, and only four other drivers are within 100.
But as we all know, there are still NASCAR fans who would have preferred NASCAR return to the season-long championship, rather than replacing the "win and in", knockout-style playoff format with the Chase setup that was used from 2004 to 2013.
What if NASCAR had gone back to full-season points?
Here is how the standings would look without the post-regular season reset. Note that only the 16 postseason drivers are included since they would still be the top 16.
NASCAR full-season Cup Series point standings
Rank | Driver | Points | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota | 1205 | 0 |
2 | Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Team Penske Ford | 1101 | -104 |
3 | Tyler Reddick, No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota | 1041 | -164 |
4 | Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota | 1040 | -165 |
5 | Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet | 997 | -208 |
6 | Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota | 971 | -234 |
7 | Chase Briscoe, No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota | 940 | -265 |
8 | Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske Ford | 921 | -284 |
9 | Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet | 838 | -367 |
10 | Bubba Wallace, No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota | 822 | -383 |
11 | Austin Cindric, No. 2 Team Penske Ford | 816 | -389 |
12 | Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet | 813 | -392 |
13 | William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet | 809 | -396 |
14 | Daniel Suarez, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet | 774 | -431 |
15 | Chris Buescher, No. 17 RFK Racing Ford | 769 | -436 |
16 | Ryan Preece, No. 60 RFK Racing Ford | 740 | -465 |
Meaningless? Sure. Fun to think about? Absolutely.
The championship battle would still be far from over; we've already seen how gaps of more than 100 points can be erased in only a few races this season. But Larson would basically need everything to go perfectly to have even a remote chance. Instead, he's in the catbird seat as the clear favorite to win his third title.
The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series postseason is halfway over, and race six of 10 is set to be shown live on USA Network from Charlotte Motor Speedway this coming Sunday, October 11. Tune in at 3:00 p.m. ET for live coverage of the Bank of America 400, which is set to be contested on the oval, not the Roval, for the first time since 2017.
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