NASCAR has a new points leader after Las Vegas, and it's not Joey Logano

Hendrick Motorsports' Kyle Larson has started every round of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs as the points leader, thanks to the points resets that come before each round and the fact that he leads the series in playoff points this year.

Yet after disappointing results in the round of 16 opener, the round of 12 opener, and now the round of 8 opener, the driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet has lost the points lead each time.

Larson finished in an underwhelming 11th place and scored just a single stage point in Sunday afternoon's 267-lap South Point 400 around the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but his lead over the Championship 4 cut line actually grew from 33 points to 35 points.

However, a 20-point lead in the standings has become a seven-point deficit.

Runner-up Christopher Bell of Joe Gibbs Racing is the new points leader heading into this coming weekend's race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, a race he won last year to become the only driver to make it to the Championship 4 in both 2022 and 2023. He owns a 42-point lead over the cut line.

Team Penske's Joey Logano, who started Sunday's race as the eighth of eight remaining championship contenders in the standings, saved enough fuel and kept a fast enough pace to win and punch his ticket to the Championship 4. He beat Bell by just 0.662 seconds.

Logano moved to fourth place in the point standings with the win, but he is the de facto leader of the playoff picture now, having already advanced to the winner-take-all final round at Phoenix Raceway.

For the four Championship 4 drivers, points are no longer relevant in this round; they all start with 5,000 points, irrespective of their playoff point totals, and cannot score stage points in it. It's quite simple: the highest finisher of the four in the season finale wins the championship.

So the playoff cut line is between the third and fifth place driver in points, since the third place driver, Hendrick Motorsports' William Byron, is actually the fourth and final driver above the cut line. He has a 27-point lead over Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin for that fourth spot.

Homestead-Miami Speedway is scheduled to host the middle race of the round of 8, the Straight Talk Wireless 400, this Sunday, October 27. Live coverage is set to be provided by NBC beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET. Start a free trial of FuboTV and don't miss it!