Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin punched his ticket to the NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4 at Phoenix Raceway for the first time since 2021 by winning the round of 8 opener at Las Vegas Motor Speedway two Sundays ago, and in doing so, he retained his spot atop the point standings.
Hamlin opened up the round of 8 atop the point standings since his 36 playoff points entering the round were the most among the remaining eight championship contenders.
Of course, points don't matter for Hamlin anymore, since he is locked into the Championship 4. In the Championship 4, the highest finisher among the four remaining championship contenders is crowned champion. Stage points don't even matter at that point.
Hamlin finished 24th in Sunday's YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, a race won by teammate Chase Briscoe, and he dropped to fourth in the standings as a result. Briscoe punched his first career Championship 4 ticket in his first season behind the wheel of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, and in doing so, he shot back to the top of the standings.
Chase Briscoe locks in, takes NASCAR points lead
Briscoe took the points lead for the first time in his career in late August when he won the playoff opener at Darlington Raceway.
The real points battle, however, is between Joe Gibbs Racing's Christopher Bell and Hendrick Motorsports' Kyle Larson in second and third place in the standings. They sit third and fourth in the playoff picture as the two drivers above the cut line on points, and sitting 37 and 36 points above the cutoff, respectively, they are both in a pretty good spot.
However, if one of the four drivers from below the cut line wins at Martinsville Speedway this coming Sunday, the battle for the fourth and final Championship 4 spot would probably come down to Bell and Larson, and they are separated by only a single point.
Currently below the cut line are Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron and Chase Elliott and Team Penske teammates Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney. Byron, Logano, and Blaney can still technically get into the Championship 4 on points, but the truth is they are probably in must-win situations like Elliott is.
The Xfinity 500 is set to be shown live on NBC from Martinsville Speedway beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, October 26. Start a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss any of the action from the round of 8 finale!