When NASCAR on USA (NBC) first aired the post-race NASCAR Cup Series championship standings following Sunday's YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, there were a few notable discrepancies compared to the actual point standings.
They listed Joe Gibbs Racing's Chase Briscoe as 77 points behind championship leader Kyle Larson in fourth; he's really 79 points behind. And they listed Team Penske's Joey Logano 97 points behind in fifth; he's really 100 points behind.
It's not uncommon for NASCAR to adjust the results of a race after the checkered flag, especially on a superspeedway, when there tend to be guys wrecking across the line and photo finishes for quite a few positions, even the seemingly insignificant ones, throughout the field.
But that wasn't the case here.
The unofficial results were all confirmed with no changes. Briscoe is indeed fourth at 79 points behind, and Logano is indeed fifth at 100 points behind. We're not sure why the graphic said what it said.
For what it's worth, Larson was not awarded the fastest lap point; that went to Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott, who is in a 12th place tie with 23XI Racing's Bubba Wallace, eliminated from championship contention at 218 points behind Larson with just 152 points still up for grabs between now and the end of the season.
So it's not as if the driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet was given an unaccounted-for extra point (or multiple points) that would have caused the standings to shift.
This was simply an instance of the post-race graphic being wrong, but that too can be forgiven since those results are quite literally always aired as "unofficial".
Nevertheless, here's how the official standings look after playoff race number eight of 10 on the 2026 postseason schedule.
NASCAR Cup Series standings after Talladega
Rank | Driver | Points | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet | 2441 | 0 |
2 | Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota | 2368 | -73 |
3 | Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota | 2367 | -74 |
4 | Chase Briscoe, No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota | 2362 | -79 |
5 | Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske Ford | 2341 | -100 |
6 | Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Team Penske Ford | 2334 | -107 |
7 | Tyler Reddick, No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota | 2315 | -126 |
8 | Austin Cindric, No. 2 Team Penske Ford | 2258 | -183 |
9 | Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota | 2258 | -183 |
10 | Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet | 2243 | -198 |
11 | William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet | 2227 | -214 |
12 | Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet | 2223 | -218 |
13 | Bubba Wallace, No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota | 2223 | -218 |
14 | Daniel Suarez, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet | 2201 | -240 |
15 | Ryan Preece, No. 60 RFK Racing Ford | 2192 | -249 |
16 | Chris Buescher, No. 17 RFK Racing Ford | 2186 | -255 |
This coming Sunday's Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway is set to be shown live on NBC beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET. Begin a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss any of the action from the shortest track on the postseason schedule!
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