Because of the fact that a total of 55 points were handed out in each of the two America 250 Florida Duel qualifying races ahead of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, as well as in both the first and second stages of the "Great American Race", the point standings don't completely match up with Sunday's Daytona 500 results.
And with points and points alone set to determine this year's 16-driver playoff field, or 16-driver "Chase" field, following an offseason format change that saw NASCAR abolish the old "win and in" knockout playoff system that had been utilized since 2014, that's a very important thing to note.
Daytona 500 winner Tyler Reddick is indeed the points leader, although that's actually only the case because of the fact that NASCAR compensated for the removal of the "win and in" system by making wins worth 55 points instead of 40, while leaving all other point values unaltered.
As a result, the 23XI Racing driver owns a 12-point lead over Team Penske's Joey Logano. Even with a third place finish on Sunday, Logano would have had a three-point lead over both Reddick and Hendrick Motorsports' Chase Elliott, under the former points format.
One of the major yet perhaps underappreciated positives of the changes NASCAR made to the playoff format was the return of simplicity. With the top 16 drivers in points set to qualify for the playoffs, all you need to do is look at the top 16 to see who'd be in – and below the top 16 to see who'd be out – on any given day.
Additionally, playoff points were removed; there are no more five-point playoff point bonuses for race wins or one-point playoff point bonuses for stage wins.
So the only bonuses awarded set to be awarded to each playoff driver after the 26-race regular season, before the start of the 10-race postseason, are predetermined points bonuses, again based strictly on positioning in the regular season standings. Beyond that, the only points set to matter are points earned in those 10 playoff races.
Here's a look at the playoff picture after the Daytona 500.
NASCAR playoff picture after Daytona 500
Rank | Driver | Projected points |
|---|---|---|
1 | Tyler Reddick | 2100 |
2 | Joey Logano | 2075 |
3 | Chase Elliott | 2065 |
4 | Zane Smith | 2060 |
5 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 2055 |
6 | Brad Keselowski | 2050 |
7 | Chris Buescher | 2045 |
8 | Bubba Wallace | 2040 |
9 | Carson Hocevar | 2035 |
10 | Ryan Blaney | 2030 |
11 | Riley Herbst | 2025 |
12 | Daniel Suarez | 2020 |
13 | Josh Berry | 2015 |
14 | Kyle Busch | 2010 |
15 | Kyle Larson | 2005 |
16 | Noah Gragson | 2000 |
NOTE: All point values shown are based on the pre-playoff bonuses awarded to each driver. Regular season points ties were broken by best finish to determine this order.
Race number two of the 26-race 2026 NASCAR Cup Series regular season schedule is the Autotrader 400, which is set to be shown live on Fox from EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway) beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, February 22. Start a free trial of FuboTV today and catch all of the action!