Chase
Elliott came on strong late Monday to earn his first win of 2022 and his first NASCAR Cup Series oval win in 17 months. That allowed him to expand his lead to 50 points over Ryan Blaney. Blaney won stage two, then got stuck in traffic and his handling went south. He ended up three laps down in 26th at the finish. William Byron charged forward with his backup car Sunday before the rain came, but ran into
problems late and finished 22nd. That put him in a tie for third with Kyle Busch. Busch led the most laps (103), but finished seventh.
Alex Bowman had the best car
on long runs Monday, but got himself too far behind to contend. A fifth-place finish keeps him in fifth. Ross Chastain's third-place finish moved him up three places to sixth. Martin Truex Jr. is up one place to seventh despite a crash on the final lap that dropped him to 12th. Kyle Larson is down one place to eighth despite getting back to sixth after a
spin.
Joey Logano had a miserable
day, hitting the wall in turn 1. Logano ended up four laps down in 29th and dropped three places to ninth. Christopher Bell finished a strong fourth despite having to make an unscheduled stop at one point. That moved him up from 14th to 10th. Aric Almirola got caught out by a caution during green-flag stops that trapped him a lap down. He would finish 19th and drop one place to 11th. Kevin
Harvick dropped one place to 12th despite a ninth-place finish.
Chase Briscoe is down to 13th
after finishing 13th. Erik Jones finished 10th and gained three places to move into 14th, the last spot in the playoffs on points. Jones has a three-point lead over Austin Dillon, who struggled with handling en route to a 23rd-place finish that dropped him to 15th. Teammate Tyler Reddick had a miserable weekend with multiple incidents. A 30th-place finish dropped him to
16th.
Daniel Suarez finished 14th
and gained two places to move into 17th. Austin Cindric crashed a couple laps after the restart Monday, then failed to beat the crash clock, which ended his day. The 36th-place finish dropped Cindric to 18th, but he still has a spot in the playoffs thanks to his Daytona 500 victory. Chris Buescher is back up to 19th after finishing eighth. Kurt Busch dropped to 20th after crashing and
struggling to a 31st-place finish. Finally, Denny Hamlin was strong early on, winning stage one. He was running fourth when he got clipped by the spinning Cody Ware. He would finish 21st and move up to 23rd in points.
Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chase Elliott
418, 2) Ryan Blaney -50, t-3) William Byron -65, t-3) Kyle Busch -65, 5) Alex Bowman -69, 6) Ross Chastain -80, 7) Martin Truex Jr. -82, 8) Kyle Larson -83, 9) Joey Logano
-102, 10) Christopher Bell -134, 11) Aric Almirola -135, 12) Kevin Harvick -138, 13) Chase Briscoe -148, 14) Erik Jones -156, 15) Austin Dillon -159, 16) Tyler Reddick -169.
Outside of the Top 16, but still in the Playoffs: 18) Austin Cindric -179, 23) Denny Hamlin -217.
Playoff Points: 1) William Byron 13, 2) Ross Chastain -2, t-3) Chase Elliott -6, t-3) Denny Hamlin -6, t-5) Alex Bowman -7, t-5) Kyle Larson -7, t-5) Chase Briscoe -7, t-8) Austin Cindric -8, t-8) Kyle Busch -8, 10) Ryan Blaney -9, 11) Martin Truex Jr. -10, 12) Tyler Reddick -11, t-13) Daniel Suarez -11, t-13) Darrell Wallace Jr.
-11.
Stage Points: 1) Chase Elliott 113, 2) William Byron -10, 3) Ryan Blaney -14, 4) Kyle Larson -23, 5) Joey Logano -33, 6) Martin Truex Jr.
-36, 7) Christopher Bell -45, 8) Kyle Busch -52, 9) Chase Briscoe -54, 10) Ross Chastain -56, 11) Alex Bowman -67, t-12) Erik Jones -71, t-12) Tyler Reddick -71, 14) Denny Hamlin
-74, 15) Brad Keselowski -77, 16) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -81.
Outside of the Top 16, but still in the Playoffs: 18) Aric Almirola -83, 19) Kevin Harvick -84, 20) Austin Cindric
-85.
Note: The Stage Points also include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona.
Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chase Elliott
353, 2) Kyle Busch -10, 3) Alex Bowman -13, 4) Ross Chastain -27, 5) Ryan Blaney -28, 6) Martin Truex Jr. -45, 7) William Byron -52, 8) Aric Almirola -55, 9) Kevin Harvick
-56, 10) Kyle Larson -57, 11) Joey Logano -66, 12) Austin Dillon -73, t-13) Chase Briscoe -86, t-13) Erik Jones -86, 15) Christopher Bell -89, 16) Daniel Suarez -96.
Outside of the Top 16, but still in the Playoffs: 17) Austin Cindric -97, 26) Denny Hamlin -140.
Note: These standings are based on the old point system that was used before stages were created.
WC Points (1-16): 1) Chase Elliott 1540, 2) Kyle Busch -10, 3) Alex Bowman -39, 4) Ross Chastain -41, 5) Ryan Blaney -58, 6) Martin Truex Jr. -140, 7) William Byron
-145, 8) Kyle Larson -147, 9) Kevin Harvick -180, 10) Aric Almirola -184, 11) Joey Logano -189, 12) Austin Dillon -217, t-13) Chase Briscoe -270, t-13) Christopher Bell -270, 15) Erik Jones
-274, 16) Tyler Reddick -291.
Outside of the Top 16, but still in the Playoffs: 19) Austin Cindric -319, 24) Denny Hamlin -443.
Note No. 1: The WC points are based on the original points system created by Bob Latford in 1975.
Race Winners: Austin Cindric (Daytona), Kyle Larson (Fontana), Alex Bowman (Las Vegas), Chase Briscoe (Phoenix), William Byron (Atlanta, Martinsville), Ross Chastain (Circuit of the Americas, Talladega), Denny Hamlin (Richmond), Kyle
Busch
Note: Race wins in Italics do not count towards playoff eligibility.
Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade
Photography.
