Christopher Bell scored a race-high 19 stage points for the second straight week, led 134 laps and finished fourth.  That was enough for him to easily win the Round of 16.  His margin was 22 points over William Byron, who finished third Saturday night.  Denny Hamlin recovered from a tire issue and a loose wheel on his final pit stop to finish ninth and keep third in the standings.  Chase Elliott finished second and moved up three places to fourth.

Kyle Larson finished fifth and moved up three places to fifth.  Ross Chastain finished sixth and also moved up three places to sixth.  Joey Logano suffered a suspension failure late in the race and ended up finishing 27th.  That dropped him three places to seventh.  Alex Bowman was eliminated in the big crash on the backstretch.  The 32nd-place dropped him two positions to eighth.

Ryan Blaney had a suspension failure of his own and spent a bunch of time behind the wall.  He ultimately came out and finished 162 laps down in 30th.  That dropped him four places to ninth.  Chase Briscoe finished 14th, a good enough performance to move him up five places to 10th and lock into the Round of 12.  Daniel Suarez spun on the backstretch to trigger the Big One on lap 277.  He recovered to finish 19th despite an acute bouncing issue.  That dropped him to 11th.  Austin Cindric finished 20th and held onto the last spot in the Round of 12.

Cindric ended up two points ahead of both Tyler Reddick and Kyle Busch.  Reddick got caught up in the Big One and crawled to the finish in 25th, 31 laps down.  Busch blew his engine right before the Big One and ended up 34th.  Austin Dillon was also eliminated in the Big One and dropped down to 15th in points.  Kevin Harvick finished 10th Saturday night, but couldn't overcome the two previous DNFs to get out of 16th.

Outside of the playoffs, Martin Truex Jr. was one of a number of drivers to suffer a power steering seal failure.  He dropped out early and finished 36th.  He still has a 203-point lead over Erik Jones, who had tire issues and finished 21st.  Bubba Wallace had the same failure that Truex did while running fourth.  He was able to resume, though, finishing 92 laps down in 29th to keep 19th in points.  Aric Almirola also retired due to steering rack issues and remains in 20th.

Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com.  Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography.

AJ Allmendinger had another solid night, finishing sixth and scoring 14 stage points.  As a result, Allmendinger's official margin of victory in the regular season was 53 points over Justin Allgaier.  Allgaier dominated the race, but got busted for speeding on his final pit stop and finished ninth.  Noah Gragson's third straight victory moved him up to third, while Ty Gibbs crashed out of the race after winning stage one.  That dropped him to fourth.

Josh Berry finished seventh with a car that really wasn't handling all that well.  That said, he was locked into fifth in the regular season standings before the race started (he was nearly a full race behind Gragson and more than a race and a half ahead of Austin Hill).  Speaking of Hill, he finished third to stay in sixth.  Brandon Jones is seventh after finishing second, while Sam Mayer recovered from a spin to finish fourth and stay in eighth.

Riley Herbst finished fifth and stays in ninth.  Daniel Hemric struggled with power steering issues in 20th, but stays 10th in points.  Ryan Sieg moved up to 11th to claim the final playoff spot on points with 10th-place finish.  His final margin was five points over Landon Cassill, who suffered a hub failure early in the race and had to go behind the wall.  He would eventually finish 112 laps down in 35th.

Sheldon Creed was running up front when contact to the back of Gibbs from Gragson resulted in Creed going into the wall in turn 2.  That ended his day and ended his championship chances.  He ultimately ended up 40 points behind Sieg in 13th.  Anthony Alfredo finished 13th and moved up one place to 14th.  Alfredo jumped over Brandon Brown, who crashed out early and finished 38th.  Jeremy Clements finished 16th and stays in 16th after winning his appeal.

When the playoffs start Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway, Gragson will have a 13-point lead over Gibbs.  Allgaier will be third, then Allmendinger and Berry.

The last driver in position to advance to the round of Round of 8 at the moment is Clements, thanks to his victory at Daytona.  That breaks a tie with Mayer.  Hemric is three points behind the duo, followed by Herbst and Sieg.

Regular Season Point Standings (1-16): 1) AJ Allmendinger 1048, 2) Justin Allgaier -53, 3) Noah Gragson -60, 4) Ty Gibbs -72, 5) Josh Berry -147, 6) Austin Hill -240, 7) Brandon Jones -250, 8) Sam Mayer -328, 9) Riley Herbst -337, 10) Daniel Hemric -410, 11) Ryan Sieg -442, 12) Landon Cassill -447, 13) Sheldon Creed -482, 14) Anthony Alfredo -547, 15) Brandon Brown -569, 16) Jeremy Clements -592.

Note No. 1: Drivers in Bold have locked into the playoffs.

Note No. 2: Drivers in italics have failed to qualify, or were otherwise ineligible for the playoffs.

Round of 12 Point Standings: 1) Noah Gragson 2051, 2) Ty Gibbs -13, 3) Justin Allgaier -18, 4) AJ Allmendinger -19, 5) Josh Berry -29, 6) Austin Hill -35, 7) Brandon Jones -41, t-8) Jeremy Clements -46, t-8) Sam Mayer -46, 10) Daniel Hemric -48, 11) Riley Herbst -49, 12) Ryan Sieg -50.

Best of the Rest: 13) Landon Cassill 601, 14) Sheldon Creed -35, 15) Anthony Alfredo -100, 16) Brandon Brown -122, t-17) Myatt Snider -185, t-17) Brett Moffitt -185, 19) Jeb Burton -196, 20) Alex Labbe -234, 21) Bayley Currey -269, 22) JJ Yeley -308.

Playoff Points: 1) Noah Gragson 51, 2) Ty Gibbs -13, 3) Justin Allgaier -18, 4) AJ Allmendinger -19, 5) Josh Berry -29, 6) Austin Hill -35, 7) Brandon Jones -41, t-8) Jeremy Clements -46, t-8) Sam Mayer -46, 10) Daniel Hemric -48, 11) Riley Herbst -39, 12) Ryan Sieg -50.

Stage Points: 1) Justin Allgaier 281, 2) Ty Gibbs -5, 3) Noah Gragson -8, 4) AJ Allmendinger -49, 5) Josh Berry -58, 6) Brandon Jones -109, 7) Sam Mayer -142, 8) Austin Hill -158, 9) Daniel Hemric -174, 10) Riley Herbst -190, 11) Sheldon Creed -201, 12) Trevor Bayne -214, 13) Ryan Sieg -221, 14) Landon Cassill -222, 15) Brandon Brown -235, 16) Anthony Alfredo -239.

Outside of the Top 16, but Still in the Playoffs: 23) Jeremy Clements -263.

Note: If he was eligible, John Hunter Nemechek would be 13th in stage points.

Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) AJ Allmendinger 927, 2) Noah Gragson -95, 3) Ty Gibbs -101, 4) Justin Allgaier -106, 5) Austin Hill -127, 6) Josh Berry -131, 7) Brandon Jones -188, 8) Riley Herbst -203, 9) Sam Mayer -239, 10) Ryan Sieg -272, 11) Landon Cassill -284, 12) Daniel Hemric -287, 13) Sheldon Creed -331, 14) Anthony Alfredo -362, 15) Jeremy Clements -386, 16) Brandon Brown -387.

WC Points (1-16): 1) AJ Allmendinger 4014, 2) Noah Gragson -292, 3) Ty Gibbs -331, 4) Justin Allgaier -338, 5) Austin Hill -441, 6) Josh Berry -443, 7) Brandon Jones -667, 8) Riley Herbst -707, 9) Sam Mayer -802, 10) Ryan Sieg -981, 11) Landon Cassill -1001, 12) Daniel Hemric -1002, 13) Sheldon Creed -1120, 14) Anthony Alfredo -1255, 15) Brandon Brown -1320, 16) Jeremy Clements -1329.
 

Race Winners: Austin Hill (Daytona-1, Atlanta-2), Cole Custer (Fontana), Ty Gibbs (Las Vegas, Atlanta-1, Richmond, Road America, Michigan), Noah Gragson (Phoenix, Talladega, Pocono, Darlington-2, Kansas, Bristol), AJ Allmendinger (Circuit of the Americas, Portland, Indianapolis), Brandon Jones (Martinsville), Josh Berry (Dover, Charlotte), Justin Allgaier (Darlington-1, Nashville, Loudon), Tyler Reddick (Texas), Kyle Larson (Watkins Glen), Jeremy Clements (Daytona-2)

Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com.  Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography.

Chandler Smith had likely the best truck Thursday night.  However, pit strategy dropped him back to a ninth-place finish.  Despite this, Chandler moved up into the points lead.  He is three points ahead of Zane Smith, who started from the rear due to a rear end seal failure and finished second.  Stewart Friesen finished seventh and scored 18 stage points.  That was enough to move him up to third.  Ty Majeski's victory locked him into the Championship 4 and moved him up two places to fourth.

John Hunter Nemechek crashed in practice and had to start in the rear.  He was able to race up to 12th, but that dropped him to fifth, first driver out of the Championship 4 on points.  He is currently nine points behind Friesen.  Christian Eckes is up to sixth after finishing eighth, while Grant Enfinger remains in seventh and stood pat points-wise after finishing fourth.  Ben Rhodes finished 18th and dropped down to eighth.

Outside of the playoffs, Matt Crafton moved up to ninth with a fifth-place finish, jumping over Carson Hocevar.  Of those who were never in the playoffs, Derek Kraus started from the pole, led 27 laps and finished sixth.  He is 22 points ahead of Tyler Ankrum, who finished 11th.

Matt DiBenedetto ran very well until he had to make an unscheduled stop due to a loose wheel.  He's still 13th, but lost a lot of points.  Tanner Gray is 14th, then Corey Heim and Chase Purdy.