William Byron snatched the lead away from Bubba Wallace with six laps to go and pulled away to claim his sixth win of the year. That locked him into the Round of 8 and gave him sole possession of the points lead. His advantage is nine points over Denny Hamlin, who recovered from contact on pit road to finish fifth. Chris Buescher finished 14th, but scored a race-high 15 stage points. That moved him up two spots to third. Christopher Bell is up three places to fourth after a fourth-place finish.

Martin Truex Jr. had a tough day with a spin at the end of stage one and just barely avoided a crash late. A 17th-place finish dropped him from a tie for the lead to fifth. Ross Chastain's second-place finish moved him up from a tie for ninth to sixth. Brad Keselowski is up to seventh after finishing seventh. Kyle Larson led 99 laps before crashing late. The wreck dropped him back to eighth, the last spot in the Round of 8 on points.

Larson is two points ahead of Wallace, who he was racing for the lead when he crashed. Wallace finished third and moved up three places. Tyler Reddick won stage one, but ended up 25th after a caution came out during stops. He fell two places to 10th. Ryan Blaney crashed out late after a fairly miserable day and stays in 11th. Kyle Busch spun out and crashed in turn 1 early and dropped to 12th.

Of those eliminated, Kevin Harvick finished sixth and gained sole possession of 13th. He is six points ahead of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Michael McDowell and Joey Logano are tied for 15th.

Despite missing seven races, Chase Elliott now leads those drivers who failed to qualify for the playoffs. He is 15 points ahead of Ty GIbbs, who broke a steering arm after hitting Hamlin on pit road. Daniel Suarez is 19th, then Alex Bowman.

John Hunter Nemechek took the lead late Saturday and held on for his seventh win of the year. He locked himself into the Round of 8 and extended his lead to 11 points over Justin Allgaier. Allgaier led the most laps, but ended up in tire trouble (see above) and finished fifth. Cole Custer is still in third after a sixth-place finish. Austin Hill got caught up in a crash, then recovered to finish seventh with a good points haul to stay in fourth.

Chandler Smith is still in fifth after finishing fourth. Sammy Smith is up one place to sixth after finishing third. Sheldon Creed is up one place to seventh despite a miserable race early on before recovering to eighth. Daniel Hemric crashed in the final five laps and ended up 24th. That dropped him two places to eighth, the last driver in the Round of 8 on points.

Hemric is one point ahead of Parker Kligerman, who finished second Saturday. Jeb Burton is down one place to 10th after having an axle cap come off, which led to the left rear wheel coming off. A later failure ended his race. Josh Berry is 11th after crashing with Hill, while Sam Mayer crashed out on the first lap and is down in 12th.

Outside of the playoffs, Riley Herbst crashed on the first lap in a separate incident from Mayer's. That resulted in a 37th-place finish and dropped his advantage over Brandon Jones from 74 to 40. Brett Moffitt is 15th, then Parker Retzlaff.

Round of 12 Point Standings: 1) John Hunter Nemechek 2148, 2) Justin Allgaier -11, 3) Cole Custer -31, 4) Austin Hill -50, 5) Chandler Smith -62, 6) Sammy Smith -76, 7) Sheldon Creed -85, 8) Daniel Hemric -93, 9) Parker Kligerman -94, 10) Jeb Burton -112, 11) Josh Berry -120, 12) Sam Mayer -127.

Round of 12 Owner Point Standings: 1) Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 (John Hunter Nemechek) 2148, 2) JR Motorsports No. 7 (Justin Allgaier) -11, 3) Stewart-Haas Racing No. 00 (Cole Custer) -31, 4) Richard Childress Racing No. 21 (Austin Hill) -50, 5) Kaulig Racing No. 16 (Chandler Smith) -64, 6) Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 (Sammy Smith) -76, 7) Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 (Trevor Bayne) -80, 8) Richard Childress Racing No. 2 (Sheldon Creed) -86, 9) Kaulig Racing No. 10 (Daniel Hemric) -90, 10) Jordan Anderson Racing No. 27 (Jeb Burton) -112, 11) JR Motorsports No. 8 (Josh Berry) -121, 12) JR Motorsports No. 1 (Sam Mayer) -128.

Best of the Rest (13-22): 13) Riley Herbst 706, 14) Brandon Jones -40, 15) Brett Moffitt -92, 16) Parker Retzlaff -166, 17) Kaz Grala -174, 18) Ryan Sieg -189, 19) Jeremy Clements -247, 20) Anthony Alfredo -318, 21) Kyle Sieg -323, 22) Josh Williams -336.

Non-Playoff Point Standings (1-16): 1) John Hunter Nemechek 1104, 2) Justin Allgaier -23, 3) Austin Hill -35, 4) Cole Custer -133, 5) Josh Berry -282, 6) Sheldon Creed -295, t-7) Sam Mayer -316, t-7) Chandler Smith -316, 9) Daniel Hemric -338, 10) Parker Kligerman -354, 11) Sammy Smith -392, 12) Riley Herbst -398, 13) Brandon Jones -438, 14) Jeb Burton -457, 15) Brett Moffitt -486, 16) Parker Retzlaff -564.
 

Playoff Points: 1) John Hunter Nemechek 54, 2) Austin Hill -15, 3) Justin Allgaier -20, 4) Cole Custer -36, 5) Sam Mayer -39, t-6) Chandler Smith -45, t-6) Josh Berry -45, 8) Sheldon Creed -46, t-9) Sammy Smith -48, t-9) Jeb Burton -48, 11) Daniel Hemric -51, 12) Parker Kligerman -52.

Stage Points: 1) Justin Allgaier 317, 2) John Hunter Nemechek -22, 3) Cole Custer -52, 4) Austin Hill -53, 5) Sheldon Creed -128, 6) Chandler Smith -149, 7) Josh Berry -153, 8) Riley Herbst -172, 9) Sam Mayer -176, 10) Sammy Smith -189, 11) Daniel Hemric -192, 12) Brandon Jones -196, 13) Parker Kligerman -230, 14) Ryan Truex -276, 15) Brett Moffitt -277, 16) Ryan Sieg -283.

Outside of the top-16, but still in playoffs: 18) Jeb Burton -291.

Note: If they were eligible for points, Ty Gibbs would be 13th, AJ Allmendinger 15th and Kyle Larson 16th in stage points.

Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) John Hunter Nemechek 939, 2) Austin Hill -9, 3) Justin Allgaier -48, 4) Cole Custer -103, 5) Josh Berry -159, 6) Parker Kligerman -169, 7) Sam Mayer -176, 8) Daniel Hemric -184, 9) Sheldon Creed -191, 10) Chandler Smith -197, 11) Jeb Burton -206, 12) Sammy Smith -237, 13) Brett Moffitt -246, 14) Riley Herbst -264, 15) Brandon Jones -278, 16) Parker Retzlaff -309.

WC Points (1-16): 1) John Hunter Nemechek 4141, 2) Austin Hill -52, 3) Justin Allgaier -162, 4) Cole Custer -376, 5) Josh Berry -554, 6) Parker Kligerman -599, 7) Sam Mayer -611, 8) Daniel Hemric -662, 9) Sheldon Creed -694, 10) Chandler Smith -700, 11) Jeb Burton -804, 12) Sammy Smith -830, 13) Brett Moffitt -907, 14) Riley Herbst -915, 15) Brandon Jones -987, 16) Parker Retzlaff -1093.

Race Winners: Austin Hill (Daytona-1, Las Vegas, Atlanta-1, Pocono), John Hunter Nemechek (Fontana, Martinsville. Atlanta-2, Loudon, Michigan, Kansas, Texas), Sammy Smith (Phoenix), AJ Allmendinger (Austin, Nashville), Chandler Smith (Richmond), Jeb Burton (Talladega), Ryan Truex (Dover), Kyle Larson (Darlington-1), Justin Allgaier (Charlotte, Daytona-2, Bristol), Cole Custer (Portland, Chicago), Aric Almirola (Sonoma), Sam Mayer (Road America, Watkins Glen), Ty Gibbs (Indianapolis), Denny Hamlin (Darlington-2)

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

"Man, it was awesome to get our car to the front. I loved clean air. We just fought through traffic all day and our No. 24 Liberty University Chevy was just tight back in traffic but had good pace.

"This was one of those hot days. It felt like I was playing football and went through two-a-days, just wanted to quit. It was a grind all day and our team was there at the end. I'm really proud of this one as hot as it was and as tough as it was. We'll take it and go on to the next round." - William Byron, race winner

"Then I pitted and that pit stop is when it had already failed, and it wouldn't go. I'm part throttle to get it fired, and it doesn't think I'm doing anything.

"From there, they walked me through it, and basically I just had to give it a lot of throttle. So the next pit stop for our final two-tire stop was just a whole lot of throttle. I'm sure the eardrums were blown out of everybody behind our pit box, but for our Worldwide Express Chevy, we were not fast enough to run second with two tires. We were with four." - Ross Chastain, finished second

Pretty bummed, but happy for William [Byron]) and happy for Mr. Hendrick for 300 wins, which is incredible. So, great night overall for our organization, and great for William and our team, too. We had a super-fast Chevy today. We have had a fast car for every race in the playoffs to start, so we will go to Talladega and try to have a good day and have some good fortune." - Kyle Larson, finished 31st (Crashed out)

"I have no idea. It felt really good when we came off of pit road after that green-flag stop. The car had good grip in it. We had those couple of yellows back-to-back and we restarted on the outside. I felt like I had a flat right front [tire] and I was going to come to pit road. I second-guessed it and said ‘I don’t think so, man. It’s just something is wrong.. something isn’t right, but it’s not a flat’. And just all on its own, just turned into the bottom of the race track in turn one and it just swapped ends on me. That’s the rear, not the front, not having grip.. so I just don’t know.

"I hate it for everyone on this No. 8 3CHI Chevrolet team. I felt like our car was for sure a top-five or top-10 car today. That right there, I just said it two laps before that – I got up on the high-side and was like, you know what, I just need to stop and just run the bottom.. make laps here, just finish the stage and it swaps ends on me." - Kyle Busch, finished 34th (Crashed out)