As you can imagine, Wednesday's penalty announcement has a decent affect on the points. Austin Dillon's 25-point penalty drops him from 26th to 31st in current points. In the Old School points, it drops him from 30th to 31st. In the WC Points, he stays in 30th, but loses ground.
As far as the playoffs go, he's not in them anymore and will have to win either Michigan, Daytona or Darlington in order to qualify. He is currently 460 points behind Kyle Larson and already eliminated from getting in on points.
Dillon getting his win benefits stripped means that Chris Buescher and Ross Chastain are now
tied for the final spot in the playoffs. Buescher would win the tiebreaker by virtue of two second-place finishes.
The next driver without a win in points is Chase Briscoe in 17th, but Briscoe is 99 points behind Buescher and Chastain. Kyle Busch is another 20 points back. With only three regular season races remaining, they will more than likely have to win to
get into the playoffs.
Point Standings (1-16): 1) Kyle Larson 779, 2) Tyler Reddick -5, 3) Chase Elliott -6, 4) Denny Hamlin -21, 5) Ryan Blaney
-77, 6) Christopher Bell -78, 7) William Byron -101, 8) Martin Truex Jr. -117, 9) Brad Keselowski -143, 10) Alex Bowman -164, 11) Ty Gibbs -177, 12) Bubba Wallace
-192, t-13) Chris Buescher -195, t-13) Ross Chastain -195, 15) Joey Logano -222, 16) Daniel Suarez -282.
Outside of the top 16, but still
in the playoffs: 20) Austin Cindric -328.
Note: Drivers in italics are either outside of the playoffs, or ineligible for points.
Playoff Points: 1) Kyle Larson
28, 2) Christopher Bell -3, 3) Denny Hamlin -7, 4) William Byron -12, 5) Ryan Blaney -16, 6) Tyler Reddick -20, 7) Austin Cindric -21, t-8) Chase Elliott -22, t-8) Joey Logano
-22, t-8) Daniel Suarez -22, t-11) Brad Keselowski -23, t-11) Alex Bowman -23, 13) Martin Truex Jr. -25, t-14) Ty Gibbs -26, t-14) Chris Buescher -26, t-16) Ross Chastain -27, t-16) Bubba Wallace -27, t-16) Michael McDowell
-27, t-16) Joey Hand -27.
Note: If he were eligible for playoff points, Shane van Gisbergen would be tied for 16th.
Stage Points: 1) Denny Hamlin 228, 2) Kyle
Larson -1, 3) Christopher Bell -44, 4) Tyler Reddick -58, 5) Ryan Blaney -61, 6) Martin Truex Jr. -68, 7) Chase Elliott -70, 8) William Byron -95, 9) Brad Keselowski
-107, 10) Joey Logano -121, 11) Ty Gibbs -124, 12) Bubba Wallace -129, 13) Alex Bowman -131, 14) Austin Cindric -156, 15) Ross Chastain -162, 16) Chris Buescher -166.
Outside of the top-16, but Still in the Playoffs: 20) Daniel Suarez -185.
Note: The Stage Points also include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona.
Old Point
Standings (1-16): 1) Chase Elliott 718, 2) Tyler Reddick -6, 3) Kyle Larson -68, 4) William Byron -77, 5) Denny Hamlin -79, 6) Ryan Blaney -82, 7) Christopher Bell
-96, 8) Ross Chastain -99, 9) Chris Buescher -100, 10) Brad Keselowski -101, 11) Alex Bowman -107, 12) Ty Gibbs -118, 13) Martin Truex Jr. -120, 14) Bubba Wallace -130, 15) Joey Logano
-164, 16) Daniel Suarez -176.
Outside of the top 16, but still in the playoffs: 23) Austin Cindric -244.
Note: These standings are based on the old point system that was used before stages were created.
WC Points (1-16): 1) Tyler Reddick 3210, 2) Chase Elliott -38, 3) William Byron -244, 4) Kyle Larson -261, 5) William Byron -275, 6) Ryan Blaney
-279, 7) Christopher Bell -304, 8) Brad Keselowski -333, 9) Chris Buescher -353, 10) Ross Chastain -375, 11) Alex Bowman -378, 12) Ty Gibbs -406, 13) Martin Truex Jr. -414, 14) Bubba Wallace
-458, 15) Joey Logano -557, 16) Daniel Suarez -633.
Outside of the top-16, but still in the playoffs: 23) Austin Cindric -839.
Note: The WC points are
based on the original points system created by Bob Latford in 1975.
Race Winners: William Byron (Daytona, COTA, Martinsville), Daniel Suarez (Atlanta), Kyle Larson (Las Vegas, Kansas, Sonoma, Indianapolis), Christopher Bell (Phoenix, Charlotte, Loudon), Denny Hamlin (Bristol, Richmond-1, Dover), Chase Elliott (Texas), Tyler Reddick
(Talladega), Brad Keselowski (Darlington), Austin Cindric (Gateway), Ryan Blaney (Iowa, Pocono), Joey Logano (Nashville), Alex Bowman (Chicago), Austin Dillon (Richmond-2)
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.
