William Byron was able to put himself towards the front of the field for the final stretch of Sunday's Jack Link's 500. However, he couldn't really do much to get the win. Despite that, a fourth-place finish means that next to nothing changes at the top of the order.

Byron's lead increased by one point to 31. That advantage is now over teammate Kyle Larson, who won stage one and finished second. Denny Hamlin is down to third after getting stuck down the order late and finishing 21st. Chase Elliott is up one spot to fourth after a fifth-place finish.

Christopher Bell was the recipient of a bad bump on lap 52 from Hamlin. The resulting huge crash ended his day and dropped him down to fifth in points. Tyler Reddick is up one place to sixth after a somewhat quiet run to 14th. Bubba Wallace won stage two and finished eighth, moving up one place to seventh. Ryan Blaney is down to eighth after getting collected in a crash during a pit stop sequence.

Alex Bowman was not satisfied with his day, but a seventh-place finish still moved him up to ninth. Joey Logano's disqualification dropped him down into a tie for 10th with Ross Chastain. Chastain partially set up the run to the finish with his move on Hamlin after the final stops, but ended up finishing 20th. Chase Briscoe is up one place to 12th after finishing 15th.

Chris Buescher was eliminated in the crash with Bell and dropped one place to 13th. Austin Cindric's victory moved him up from a tie for 20th to 14th, despite the 50-point penalty that he received after Austin. AJ Allmendinger moved up to 15th, the last spot in the playoffs on points. He has a six-point lead over Kyle Busch, who had a miserable day with a crash and tire issues.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is up one place to 17th, while Ryan Preece's DQ dropped him four spots to 18th. Michael McDowell is still 19th, while Carson Hocevar is back up to 20th. Josh Berry is another two points further back in 21st.

Justin Allgaier had another strong run Saturday in Talladega, finishing fourth in his Hellmann's Chevrolet. However, he didn't score all that many stage points.

Allgaier's lead is down from 87 points to 79 over Austin Hill, who moved up a place after winning his third race of the year. Sam Mayer is down to third after a 14th-place finish. Jesse Love remains in fourth after winning stage one and leading the most laps en route to a third-place finish.

Carson Kvapil remains in fifth after finishing 17th. Connor Zilisch has sole possession of sixth in points despite his hard crash on the final lap Saturday. Brandon Jones and Sammy Smith are tied for seventh in points. Both were wrapped up in crashes Saturday with Jones finishing 28th, while Smith was 31st.

Jeb Burton finished second Saturday and moved up two places to ninth, even though he wasn't exactly pleased with the outcome of the video review. Sheldon Creed is still 10th after finishing ninth. Ryan Sieg was eliminated in the same crash with Smith and dropped down to 11th. Harrison Burton's eighth-place finish keeps him in 12th, the last spot in the playoffs on points.

Harrison expanded his advantage to nine points over Daniel Dye, who finished 10th Saturday. Nick Sanchez is up to 14th after running up front, but was likely disappointed with a 15th-place finish. Taylor Gray is up two places to 15th, while Dean Thompson is 16th.

Point Standings (1-16): 1) Justin Allgaier 411, 2) Austin Hill -79, 3) Sam Mayer -102, 4) Jesse Love -109, 5) Carson Kvapil -143, 6) Connor Zilisch -150, t-7) Brandon Jones -156, t-7) Sammy Smith -156, 9) Jeb Burton -158, 10) Sheldon Creed -159, 11) Ryan Sieg -165, 12) Harrison Burton -173, 13) Daniel Dye -182, 14) Nick Sanchez -198, 15) Taylor Gray -200, 16) Dean Thompson -210.

Playoff Points: 1) Austin Hill 20, 2) Justin Allgaier -7, 3) Connor Zilisch -13, t-4) Sammy Smith -14, t-4) Aric Almirola -14, t-6) Jesse Love -14, 7) Brandon Jones -15, 8) Harrison Burton -18, t-9) Sam Mayer -19, t-9) Dean Thompson -19, t-9) Nick Sanchez -19.

Note: If they were eligible for NASCAR Xfinity Series points, Kyle Larson would be tied for third, while William Byron and Alex Bowman would be tied for 10th in playoff points.

Stage Points: 1) Justin Allgaier 122, 2) Austin Hill -42, 3) Sammy Smith -48, 4) Connor Zilisch -50, 5) Jesse Love -56, 6) Sam Mayer -57, t-7) Aric Almirola -61, t-7) Carson Kvapil -61, 9) Sheldon Creed -67, t-10) Ryan Sieg -74, t-10) Nick Sanchez -74, 12) Brandon Jones -77, 13) Jeb Burton -81, 14) Taylor Gray -88, 15) Harrison Burton -89, 16) Christian Eckes -92.

Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Justin Allgaier 378, 2) Austin Hill -40, 3) Sam Mayer -49, 4) Jesse Love -53, 5) Jeb Burton -82, 6) Brandon Jones -84, 7) Daniel Dye -85, 8) Carson Kvapil -86, 9) Harrison Burton -87, 10) Ryan Sieg -95, t-11) Sammy Smith -97, t-11) Sheldon Creed -97, 13) Connor Zilisch -100, 14) Dean Thompson -116, 15) Taylor Gray -118, 16) Christian Eckes -126.

WC Points (1-16): 1) Justin Allgaier 1670, 2) Austin Hill -148, 3) Sam Mayer -182, 4) Jesse Love -198, 5) Brandon Jones -307, 6) Carson Kvapil -316, 7) Jeb Burton -317, 8) Harrison Burton -326, 9) Daniel Dye -338, 10) Sheldon Creed -346, 11) Ryan Sieg -353, 12) Connor Zilisch -365, 13) Sammy Smith -389, 14) Taylor Gray -419, 15) Dean Thompson -433, 16) Christian Eckes -450.

Race Winners: Jesse Love (Daytona), Austin Hill (Atlanta, Martinsville, Talladega), Connor Zilisch (COTA), Aric Almirola (Phoenix), Justin Allgaier (Las Vegas, Homestead), Brandon Jones (Darlington), Kyle Larson (Bristol), Sammy Smith (Rockingham)

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

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series was off last weekend. They will return to action in the SpeedyCash.com 250 Friday night at Texas Motor Speedway.

When the teams get to Texas, Corey Heim will have a 22-point lead over Chandler Smith. Rockingham winner Tyler Ankrum is third, then teammate Daniel Hemric and Layne Riggs.

At the playoff cutoff, Stewart Friesen is the last driver in the playoffs on points. He is four points ahead of Gio Ruggiero. Ben Rhodes is 12th, then Tanner Gray, Rajah Caruth, Jack Wood and Andres Perez.

I will take a third-place finish. We had a great day, points-wise, for this No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet team. Winning the first stage was a bit unexpected, and then finishing third in the second stage from where we were on the final restart was also unexpected. Just a really good day, overall, for the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy." - Kyle Larson, finished second
 

"I don’t know about that. We had [Alex Bowman] behind us and he was doing a good job pushing. It just seemed like we couldn’t get enough help from the third guy in line and that’s what it takes. For whatever reason, the top lane just couldn’t get the runs off the corner at the right time to get connected. We’d get connected too late and then get a little bit squirrely and lose our momentum. I wish just that one time, we could have connected a little better to stay even with the bottom lane, but we were working really hard to do that with [Austin Cindric]. It just seemed like it took a lot of effort for us to maintain the track position on the front row.

Live and learn. The No. 24 Valvoline Chevrolet team did a good job today. We had some issues and had to work on it. We got it better and then we were able to race there in the final stage, so really happy with that. We always want a little bit more. I feel like we were in the perfect position there with 10 laps to go." - William Byron, finished third
 

"We were in the third row on the outside and was trying to keep Cindric out front and keep the outside lane that I was in from getting there and then the 60 was able to pull up and we had two Fords out front. I’m happy for Ford and Penske for the win, but this is a good reset and good points today after the first 10 races of the season. We haven’t had the results we want, so it’s a good reset after the off weekend and a good way to start off the next part of the season." - Noah Gragson, finished fourth
 

"I don’t really know what to think as I think we were all waiting for a big wreck there at the end and it never happened. We ended up [eighth, so that’s a good day for us. We didn’t need a new winner, but congrats to Austin [Cindric]. All-in-all, our Leidos Toyota Camry was pretty solid today. Was nice not having to riding around, running half throttle and save fuel. We did at times, but not as much. Clean race and now, onto Texas." - Bubba Wallace, finished eighth

"Everything was great out the windshield. I have no clue what happened yet. I imagine it was a bad push. That’s all it can really be. I know we’re all going for it there at the end. We’re in a great spot with our Travel Centers Ford Mustang. We had our teammate behind us. We had fuel to go wide-open and not worry about it all the way to the end of that stage and it certainly didn’t work out. I don’t know what happened at this point. I’m assuming we were just two-wide. I have no clue to really say, but we had worked really well with Preece early on in the race and had been really smart about how we linked up and got to pushing and it worked really well for us. We were right there off the corner, just kind of backing up to him to receive that first big push down the back and just seen [Christopher Bell] come across the nose. Until I dive into it, I don’t know anything else yet." - Chris Buescher, finished 34th (Crashed out)
 

"I think I feel really good. I don’t know, my HANS device, my seat, my belts, everything seemed like it did well. It was a big one, that’s for sure.

"Whenever you’re the car getting pushed, you’re completely at the mercy of the guy behind you. You know, Denny [Hamlin] didn’t do anything wrong. You have to push, you have to push to be successful. It’s a product of the cars we race with this rules package." - Christopher Bell, finished 35th (Crashed out)

"It was just a stack of guys trying to come to pit road as fast as they could and we were kind of the ham in the sandwich that got squeezed. I waved down the backstretch to let everybody know I was gonna pit and I came off of four and everybody was so tight behind me that I didn’t even have a chance to turn left. I hate that it ruined not just our day, but several other people’s day. I don’t think I could do anything different." - Brad Keselowski, finished 36th (Crashed out)

"We did all we could. I felt like we executed Stage Three exactly like we needed to. We came out in the front of our group and worked our way through that traffic. We had the opportunity to get to the top lane and then from there it was just managing those cars behind us and not giving up what we gained. I’m really proud of everybody at RFK for this race car. I’m just really super appreciative from Jack, Brad, the Fenway Group for this opportunity. Honestly, without Kroger and BAM and Celsius and a lot of the other partners today, I’d probably be back in Connecticut. I’m really excited about the rest of this year. It’s a great day, but I wanted to win." - Ryan Preece, finished 38th (Disqualified)

"Yeah, it’s all about the cycle and then once it got two-by-two there you’re kind of there just watching it all happen in front of you and you really don’t play much of a part. You just hope that your lane clears enough to where you can possibly make a move, but there are no lanes to make a move there. We just got beat on the cycle there. I’m not even really sure exactly how yet. I have to go back and look at it, but, overall, it was a solid day for the Shell/Pennzoil Ford. We almost had a stage win and a top five, so I can’t be too frustrated with that I guess." - Joey Logano, finished 39th (Disqualified)