Kevin Harvick likely couldn't have had a better weekend in Michigan if he had tried.  Not only did he win both races, but earned 13 of 14 possible playoff points and 113 of a possible 120 points.  As a result, his points lead has expanded from 81 to 137 points, more than two full races.  Brad Keselowski is still in second.  He finished second on Saturday, but crashed out Sunday and finished 39th.  Denny Hamlin is still in third after finishes of sixth and second.  Ryan Blaney is still fourth despite crashing out on Sunday.

Chase Elliott remains in the fifth spot after finishes of seventh and ninth.  Joey Logano is still in sixth and made a small gain on Elliott after two top 10 finishes.  Martin Truex Jr. is one point behind Logano in seventh after consecutive third-place finishes.  Aric Almirola remains in eighth, but lost a bunch of ground after a disastrous Saturday.

Kyle Busch is up one place to ninth after earning two top five finishes.  Kyle's older brother Kurt drops to 10th after a pair of 10th-place finishes.  Alex Bowman is still in 11th, but lost nearly 90 points to Harvick after two substandard finishes of 21st and 36th.  Clint Bowyer remains in 12th after finishes of 19th and 14th.

Matt DiBenedetto is three points behind Bowyer after a seventh-place finish on Sunday.  William Byron remains in 14th and is the last man in the playoffs on points.  He has a 26 point advantage on Erik Jones and Jimmie Johnson.  Johnson finished 12th and 11th in Michigan, while Jones had finishes of 11th and 27th.

Austin Dillon dropped to a tie for 17th with teammate Tyler Reddick after crashing Saturday and finishing eighth Sunday.  Reddick had a tough weekend with finishes of 18th and 24th.  Christopher Bell moved up to 19th thanks to 16 stage points on Sunday.  Bubba Wallace is back up to 20th thanks to a ninth-place finish on Saturday.

Point Standings (1-16): 1) Kevin Harvick 916, 2) Brad Keselowski -137, 3) Denny Hamlin -140, 4) Ryan Blaney -175, 5) Chase Elliott -195, 6) Joey Logano -199, 7) Martin Truex Jr. -200, 8) Aric Almirola -247, 9) Kyle Busch -265, 10) Kurt Busch -268, 11) Alex Bowman -331, 12) Clint Bowyer -345, 13) Matt DiBenedetto -348, 14) William Byron -379, t-15) Erik Jones -405, t-15) Jimmie Johnson -405.

Outside the Top 16, but Still In The Playoffs: t-17) Austin Dillon -415, 21) Cole Custer -520.

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

Playoff Points: 1) Kevin Harvick 35, 2) Denny Hamlin -6, 3) Brad Keselowski -14, 4) Joey Logano -21, 5) Chase Elliott -25, 6) Alex Bowman -26, 7) Ryan Blaney -27, 8) Martin Truex Jr. -28, t-9) Austin Dillon -30, t-9) Cole Custer -30, 11) Clint Bowyer -32, t-12) Aric Almirola -33, t-12) William Byron -33, t-14) Kyle Busch -34, t-14) Kurt Busch -34, t-14) Jimmie Johnson -34, t-14) Tyler Reddick -34, t-14) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -34.

Stage Points: 1) Ryan Blaney 230, 2) Kevin Harvick -31, 3) Joey Logano -51, t-4) Chase Elliott -56, t-4) Martin Truex Jr. -56, 6) Brad Keselowski -68, 7) Denny Hamlin -72, 8) Alex Bowman -74, 9) Kyle Busch -77, 10) Aric Almirola -111, 11) William Byron -141, 12) Clint Bowyer -149, 13) Matt DiBenedetto -151, 14) Erik Jones -158, 15) Kurt Busch -165, 16) Jimmie Johnson -167.

Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Kevin Harvick 813, 2) Denny Hamlin -94, 3) Brad Keselowski -98, 4) Kurt Busch -156, 5) Aric Almirola -165, 6) Chase Elliott -179, 7) Martin Truex Jr. -180, 8) Joey Logano -190, 9) Ryan Blaney -213, 10) Kyle Busch -221, 11) Matt DiBenedetto -232, 12) Clint Bowyer -242, 13) Austin Dillon -277, t-14) Tyler Reddick -282, t-14) William Byron -282, 16) Erik Jones -286.

Outside of the Top 16, But Still In Playoffs: 17) Alex Bowman -296, 21) Cole Custer -352.

Race Winners: Denny Hamlin (Daytona, Darlington-2, Homestead, Pocono-2, Kansas), Joey Logano (Las Vegas, Phoenix), Alex Bowman (Fontana), Kevin Harvick (Darlington-1, Atlanta, Pocono-1, Indianapolis, Michigan-1, Michigan-2), Brad Keselowski (Charlotte-1, Bristol, Loudon), Chase Elliott (Charlotte-2), Ryan Blaney (Talladega), Cole Custer (Kentucky), Austin Dillon (Texas)

 
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.

Austin Cindric continued to assert his dominance Saturday in Wisconsin, winning his fourth race in a month while leading the most laps.  That allowed him to expand his points lead up to 11 over Chase Briscoe, who finished third.  Ross Chastain is up one place to third after keeping out of trouble and finishing seventh.  Chastain jumped over Noah Gragson, who failed to score any stage points en route to a sixth-place finish.

Justin Haley may have ended the race with a beat up front end, but he ended up making a slight gain in the standings after finishing 11th.  He remains in fifth.  Harrison Burton is sixth after finishing 16th.  Justin Allgaier is still seventh, but lost a bunch of ground after crashing out late.  Michael Annett is still in eighth after finishing 10th.

Brandon Jones was disappointing on Saturday, but managed to hold onto ninth in points.  Ryan Sieg is up one place to 10th after finishing ninth.  Riley Herbst had a terrible day and dropped to 11th after finishing in 23rd.  Brandon Brown finished 12th and gained points on his rivals.

Brown still has the final playoff spot.  His margin is now up to 53 points over Jeremy Clements.  Clements was strong early on, but had his own crash late when Allgaier wrecked.  That dropped him to a 29th-place finish.  Myatt Snider moved up to 14th despite crashing out in the same wreck that involved Clements.  Daniel Hemric dropped to 15th after blowing his engine early and finishing 35th.  Finally, Josh Williams moved up three places to 16th after finishing 13th.

Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Cindric 771, 2) Chase Briscoe -11, 3) Ross Chastain -63, 4) Noah Gragson -74, 5) Justin Haley -135, 6) Harrison Burton -163, 7) Justin Allgaier -173, 8) Michael Annett -228, 9) Brandon Jones -248, 10) Ryan Sieg -335, 11) Riley Herbst -347, 12) Brandon Brown -368, 13) Jeremy Clements -421, 14) Myatt Snider -441, 15) Daniel Hemric -443, 16) Josh Williams -454.

Note No. 1: Drivers in Bold have locked into the playoffs.
Note No. 2: Drivers in italics in the point standing sections are currently outside of the playoffs.

Playoff Points: 1) Chase Briscoe 28, 2) Austin Cindric -1, 3) Noah Gragson -10, 4) Brandon Jones -16, 5) Harrison Burton -18, t-6) Justin Haley -21, t-6) Justin Allgaier -21, 8) AJ Allmendinger -22, 9) Ryan Sieg -26, 10) Jeb Burton -27.

Stage Points: 1) Austin Cindric 243, 2) Noah Gragson -51, t-3) Chase Briscoe -53, t-3) Justin Allgaier -53, 5) Ross Chastain -55, 6) Brandon Jones -109, 7) Justin Haley -114, 8) Harrison Burton -122, 9) Michael Annett -150, 10) Daniel Hemric -159, 11) Ryan Sieg -168, 12) Riley Herbst -185, 13) Anthony Alfredo -203, 14) Jeb Burton -216, 15) Myatt Snider -222, 16) Brandon Brown -225.

Note: If he were eligible for points, Kyle Busch would be 13th in stage points.

Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chase Briscoe 651, 2) Austin Cindric -36, 3) Ross Chastain -47, 4) Noah Gragson -58, 5) Justin Haley -71, 6) Harrison Burton -87, 7) Michael Annett -127, 8) Justin Allgaier -157, 9) Brandon Jones -187, 10) Brandon Brown -193, 11) Ryan Sieg -212, 12) Riley Herbst -217, 13) Jeremy Clements -234, 14) Josh Williams -261, 15) Myatt Snider -265, 16) Jesse Little -269.

Race Winners: Noah Gragson (Daytona, Bristol), Chase Briscoe (Las Vegas, Darlington, Homestead-2, Pocono, Indianapolis), Harrison Burton (Fontana, Homestead-1), Brandon Jones (Phoenix, Kansas), Kyle Busch (Charlotte), AJ Allmendinger (Atlanta), Justin Haley (Talladega). Austin Cindric (Kentucky-1, Kentucky-2, Texas, Road America)

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.

Austin Hill was in position to win Friday evening at Michigan, but contact on the final restart dropped him to a 12th-place finish.  He was able to all but maintain his advantage, though.  He still holds a 42-point lead.  That is over GMS Racing's Zane Smith, who moved up a place to second after claiming his first victory.  Ben Rhodes dropped to third, but didn't lose any points to Hill after finishing 11th.  Christian Eckes drops to fourth despite finishing second.

Brett Moffitt won stage one and finished sixth Friday, enough to keep him in fifth.  Matt Crafton stays in sixth, but lost ground after finishing 23rd.  Sheldon Creed is up one place to seventh despite battery problems. The gain only happened thanks to 14 stage points.  Grant Enfinger was the best driver in the race, but got spun on the Green-White-Checker and finished 33rd.  That dropped him to eighth.

Derek Kraus spun across the line at the end of the race to finish eighth.  That keeps him in ninth and actually gained him signficant ground on his immediate rivals.  Todd Gilliland is still 10th, the last driver in the playoffs on points.  Gilliland is 29 points ahead of Tyler Ankrum, who finished fourth.  Tanner Gray is up one place to 12th after finishing third.

Johnny Sauter is down one place to 13th after crashing while racing for the lead.  He would eventually finish 16th.  Raphael Lessard is up to 14th despite cutting a tire while leading.  Stewart Friesen crashed out and dropped back to 15th in points, while Ty Majeski is still 16th.

Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Hill 428, 2) Zane Smith -42, 3) Ben Rhodes -43, 4) Christian Eckes -49, 5) Brett Moffitt -53, 6) Matt Crafton -86, 7) Sheldon Creed -88, 8) Grant Enfinger -92, 9) Derek Kraus -98, 10) Todd Gilliland -99, 11) Tyler Ankrum -128, t-12) Tanner Gray -158, 13) Johnny Sauter -171, 14) Raphael Lessard -181, 15) Stewart Friensen -202, 16) Ty Majeski -212. 

Note No. 1: Drivers in bold have locked into the Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series playoffs.

Note No. 2: Drivers in italics in the point standing sections are not in the playoffs.

Playoff Points: 1) Grant Enfinger 11, t-2) Zane Smith -3, t-2) Sheldon Creed -3, 4) Austin Hill -5, 5) Matt Crafton -6, 6) Brett Moffitt -8, 7) Johnny Sauter -10.

Stage Points: 1) Austin Hill 100, t-2) Christian Eckes -1, t-2) Brett Moffitt -1, 4) Ben Rhodes -6, 5) Zane Smith -12, 6) Matt Crafton -21, 7) Sheldon Creed -29, 8) Tyler Ankrum -34, 9) Todd Gilliland -37, 10) Grant Enfinger -38, 11) Derek Kraus -54, 12) Johnny Sauter -61, 13) Raphael Lessard -75, 14) Stewart Friesen -79, 15) Tanner Gray -84, 16) Ty Majeski -87.

Note: If everyone were eligible for stage points, Ross Chastain would be eighth in points, while Kyle Busch would be tied for ninth.  Chase Elliott would be 15th.

Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Hill 291, 2) Ben Rhodes -28, 3) Zane Smith -29, 4) Derek Kraus -41, 5) Christian Eckes -48, 6) Brett Moffitt -52, 7) Grant Enfinger -58, 8) Sheldon Creed -59, 9) Todd Gilliland -67, 10) Matt Crafton -69, 11) Tanner Gray -80, 12) Tyler Ankrum -100, 13) Johnny Sauter -104, 14) Raphael Lessard -111, 15) Stewart Friesen -128, 16) Ty Majeski -132.

Note: If they were eligible for points, Ross Chastain would be 15th in Old School points.

Race Winners: Grant Enfinger (Daytona, Atlanta), Kyle Busch (Las Vegas, Homestead, Texas), Chase Elliott (Charlotte), Brandon Jones (Pocono), Sheldon Creed (Kentucky), Austin Hill (Kansas-1), Matt Crafton (Kansas-2), Zane Smith (Michigan)

Note: Race wins in Italics do not count towards playoff eligibility.

"We are a week to week team. We talked about this years ago. We want to go to the track and worry about one week at a time. We want to be competitive and win as many races as we can and see where it falls in the end. These guys are awesome and when we come to Michigan to ride a car like that is unbelievable." - Kevin Harvick, race winner

"[Kevin Harvick] is just super fast in the corners and the straightaway. He was definitely the best car out here today. We put a good effort to kind of maximize our day and that is what we did, finished second. Proud of everyone on the Discount Tire Ford Mustang team. We will go back to work on it and hopefully find a little bit more for the race tomorrow." - Brad Keselowski, finished second

"It was a good day. I just made a little mistake there and barely rubbed [Tyler Reddick] off [Turn] 2 there and I guess cut both of our tires down. I really don’t know how it happened. My bad on that one. I hate it for Tyler, it messed up his day early as well. We just fought back. The Auto Owners Camry was really strong. If we could ever have gotten to the front, I think we would have had something for them. Lots of restarts and they’re crazy here. A couple of them didn’t work out. The last one did. Really good car and really good job by the guys coming back like that. Just need a little bit more." - Martin Truex Jr., finished third

"I thought our car was really good. I thought our Mustang was pretty good all day. We made a good call there before the competition caution to come in and pit and that cycled us up to 12th or something and we were able to drive to third before that stage and then ran second in the second stage. We took four tires there when we got in our fuel window and it was hard to get through traffic. We didn’t handle good so we came in again with maybe 18 to go and changed it up a little bit and made sure we were good on gas and were able to drive through there. I wish we would have kept third before that last caution because I would have chose the bottom and had a little better shot. I am proud of the effort. The 4 was really fast. We need to work on our stuff a little and I think we can compete a little better tomorrow." - Ryan Blaney, finished fourth

"I don’t know. Definitely got loose. Don’t know whether it was contact or just air. Definitely got loose and had to chase it and catch it. Thankfully, kept it out of the fence. We were able to salvage a fifth. Felt like we had a good second-place car today. The M&M’s Fudge Brownie Toyota Camry was fast. Just nowhere near his (Kevin Harvick) level of fast. The 4 (Harvick) car was just driving away and I was running wide open and couldn’t even draft with him down the straightaways. We definitely didn’t have the speed we needed, but had a good balanced car, good driving car and hopefully we can work on it a little bit tonight and get it better for tomorrow. Just need to be better in traffic and be able to maneuver and be able to pass just a bit more." - Kyle Busch, finished fifth

"I thought we were kind of a second-place car. Once the 4 (Kevin Harvick) was leading there, we were able to stay pretty close to him. He was just so much faster down the straightaway than we were. I’m not sure that we would have been able to do much with him. We were certainly fast in the corners and we were just kind of a second-place car with our FedEx Ground Camry. My crew chief (Chris Gabehart) was concerned about loose lug nuts there around lap 130 when the caution came out so he wanted to come and take tires and work on the car and make sure the lug nuts were tight. That set us back and put us probably 11th or 12th in line. We could only muster coming back to sixth." - Denny Hamlin, finished sixth

"It was a good recovery. A little bit of practice this week would have been nice. That was one of the loosest and out of control race car I have had. At the start of this race. The clean air made us look better than what we were. As soon as I lost clean air I was just trying to hang on. Unfortunately I collected a lot of damage along the way on the back bumper from everyone hitting me. I don’t blame them, I was in the way. Over time, by probably the beginning of the third stage we got close. Not quite to where we needed to. Then there at the end we pitted and may have gotten to the other side of it finally. At least we know where the edge is so we can work on it for tomorrow. We got a top-10 out of it. If you had told me we were going to finish eighth after the first 50 laps of this thing I would have taken it but greed always sets in and you want a little more there at the end. We got our Mustang for tomorrow and we got to the other side of it. We should be in the ballpark." - Joey Logano, finished eighth

"A solid day for us and our Victory Junction Chevrolet. I appreciate everybody back at the shop. I know this whole COVID-19 deal has been tough. I haven’t been able to go to the shop and show my appreciation and how much they really work and make our cars better week in, and week out. So, it’s been fun. We’re in the middle of ‘silly season’ right now, so my mind is there, it’s here. So, to come out with a solid top-10 finish is positive. We’ve got a lot of work to do. I was not happy with the car, but I think that’s the racer mentality. I don’t know if (Kevin) Harvick, (race winner) was happy about his car, either. We always strive to be better, but all in all, it was a solid day. The choose rule. Good job, NASCAR. That was fun. That was cool. It brought be back to the shootout days. I didn’t tick as many people off as I did at the shootout today, so it was all good." - Bubba Wallace, finished ninth

"We had some good speed in our No. 8 Chevrolet Accessories Camaro today at Michigan International Speedway, but we just seemed to get caught up in other people’s messes today. I was able to move up into the top 10 early in the race, but the No. 19 made contact with us when he had a tire go down, which gave our Chevrolet some left rear damage. It felt like we had a tire going down shortly after that, so we were forced to pit under green for fresh left-side tires. We had to fight hard to get our lap back and did, but then our right-rear tire went down and we had to pit to repair that under green as well. Somewhat luckily for us, that tire issue happened close to the end of Stage 2, so we were able to get our lap back with the wave around, stay mostly on sequence with the leaders and really get back in the game. We were making some progress after that and were up inside the top 20 when we got some additional right front damage from another on-track incident, so we had to hit pit road one more time for slight repairs but didn’t lose a lap. We were able to avoid a couple late-race accidents to pick up a few more spots but didn’t quite get to where we wanted to be today. Good news is that we get another shot at it with our No. 8 Chevrolet Accessories Camaro tomorrow." - Tyler Reddick, finished 18th

"Our car wasn’t quite as good as it was yesterday. I think it was obviously still really good, but I had a little bit more trouble going through traffic today than I did yesterday just because of the tight into three that I had today. Like I said earlier, I could still get through one and two really good, but I couldn’t make those great low passes like I could yesterday and stay in the throttle. If I carried too much speed in there I would push up into the center of the corner and just have to pedal the thing on exit." - Kevin Harvick, race winner

"Just needed to maneuver a little bit better and I think that we could be a little better. Overall, our car handled well. Just needed a little more speed there and a little bit more handling to pass. Obviously, I thought we were definitely the fastest car by running [Harvick] down there.

"Once we finally got to second, I knew we had something for [Harvick], I just got stalled there and he was tight, I was tight. We were better, that’s for sure. I thought if I could maybe get to his quarter panel, I could shove him higher and make him tighter, but just couldn’t quite do it. Proud of this whole FedEx Ground Toyota team. We obviously had a very strong run. Just needed a little bit more." - Denny Hamlin, finished second

"We don’t do anything easy, that’s for sure. We were awful at the start of the race. I don’t know, we didn’t make a lot of changes from yesterday. We tried to do different things to try to get better. We definitely were worse. Just have to grind them out, that’s what we do. It’s good to be grinding out top-three finishes, that’s what the Playoffs are all about. We need to get some more points before that starts." - Martin Truex Jr., finished third

"Nothing really. I felt like it was really similar. Again today, our M&M’s Fudge Brownie Camry was good. Top-three car. I felt like the 4 (Kevin Harvick), the 2 (Brad Keselowski), us, the 11 (Denny Hamlin) there at the end was really good. Us and the 19 (Martin Truex Jr.) were the same. Just hard to pass when you get there towards the end and try to make moves on guys and they just block your air and do what they’re supposed to do to prevent you from getting by them. It’s just tough racing like that and I just felt tight there at the end and just couldn’t get anymore. That was about all we were going to get today anyway. That’s on par I guess here at Michigan." - Kyle Busch, finished fourth

"We went down a different direction than what we had yesterday. That’s one of the things that this doubleheader, especially without practice, presents us is an opportunity to learn and try something different. So we went down a little bit different direction. We learned (laughing). I don’t know if it was better or worse. Some things were better and some things were worse, but we learned and that’s important right now, although it’s a very different track than the other ones we go to, but, overall, a top five — it took everything we’ve got to get it, so we’ll just keep forging forward and onto the next one, which is a huge unknown. Overall, I’m proud of the Shell/Pennzoil team. There was a lot of work last night getting our car fixed and getting it back out here and ultimately making it a little bit better and a little bit better finish today." - Joey Logano, finished fifth

"It was tough. The car had our tongue hanging out all day, so it’s good we made improvements from yesterday. We were really struggling yesterday and our team worked super-hard and made some good improvements so we could at least run further up there. We didn’t play a lot of defense all day and had to drive the thing for all it was worth, so just glad we were able to get a top 10 out of it finishing seventh. You can take a car that’s a struggle and something that we’re not satisfied with and struggled with all weekend and make some improvements with, but if we take a car like that and finish seventh with it and move on, that just shows the strength of our team and how we keep getting better. If you can make your bad days a top 10, sometimes that’s all you can hope for." - Matt DiBenedetto, finished seventh

"It was a good day for our Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Off Road/E-Z-GO Chevrolet team. We had to start last after going to a backup car and we were issued a pass-through penalty on lap one for making unapproved adjustments on pit road. Despite the challenges, we stayed on the lead lap in Stage 1, which just shows how fast our Chevy was today. The race played out pretty similar to yesterday with strategy and the call to take fuel-only on our last pit stop. We were digging at the end of the race, moving from outside the top 15 to eighth. I thought we had something for seventh but just ran out of laps. It feels good to work as a team to overcome what we had to, and to finish the race as the first Chevrolet in the field. Thanks to Johnny Morris and Bass Pro Shops, Tracker Off Road and everyone at Textron and E-Z-GO for their support." - Austin Dillon, finished eighth

"We struggled to get the Mountain Dew Chevy dialed in today. It was pretty tight, and we just weren’t able to improve the handling. We squeaked by with a top 10 finish. All in all, it was a decent weekend, but we have some work to do." - Chase Elliott, finished ninth

"That was not what we wanted or needed today. It was just unfortunate events. Greg (Ives) and the guys made great adjustments from yesterday and got the car pretty good. We battled some snug conditions, but the team made great adjustments on pit road. Obviously not the way we wanted to end the double header weekend. We will learn from this and move on to next week." - Alex Bowman, finished 36th (Retired due to Tire Damage)

"Well, yeah. It’s just unfortunate for the whole Penske organization. We had two fast cars battling for the lead and it just stinks that happened. He had a run, like he said, and he didn’t think he had as big of a run as he had and just got loose and, unfortunately, got us both. It’s a shame to end our day like that with the Knauf/Menards Ford Mustang. We were so fast. We had to battle back from having to pit again and got to 10th for the second stage and then got the lead. I was like, ‘All right, we can finally go back at it,’ and just got together there. That’s unfortunate, but it’s not gonna carry over. Things happen. Mistakes happen. It’s just a shame both of us got taken out." - Ryan Blaney, finished 38th (Crashed out)

"I just lost it. It’s my fault. I feel really bad for my teammate, Ryan Blaney. He didn’t deserve that. I just came off of turn four and the 4 car was behind me and he gave me a push and I swear I went into the corner like 20 miles an hour faster than I had been all day and got past the 11 and I went to get underneath the 12 and I just slipped. I lost the back a little bit and when I went to collect it he was there and I wiped him out and myself out, so I feel terrible for everyone at Team Penske and especially Ryan Blaney. Gosh, he didn’t deserve that. I should have whoa’d way up. I had been running wide-open on the bottom all day and thought I could do it again, but with that big push I overestimated the grip and ruined our day." - Brad Keselowski, finished 39th (Crashed out)