Kevin Harvick had a number of issues Sunday, most notably being spun out by Christopher Bell in front of nearly the entire field on a restart.  Harvick finished 17th and lost quite a few points.  Luckily, he still has a near-two race lead over Denny Hamlin.  Hamlin moved up one place after winning stage two and finishing second.  Brad Keselowski missed chicanes multiple times and struggled to a 13th-place finish, dropping to third in the process.  Chase Elliott's victory moved him up one place to fourth.

Ryan Blaney is down one place to fifth after finishing in a very disappointing 31st.  Joey Logano gambled on pitting under the final caution and failed to get back to where he was before he stopped.  His ninth-place finish was enough to hold onto sixth.  Martin Truex Jr. remains in seventh, but gained points after leading laps and finishing seventh.  Aric Almirola is eighth after a 24th-place finish.

Kurt Busch is back up to ninth after finishing 14th.  Kurt jumped over his younger brother Kyle, who had a brake rotor fail while running second.  After repairs in the garage, Kyle blew both rear tires at the same time to bring out the final yellow.  A 37th-place finish puts him in 10th.  Clint Bowyer moved up to 11th on the strength of a race-high 16 stage points and a sixth-place finish.  Alex Bowman is down one place to 12th after dropping a lap due to a blown tire before getting back up to 12th.

Matt DiBenedetto remains in 13th after finishing 15th.  William Byron is still the last driver in the playoffs in 14th after finishing eighth.  Byron's margin is 25 points over teammate Jimmie Johnson, who finished fourth.  Erik Jones is down to 16th after finishing 11th.

Tyler Reddick had a quiet run to 18th on Sunday.  That was enough to give him sole possession of 17th in points.  Teammate Austin Dillon is now 18th after having to miss Sunday's race after testing positive for COVID-19.  Bell is still 19th after spinning out multiple times and finishing 21st.  He is a full 70 points behind Dillon.  Cole Custer is 20th.

Point Standings (1-16): 1) Kevin Harvick 939, 2) Denny Hamlin -118, 3) Brad Keselowski -136, 4) Chase Elliott -164, 5) Ryan Blaney -184, 6) Joey Logano -185, 7) Martin Truex Jr. -186, 8) Aric Almirola -257, 9) Kurt Busch -266, 10) Kyle Busch -287, 11) Clint Bowyer -321, 12) Alex Bowman -329, 13) Matt DiBenedetto -343, 14) William Byron -362, 15) Jimmie Johnson -387, 16) Erik Jones -397.

Outside the Top 16, but Still In The Playoffs: 18) Austin Dillon -438, 20) Cole Custer -526.

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

Playoff Points: 1) Kevin Harvick 35, 2) Denny Hamlin -5, 3) Brad Keselowski -14, 4) Chase Elliott -19, 5) Joey Logano -21, 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 238, 2) Kevin Harvick -36, t-3) Chase Elliott -50, t-3) Joey Logano -50, t-5) Martin Truex Jr. -61, 6) Denny Hamlin -70, 7) Brad Keselowski -76, 8) Alex Bowman -82, 9) Kyle Busch -85, 10) Aric Almirola -119, 11) William Byron -138, 12) Clint Bowyer -141, 13) Matt DiBenedetto -153, 14) Erik Jones -161, 15) Jimmie Johnson -167, 16) Kurt Busch -171.

Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Kevin Harvick 837, 2) Denny Hamlin -78, 3) Brad Keselowski -96, 4) Kurt Busch -153, 5) Chase Elliott -158, 6) Martin Truex Jr. -165, 7) Aric Almirola -172, 8) Joey Logano -181, 9) Ryan Blaney -227, 10) Matt DiBenedetto -230, 11) Clint Bowyer -231, 12) Kyle Busch -241, 13) William Byron -273, 14) Erik Jones -280, 15) Tyler Reddick -283, 16) Jimmie Johnson -287.

Outside of the Top 16, But Still In Playoffs: 17) Alex Bowman -291, 18) Alex Bowman - 301, t-21) Cole Custer -357.

Race Winners: Denny Hamlin (Daytona-1, 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, Daytona-2), Ryan Blaney (Talladega), Cole Custer (Kentucky), Austin Dillon (Texas)

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

Austin Cindric once again brought his A-game to Daytona, taking his fifth win in the last six races.  That allowed him to expand his lead even more.  It is now 48 points over Chase Briscoe, who won stage two, but crashed out late and finished 29th.  Noah Gragson is up one place to third after finishing third despite spinning into the tires out of the lead at one point.  Ross Chastain is down one place to fourth after he ripped the transmission out of his car in the opening laps Saturday.

Harrison Burton is up one place to fifth after finishing eighth.  Justin Haley is down one place to sixth after ripping up the front end of his car on the sand in the Bus Stop chicane and finishing 38th.  Justin Allgaier finished ninth and holds onto the seventh spot.  Michael Annett finished 15th Saturday and is still eighth.

Brandon Jones gained on Annett with his second-place finish, cutting his deficit from 20 points to six.  Riley Herbst and Ryan Sieg are now tied for 10th (Herbst gets the tiebreaker).  Despite no less than four spins, Herbst finished seventh Saturday.  Sieg ended up 11th.  Brandon Brown is still the last driver in the playoffs in 12th.

Brown's advantage is 28 points over Jeremy Clements, who finished sixth Saturday.  Myatt Snider finished 10th and moved up to 14th.  Alex Labbe benefited greatly from winning his appeal last week.  He's up to 15th after a 27th-place finish.  Josh Williams remains in 16th despite spinning in the Bus Stop chicane and ripping up his nose on a couple of Go Bowling placards.

Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Cindric 830, 2) Chase Briscoe -48, 3) Noah Gragson -90, 4) Ross Chastain -121, 5) Harrison Burton -185, 6) Justin Haley -193, 7) Justin Allgaier -197, 8) Michael Annett -263, 9) Brandon Jones -269, t-10) Riley Herbst -368, t-10) Ryan Sieg -368, 12) Brandon Brown -421, 13) Jeremy Clements -449, 14) Myatt Snider -473, 15) Alex Labbe -497, 16) Josh Williams -500.

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) Austin Cindric 33, 2) Chase Briscoe -4, 3) Noah Gragson -15, 4) Brandon Jones -21, 5) Harrison Burton -23, t-6) Justin Haley -26, t-6) Justin Allgaier -26, 8) AJ Allmendinger -27, 9) Ryan Sieg -31, 10) Jeb Burton -32.

Stage Points: 1) Austin Cindric 262, 2) Chase Briscoe -58, 3) Noah Gragson -61, 4) Justin Allgaier -65, 5) Ross Chastain -74, 6) Brandon Jones -125, t-7) Harrison Burton -133, t-7) Justin Haley -133, 9) Michael Annett -167, 10) Daniel Hemric -178, 11) Ryan Sieg -187, 12) Riley Herbst -196, 13) Anthony Alfredo -222, 14) Jeb Burton -235, t-15) Brandon Brown -241, t-15) Myatt Snider -241.

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

Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chase Briscoe 665, 2) Austin Cindric -6, 3) Noah Gragson -33, 4) Ross Chastain -56, 5) Justin Haley -68, 6) Justin Haley -82, 7) Michael Annett -115, 8) Justin Allgaier -139, 9) Brandon Jones -161, 10) Ryan Sieg -196, 11) Riley Herbst -197, 12) Brandon Brown -200, 13) Jeremy Clements -213, 14) Myatt Snider -248, 15) Josh Williams -258, 16) Jesse Little -260.

Race Winners: Noah Gragson (Daytona-1, 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, Daytona-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.

Austin Hill was strong once again Sunday in Daytona, earning 16 stage points and finishing fifth.  That allowed him to expand his lead up to 54 points.  That margin is over new second-place man Brett Moffitt, who won a stage point and finished second.  Zane Smith had some trouble Sunday and finished 13th, dropping him to third.  Ben Rhodes is down one place to fourth after spinning out in the Bus Stop chicane on Lap 42 and finishing 14th.

Christian Eckes is down one place to fifth after getting spun into the grass at the finish and junking his truck.  He did make it across the line to finish 12th.  Sheldon Creed's victory moved him up to sixth and gives him the most playoff points (at the moment) with 14.  Despite finishing fourth, Matt Crafton dropped down to seventh.  Grant Enfinger is still in eighth after finishing in a quiet seventh.

Tyler Ankrum scored 12 stage points and finished sixth.  That allowed him to move up two places to ninth and back into the playoffs.  Todd Gilliland had overheating problems that forced him to retire early.  The 33rd-place finish didn't cost him a spot, but he lost a lot of ground.  He is still the last driver in the playoffs.  He has a two-point advantage over Derek Kraus, who had a miserable day Sunday that ended with electrical issues on Lap 41.  Tanner Gray is still in 12th after finishing 15th.

Raphael Lessard had his best day of the season Sunday, leading laps and finishing third.  That moved him up to 13th, displacing Johnny Sauter, who missed chicanes multiple times and finished 21st.  Stewart Friesen is still 15th after a top 10 finish, while Ty Majeski is still 16th.

Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Hill 476, 2) Brett Moffitt -54, 3) Zane Smith -59, 4) Ben Rhodes -63, 5) Christian Eckes -64, 6) Sheldon Creed -77, 7) Matt Crafton -101, 8) Grant Enfinger -110, 9) Tyler Ankrum -133, 10) Todd Gilliland -136, 11) Derek Kraus -138, 12) Tanner Gray -181, 13) Raphael Lessard -191, 14) Johnny Sauter -203, 15) Stewart Friesen -223, 16) Ty Majeski -254. 

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) Sheldon Creed 14, 2) Grant Enfinger -3, 3) Zane Smith -6, 4) Austin Hill -8, 5) Matt Crafton -9, 6) Brett Moffitt -10, 7) Johnny Sauter -13.

Stage Points: 1) Austin Hill 116, 2) Brett Moffitt -5, 3) Christian Eckes -9, 4) Ben Rhodes -17, 5) Zane Smith -21, 6) Sheldon Creed -26, 7) Matt Crafton -37, 8) Tyler Ankrum -38, 9) Todd Gilliland -47, 10) Grant Enfinger -54, 11) Derek Kraus -69, 12) Johnny Sauter -77, 13) Raphael Lessard -87, 14) Stewart Friesen -95, 15) Tanner Gray -97, 16) Ty Majeski -102.

Note: If everyone were eligible for stage points, Ross Chastain would be tied for ninth in points, while Kyle Busch would be 11th.  Chase Elliott would be 16th.

Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Hill 320, t-2) Zane Smith -38, t-2) Ben Rhodes -38, 4) Brett Moffitt -49, 5) Sheldon Creed -51, 6) Christian Eckes -55, 7) Grant Enfinger -61, 8) Derek Kraus -67, 9) Matt Crafton -68, 10) Tanner Gray -91, 11) Todd Gilliland -95, 12) Tyler Ankrum -102, 13) Raphael Lessard -109, 14) Johnny Sauter -121, 15) Stewart Friesen -134, 16) Ty Majeski -160.

Note: If they were eligible for points, Ross Chastain would be 12th in Old School points.

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

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.

"Our guys did a phenomenal job. We just had a phenomenal car. I don’t think I did anything very special today. I think Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) and all our guys did a really good job pitting there at the start. We made a couple really small adjustments, I felt like, there, at that first stop and I was really kind of able to leave it after that. So, I just appreciate everybody that makes this happen. Thanks to the fans. Good to see you guys back. Appreciate you all coming out. And, just thanks to all our partners and Chevrolet. I spent a lot of time with them this past week. A special thanks to Jordan Taylor and Boris Said for reaching out and being willing to help this weekend; some road course ringers. I tried to lean on them and luckily everything worked out." - Chase Elliott, race winner

"I just would have liked to have stayed closer to him (Chase Elliott) to put a little pressure on entries. My entries were the strong point against him, but I was giving him four car lengths so he could kind of drive the entries the way he wanted to make sure he got a good exit. I wasn’t quite clean enough the last few laps, but I definitely gave myself a chance. Those last couple corners, I felt like I did as much as I could to get to him and tried to do it the right way.

"This is a made road course – this road course has been here a long time. Unlike Charlotte, where they kind of made one after years of being a race track. This was made for a road course. It’s got more braking points, more passing zones than Charlotte, it’s wider. I like this track. It’s definitely got some racing characteristics to it where if you have a good car, you can get to the front. The Roval is a little tougher where it’s more of an attrition-type race. Either way, still like road racing. It’s fun and this is another good second-place finish. I think that’s four of the last five. We’re running well." - Denny Hamlin, finished second

"Just a strong run for our Bass Pro Toyota. Thought we had a chance to win, no doubt about it. Just got caught speeding on pit road. Had to go to the rear and then got damage so we had to go to the rear again. We passed a lot of cars that last run. I know we had the speed at the end there, we were faster than anyone. Just ran out of time, but that’s how it goes. Proud of everybody on the team and still feeling really good about these road courses." - Martin Truex Jr., finished third

"That was just a fun day for our Fastenal Ford Mustang team. We needed that after a couple of hard weeks. Some decent runs and some bad luck and that was fun. I was able to mix it up and steadily work our way forward. We kept learning as we went and there at the end we got beat up. All four corners of this Mustang are beat up but we got the finish out of it. That was a good one. A good day." - Chris Buescher, finished fifth

"We did what we needed to do today. We had a great Mobil 1 Ford. I thought it was going to be even better there at the end, but we must have gotten hot. (William Byron) got me on the restart and then another car got by me. If I didn’t have anything to lose there I might have been able to get a few more back. But that was a good points day. I hope we are on a roll and we continue this at Dover." - Clint Bowyer, finished sixth

"I never thought my NASCAR Cup Series debut would come in this nature. I first want to say that I’m thankful that Austin’s symptoms are mild and that his wife Whitney and baby Ace are healthy. I hope to see him back in the car next week at Dover International Speedway. It certainly was an honor to get the call from Richard Childress and drive his iconic No. 3 American Ethanol Chevrolet. I honestly had a blast. These Cup cars have so much power, which I really enjoyed. Today exceeded my expectations. My goal was to come in today, run all the laps, not tear anything up, and get a top-30 finish so this is certainly far above my wildest dreams. Justin Alexander called an excellent strategic race, which really helped us get up there and compete inside the top-20 most of the day. We were able to lead laps in my NASCAR Cup Series debut, and it was fun to mix it up with some of my childhood heroes. Before the last caution, I made a bold, three-wide move on a restart, which got us a ton of positions. I don’t really know what I was thinking, but it worked and put us around 12th. We were in pretty good shape with some fresher tires than the guys ahead of us and opted to stay out under the last caution. We were able to pick off a few more of those guys to finish comfortably inside the top-10. I can’t thank everyone enough for giving me this opportunity: Richard, American Ethanol, and Chevrolet. Today was a dream come true and I hope I made everyone in Welcome, all of the guys on the No. 3 team, Austin Dillon and all of RCR’s partners proud. That green No. 3 American Ethanol Chevrolet is iconic and it meant a lot to be able to sport American Ethanol’s colors today. I hope to have the opportunity to be racing on Sundays in the future." - Kaz Grala, finished seventh

"It was a good result for us today. We chose to go for the stage points and had to pass our way through the field a few times because of that strategy. I think we did a nice job of that and getting a lot of those available points. Once we got towards the front top five we kind of stalled out though. Overall, I’m pretty happy with today and getting a good result. We just need to have a couple good weeks with solid races when we go on to Dover for two races and back to Daytona. I’m looking forward to Dover next week for sure though." - William Byron, finished eighth

"We are starting to get some consistency which is good. We tried some interesting strategy stuff today. It didn’t work but we were able to recover for a top-10. Overall, we know what we need to work on for the Roval with our Mustang and we will go to work. [Chase Elliott] obviously has been really good at these road courses, especially with this tire. We have to find some rear drive. That is where he was beating everybody. We will go to work and try to find it." - Joey Logano, finished ninth

"It was a decent day. We had high hopes which is good. You should come to places like this where we have a lot of experience and track knowledge. Unfortunately, we started really deep in the field and we were able to drive up to the top-10 there before the end of the first stage and then we talked about it and it was all about trying to win a race for us. We didn’t try to get stage points. We came in with a few laps to go and we were able to get into the top five and get to third. I saw those rain clouds coming and I thought that was exactly what I needed. I was hoping that it would rain because I have experience on this course in the rain and the others guys don’t really. We lost a little bit there at the end and got passed by guys that had fresher tires. We still managed to get in the top six or seven and then that caution came out with five to go. We knew we weren’t going to beat Chase and those guys up front on the same tires so we just took tires." - Michael McDowell, finished 10th

"That wasn’t a whole lot of fun. Started the race and tried to work our way through there and go through a cycle of green-flag pit stops and then had a flat left rear. We didn’t hit anything, so that was a big bummer. We had to pit again and then went a lap down, so we had to come back from that. We passed a lot of cars and got the lucky dog and then had to start in the back again for the third time. We drove up to 11th there before the last caution. We just had the wrong restart lane and couldn’t really go. We were down on forward drive, but pretty good by ourselves. Proud of this Axalta team for how they recovered, but a bummer to lose those four spots on that last lap." - Alex Bowman, finished 12th

"That isn’t quite what we wanted here today. I spent the first half of the race just trying to feel out the racecar, and get to the points that I like on the course. After the red flag, we finally got our car where we wanted and started to move up. We were getting close to that top-15 and I made a mistake. I don’t normally miss shifts but I missed two shifts to fourth (gear) and over revved the motor. When I did I lost fourth gear. We were here in Daytona to run well on this road course – not have to change the transmission just to go back out there and run around 20 laps down. We will be back here in two weeks and see if we can get a good one for the old No. 62 Beard Oil Chevy." - Brendan Gaughan, finished 39th (Blown engine)

Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com.