Kevin Harvick was strong for much of the race Saturday night.  He led late before fading to a seventh-place finish.  That still allowed him to expand his lead by a couple of points up to 21 over Denny Hamlin.  Hamlin won stage one, but faded to a 12th-place finish.  Despite that, he performed well enough to clinch a spot in the Round of 12 on points.  Brad Keselowski's victory Saturday night clinched a spot in the Round of 12 for him and moved up one place to third.  Joey Logano is down one place to fourth despite finishing third and leading 45 laps.

Martin Truex Jr. claimed his third second-place finish in the last six races.  That moved him up one place to fifth.  Austin Dillon's fourth-place finish moved him up two positions in sixth, his highest-ever position in the playoffs.  Chase Elliott finished fifth and gained a couple of points on the leaders while holding onto seventh.  Alex Bowman finished in the top 10, but dropped three places to eighth.

Kyle Busch moved up one position to ninth after finishing sixth.  Aric Almirola and Kurt Busch are now tied for 10th.  Almirola quietly finished eighth, while Kurt Busch tried a contrarian pit strategy in the final stage.  Unfortunately, pitting once instead of twice put him way off the pace late.  He ended up a lap down in 13th.  Clint Bowyer finished 10th and took sole possession of 12th, the final spot in the Round of 12.

Bowyer's margin is just three points over WIlliam Byron, who struggled much of the evening and finished 21st.  Cole Custer remains in 14th after a 14th-place finish.  Matt DiBenedetto is 15th, 25 points behind Bowyer.  Finally, Ryan Blaney is 16th after finishing 19th.  That's still better than his average finish at Richmond, which was hovering around 25th prior to the race.  Regardless, he's probably going to have to win in Bristol to advance.

Outside of the playoffs, Jimmie Johnson had a miserable night in Richmond.  Wall contact dropped him off the pace early on and he never recovered.  An eventual 31st-place finish actually only cost him a few points.  He's still 55 points ahead of Erik Jones, who finished 22nd.  Tyler Reddick finished 11th and gained 20 points on Johnson, but remains in 19th.  Christopher Bell is still in 20th after finishing 15th.

Round of 16 Point Standings: 1) Kevin Harvick 2143, 2) Denny Hamlin -21, 3) Brad Keselowski -31, 4) Joey Logano -34, 5) Martin Truex Jr. -47, 6) Austin Dillon -49, 7) Chase Elliott -57, 8) Alex Bowman -58, 9) Kyle Busch -67, t-10) Aric Almirola -78, t-10) Kurt Busch -78, 12) Clint Bowyer -82, 13) William Byron -85, 14) Cole Custer -90, 15) Matt DiBenedetto -107, 16) Ryan Blaney -109.

Note: Drivers in Bold have locked into the Round of 12.
 

Best of the Rest: 17) Jimmie Johnson 700, 18) Erik Jones -55, 19) Tyler Reddick -81, 20) Christopher Bell -189, 21) Chris Buescher -198, 22) Michael McDowell -215, 23) Bubba Wallace -218, 24) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -227, 25) Ryan Newman -276, 26) Matt Kenseth -282.

Regular Season Point Standings (1-16): 1) Kevin Harvick 1144, 2) Denny Hamlin -126, 3) Brad Keselowski -148, 4) Martin Truex Jr. -175, 5) Joey Logano -191, 6) Chase Elliott -234, 7) Ryan Blaney -265, 8) Aric Almirola -325, 9) Kyle Busch -347, 10) Kurt Busch -370, t-11) Alex Bowman -376, t-11) Clint Bowyer -376, 13) William Byron -417, 14) Matt DiBenedetto -442, 15) Jimmie Johnson -444, 16) Austin Dillon -482.

Outside the Top 16, but Still In The Playoffs: 19) Cole Custer -620.

Playoff Points: 1) Kevin Harvick 62, 2) Denny Hamlin -14, 3) Brad Keselowski -27, 4) Joey Logano -40, 5) Chase Elliott -42, 6) Martin Truex Jr. -46, 7) Ryan Blaney -49, 8) Alex Bowman -53, 9) William Byron -55, t-10) Austin Dillon -57, t-10) Cole Custer -57, t-10) Aric Almirola -57, 13) Clint Bowyer -58, 14) Kyle Busch -59, 15) Kurt Busch -61, 16) Matt DiBenedetto -62.

Stage Points: 1) Ryan Blaney 271, 2) Joey Logano -4, 3) Kevin Harvick -15, 4) Martin Truex Jr. -24, 5) Denny Hamlin -47, 6) Chase Elliott -57, 7) Brad Keselowski -66, 8) Alex Bowman -87, 9) Kyle Busch -98, 10) Clint Bowyer -139, 11) Aric Almirola -141, 12) Jimmie Johnson -143, 13) William Byron -146, 14) Matt DiBenedetto -176, 15) Kurt Busch -178, 16) Erik Jones -181.

Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Kevin Harvick 1020, 2) Denny Hamlin -96, 3) Brad Keselowski -104, 4) Martin Truex Jr. -171, 5) Joey Logano -202, 6) Chase Elliott -204, 7) Aric Almirola -207, 8) Kurt Busch -236, 9) Clint Bowyer -270, 10) Kyle Busch -276, 11) Ryan Blaney -288, 12) Matt DiBenedetto -293, 13) William Byron -305, 14) Alex Bowman -315, 15) Austin Dillon -332, 16) Jimmie Johnson -340.

Outside of the Top 16, But Still In Playoffs: 19) Cole Custer -412.

Race Winners: Denny Hamlin (Daytona-1, Darlington-2, Homestead, Pocono-2, Kansas, Dover-1), Joey Logano (Las Vegas, Phoenix), Alex Bowman (Fontana), Kevin Harvick (Darlington-1, Atlanta, Pocono-1, Indianapolis, Michigan-1, Michigan-2, Dover-2, Darlington-3), Brad Keselowski (Charlotte-1, Bristol, Loudon, Richmond), Chase Elliott (Charlotte-2, Daytona-2), Martin Truex Jr. (Martinsville), Ryan Blaney (Talladega), Cole Custer (Kentucky), Austin Dillon (Texas), William Byron (Daytona-3)

 
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 ran well last weekend in Richmond, finishing fourth Friday night and 10th Saturday afternoon.  That was enough to give him a 71-point lead in the standings.  That clinches the Xfinity Series regular season championship and guarantees him 15 additional playoff points (those won't be added here until after this Friday night's Food City 300 at Bristol).  Chase Briscoe remains in second, but struggled.  His finishes of 11th and 16th are far behind where he usually finishes.  Ross Chastain is in third, but earned two top five finishes.  That allowed him to close within three points of Briscoe after entering Richmond 40 points behind him.  Noah Gragson is still in fourth, but is now more than a full race behind Chastain.

Justin Haley is up one place to fifth after an excellent weekend.  He could have won Friday night before fading late and finishing second.  He followed that up with a sixth-place finish Saturday.  Justin Allgaier is up one place to sixth after winning both races.  Harrison Burton is down two spots to seventh after struggling to 16th on Friday night before rebounding to finish fourth on Saturday.  Michael Annett moves up one place to eighth after finishing seventh in both races.

Brandon Jones struggled with handling last weekend and dropped to ninth in points after finishes of 14th and eighth.  Riley Herbst is still 10th after finishing 10th on Friday, but crashing out late on Saturday.  Ryan Sieg is still in 11th after a couple of mediocre finishes.  Brandon Brown continues to hold onto the final spot in the playoffs after finishes of 18th and 11th in Richmond.

Brown's margin over Jeremy Clements is now a comfortable 49 points.  While he did finish ahead of Brown Friday night, two 17th-place finishes didn't do him any favors.  He is also the only driver currently outside of the playoffs that can race their way in on points.  Myatt Snider had a miserable weekend.  He crashed out Friday night, then finished 31st on Sunday.  Regardless, he still held onto 14th in points.  Alex Labbe is up a couple of places to 15th, while Josh Williams drops back to 16th.

Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Cindric 1085, 2) Chase Briscoe -71, 3) Ross Chastain -74, 4) Noah Gragson -132, 5) Justin Haley -206, 6) Justin Allgaier -219, 7) Harrison Burton -230, 8) Michael Annett -316, 9) Brandon Jones -327, 10) Riley Herbst -441, 11) Ryan Sieg -469, 12) Brandon Brown -548, 13) Jeremy Clements -597, 14) Myatt Snider -636, 15) Alex Labbe -647, 16) Josh Williams -650.

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: t-1) Austin Cindric 35, t-1) Chase Briscoe 35, 3) Justin Allgaier -10, 4) Noah Gragson -17, 5) Brandon Jones -18, 6) Justin Haley -22, 7) Harrison Burton -25, 8) AJ Allmendinger -28, t-9) Ross Chastain -33, t-9) Ryan Sieg -33, 11) Jeb Burton -34.

Stage Points: 1) Austin Cindric 334, 2) Ross Chastain -45, 3) Justin Allgaier -68, 4) Chase Briscoe -72, 5) Noah Gragson -81, 6) Justin Haley -147, t-7) Brandon Jones -170, t-7) Harrison Burton -170, 9) Michael Annett -213, 10) Riley Herbst -231, 11) Daniel Hemric -242, 12) Ryan Sieg -248, 13) Jeb Burton -292, 14) Anthony Alfredo -294, t-15) AJ Allmendinger -305, t-15) Brandon Brown -305.

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

Old Point Standings (1-16): t-1) Chase Briscoe 869, t-1) Austin Cindric 869, 3) Ross Chastain -30, 4) Noah Gragson -49, 5) Harrison Burton -72, 6) Justin Haley -76, 7) Michael Annett -118, 8) Justin Allgaier -151, 9) Brandon Jones -169, 10) Riley Herbst -221, 11) Ryan Sieg -232, 12) Brandon Brown -259, 13) Jeremy Clements -289, 14) Josh Williams -333, 15) Myatt Snider -336, 16) Alex Labbe -339.

Race Winners: Noah Gragson (Daytona-1, Bristol), Chase Briscoe (Las Vegas, Darlington-1, Homestead-2, Pocono, Indianapolis, Dover-2), Harrison Burton (Fontana, Homestead-1), Brandon Jones (Phoenix, Kansas, Darlington-2), Kyle Busch (Charlotte), AJ Allmendinger (Atlanta), Justin Haley (Talladega, Daytona-3). Austin Cindric (Kentucky-1, Kentucky-2, Texas, Road America, Daytona-2), Justin Allgaier (Dover-1, Richmond-1, Richmond-2)

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

"It was a great race for us and the 2 team. This is, I think my car from Loudon, and I wanted to do a really cool burnout with it, but I want this car for Phoenix. It’s 2-for-2 and I’m real pumped. I don’t want to look too far ahead. We’ve got to get there. The next round is gonna be really difficult, but, still, I’m really pumped about this performance and the way we run at short tracks. I felt like coming in here with the Western Star/Alliance Ford Mustang that we would run well, but this thing was awesome." - Brad Keselowski, race winner

"I don’t know, just never really could get the balance right all night. It was slow on the short run early and slow on the long run late. Somewhere in between we would be pretty competitive, but we just never could really put it all together. I was really surprised that we ran second with how it felt early in the rave. I was like, ‘Oh boy, this is going to be a long night.’ Obviously, quite a different deal with this tire. It felt a lot different to me and the things that were really good the past few years, I couldn’t do them. Needed a little practice time, maybe needed another stab at it. Overall, obviously solid day for our Bass Pro Toyota Camry. Thanks to everybody who helps us and makes this possible and all the guys at the shop. It was a good rebound week. Obviously, want to win every one of them, but if we can run top two or three every week like we’ve been for a while now, we’ll be where we want to be." - Martin Truex Jr., finished second

"It was a pretty calm race and we just kind of hung around in the top three the whole time. I felt like our car was pretty good in the beginning of the race. The track kind of tightened up a little bit and we lost a little bit of speed to the 19 and the 3 a little bit and also, obviously, the 2. Congrats to those guys. They were fast today. It just seemed like if we fixed the turn I got loose off, so it seemed like pick your poison a little bit. It just seemed like we had third to fourth-place speed in our car and we finished third with the Shell/Pennzoil Mustang. We’re doing what we have to do. We scored stage points and a top five and puts us in a pretty good spot for next weekend. I’m proud of the effort and proud of what we’ve picked up here lately since the playoffs started. We just have to keep it rolling. If we keep getting top fives we’ll get all the way to Phoenix. We just have to keep doing that." - Joey Logano, finished third

"I feel like I gave one away tonight. Our Dow NORKOOL Chevrolet was so fast tonight. We had a massive day for stage points, which is going to help us out big picture-wise. We had a speeding penalty in Stage 1, and to come from the back to the front in that Stage just shows how fast our Chevy was tonight. This No. 3 team is on fire right now and showing up when it matters. I have a line here and it’s been working. I run a little lower on the straightaway and it gives me good forward drive. I saw some other drivers start picking it up and laying the rubber down on that line. It might have hurt us a little bit at the end of the race, but the biggest thing is when we came to pit road for our second green-flag stop in Stage 3 we were trying to bring everybody down. The No. 1 car was in my mirror on tires. I overdrove that entry just a little bit thinking that I needed to avoid getting rear-ended, and then it was like ‘Oh no, I’m going to hit the red box’ so I had to make another lap around the track. That cost us three seconds. It probably killed our deal, but it was still early, so who knows. It was a lot of fun out here tonight and I think we had the best car tonight, so thanks to Justin Alexander and everyone at RCR and ECR for giving us a solid Chevy tonight. We’re headed to Bristol Motor Speedway in a good spot and it’s exciting to know we still have eight more chances to try and get another win. Our confidence level for Bristol is pretty high." - Austin Dillon, finished fourth

"First off, we were way better than we’ve been here, probably ever, so I thought that was a big improvement for us. We really needed it here. This has been a really, really tough track for us. I thought we got our NAPA Auto Parts Camaro good, especially through the middle portion. Just got a little behind, I think, as the race went on to roll the center as good as we needed to late in a run. But, we were way, way better than we’ve ever been here I feel like before. And consistently all night, too. I thought that was a pretty big step for us at a track that we’ve really struggled at." - Chase Elliott, finished fifth

"Kind of same as last night. Just not quite enough turn in the middle of the corner to keep wrapping on the long runs. The short runs it seemed like I was actually a little bit loose and then it was starting to go a little bit tight and then it was tight loose. Just not enough overall grip I guess. Kind of been fighting that a little bit this year. The guys gave a great fight. Adam (Stevens, crew chief) not being here and I thought Jacob [Canter, fill-in crew chief] did a great job. We all know Adam [Stevens] was back at home. Want to say hi to Samantha and Brexton back at home. I know they went go-kart racing this afternoon so they had a good time I’m sure. We’ll check in with them. Overall, that’s all we had. We fought hard with our M&M’s Camry and we came up short of a top five." - Kyle Busch, finished sixth

"How about that? We ended up top-10 at Richmond. That is like a miracle. We had a really good car and definitely better than a ninth-place car. I made my fair share of mistakes and we had some issues getting on and off pit road. We lost some time there. I am pumped for Truck Hero and CHEVYGOODS.com. It is really weird to be this pumped about running ninth, especially when we had a much better car than ninth. Last time we were here we ran, I think, 24th. This is good momentum for us going into the cutoff race next week in Bristol." - Alex Bowman, finished eighth

"Certainly, Johnny [Klausmeier] being back home and Greg [Zipadelli] did a good job of filling in and making decent adjustments, but we were just off a click. Honestly, I thought we’d come to Richmond and run better than that. We needed to run better than that. 10th-place isn’t gonna cut it when you get in the playoffs. We’re looking for more than that on these short tracks in particular. We’ve still got one more. It’s a lot of fun going to Bristol. Being nervous about something there’s a sense of fun in that. I’m looking forward to next weekend and seeing how it all shakes out. We were good last time there and there’s no reason why we can’t be it again." - Clint Bowyer, finished 10th

"I think Richmond Raceway is one the most challenging tracks on the circuit, but my No. 8 Cat Rental Store team did a great job tonight helping me find my rhythm and build a strong run out there with our Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. Not having any practice here for my first Cup start, it took me a little bit of time in the first Stage to figure out how the best way to get around here with the balance I had in our car. My whole team did a great job of analyzing the SMT data available to us in real-time and relaying to my spotter, Derek Kneeland, on what I needed to be doing differently on track to gain spots out there. That data really did help and made a ton of difference in our night. Between that feedback and the changes, we made during our pit stops tonight, I was able to become more confident in the car and run harder earlier in each run of the night. I needed just a little more on the short runs to get going, but overall, this was one of better races we’ve had in the last few weeks. We’ll take this and continue to fight next week at another short track." - Tyler Reddick, finished 11th

"Well, we lost some track position. It just seemed like once the track rubbered up, we just weren’t any good. We couldn’t get off the corner good, couldn’t get in the corner. Just nothing was really very good with it. I want to thank everyone from FedEx Cares for putting this car on the race track. This definitely means a lot to people I spoke to last week with the National Urban League, so thank you everyone. We will move on to the next round and go have some fun next week and see how we do."- Denny Hamlin, finished 12th

"Our pit strategy just didn’t turn out the way that we had hoped. We really had to work hard early in the race to manage the tires and an ill-handling car. The guys did a nice job working on the balance, to make the Monster Energy Chevy better on the long runs. With no cautions to help us out we just weren’t able to catch a break that we needed. Who ever thought we would [have] a short track [race] with no unplanned cautions?" - Kurt Busch, finished 13th

"We have to win next weekend. It is pretty plain and simple. With the bad couple of races we have had here to start the playoffs off, we probably need to go out there and win Bristol. That is our mindset. That is our goal. It is our goal every week to win the race but now it is our season on the line. We will see if we can get it done. We have been pretty close at Bristol before, it is just a matter of trying to put a whole race together there." - Ryan Blaney, finished 19th

"It is what it is – we ran horrible tonight and no excuse for that. It was really kind of a slow death the entire race, so we’ll go to Bristol and regroup for that one." - William Byron, finished 21st

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