Kevin Harvick had an off-night in Las Vegas.  However, this was one of those nights where champions shine.  He was able to take a mediocre car and finish 10th with it.  Despite that finish, he lost almost all of his points lead.  His advantage is a mere three points over Denny Hamlin.  Hamlin led a race-high 121 laps, but got caught out on pit strategy.  Despite that, he charged back to finish third.  Brad Keselowski remains in third after finishing 13th.  Martin Truex Jr. is up one place to fourth after finishing fourth.

Joey Logano is down one place to fifth after early contact with Kyle Busch created a tire rub.  Logano spent the majority of the race a lap down, but got back on the lead lap late and finished 14th.  Chase Elliott won stage two, but fell back late and finished 22nd.  Despite that, he remains in sixth.  Alex Bowman's fifth-place finish kept him in seventh, but he is now the last driver in the Round of 8 on points at the moment.  Kyle Busch is up two places to eighth after finishing sixth Sunday night, but is still on the outside looking into the Round of 8.

Kurt Busch's somewhat unexpected victory locked him into the Round of 8, but only moved him up from 12th to ninth in points.  Clint Bowyer has sole possession of 10th after finishing 12th, while Aric Almirola dropped from a tie for eighth to 11th.  Austin Dillon scored 10 stage points, then had a horrible final stage.  First, a penalty dropped him to the back of the lead lap.  Then, the car threw a belt, requiring an unscheduled stop for repairs under green.  The resulting 32nd-place finish dropped Dillon from eighth to 12th, 32 points behind Bowman.

Outside of the playoffs, Ryan Blaney moved up two places to 13th after a solid run to seventh.  Matt DiBenedetto's second-place finish moved him up two places to 14th.  Cole Custer dropped two places to 15th after a quiet run to 16th.  William Byron spun late and finished 25th, dropping him to 16th.

Jimmie Johnson finished 11th and holds onto 17th.  He is 36 points ahead of Erik Jones, who finished eighth.  Tyler Reddick smacked the wall right before the end of stage two and was unable to continue.  He stays in 19th, but is nearly a full race behind Jones.  Chris Buescher's top 10 finish keeps him in 20th.

Round of 12 Point Standings: 1) Kevin Harvick 3104, 2) Denny Hamlin -3, 3) Brad Keselowski -45, 4) Martin Truex Jr. -46, 5) Joey Logano -50, 6) Chase Elliott -51, 7) Alex Bowman -52, 8) Kyle Busch -61, 9) Kurt Busch -63, 10) Clint Bowyer -72, 11) Aric Almirola -79, 12) Austin Dillon -84.

Note: Drivers in Bold have locked into the Round of 8.

Note No. 2: Drivers in Italics in current points are in danger of being eliminated.

Best of the Rest: 13) Ryan Blaney 2098, 14) Matt DiBenedetto -6, 15) Cole Custer -10, 16) William Byron -23, 17) Jimmie Johnson -1352, 18) Erik Jones -1388, 19) Tyler Reddick -1445, 20) Chris Buescher -1540, 21) Christopher Bell -1559, 22) Michael McDowell -1570, 23) Bubba Wallace -1591, 24) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -1610, 25) Matt Kenseth -1638, 26) Ryan Newman -1640.

Regular Season Point Standings (1-16): 1) Kevin Harvick 1238, 2) Denny Hamlin -151, 3) Brad Keselowski -211, 4) Martin Truex Jr. -214, 5) Joey Logano -218, 6) Chase Elliott -248, 7) Ryan Blaney -295, 8) Kyle Busch -348, 9) Aric Almirola -363, 10) Kurt Busch -391, 11) Alex Bowman -394, 12) Clint Bowyer -408, 13) Matt DiBenedetto -480, 14) Jimmie Johnson -492, 15) William Byron -494, 16) Erik Jones -528.

Not in the Top 16, but in Playoffs: 17) Austin Dillon -535.

Playoff Points: 1) Kevin Harvick 67, 2) Denny Hamlin -18, 3) Brad Keselowski -32, t-4) Joey Logano -45, t-4) Chase Elliott -45, 6) Martin Truex Jr. -51, 7) Alex Bowman -58, 8) Kurt Busch -61, t-9) Austin Dillon -62, t-9) Aric Almirola -62, 11) Clint Bowyer -63, 12) Kyle Busch -63.

Stage Points: 1) Joey Logano 285, 2) Kevin Harvick -2, 3) Ryan Blaney -4, 4) Martin Truex Jr. -29, 5) Chase Elliott -36, 6) Denny Hamlin -42, 7) Brad Keselowski -76, 8) Alex Bowman -78, 9) Kyle Busch -85, 10) Clint Bowyer -147, 11) Aric Almirola -151, 12) William Byron -156, 13) Jimmie Johnson -157, 14) Kurt Busch -181, 15) Matt DiBenedetto -187, 16) Austin Dillon -192.

Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Kevin Harvick 1096, 2) Denny Hamlin -111, 3) Brad Keselowski -143, 4) Martin Truex Jr. -193, 5) Joey Logano -220, 6) Aric Almirola -222, 7) Chase Elliott -225, 8) Kurt Busch -242, 9) Kyle Busch -276, 10) Clint Bowyer -282, 11) Ryan Blaney -301, 12) Matt DiBenedetto -306, 13) Alex Bowman -329, 14) Erik Jones -357, 15) William Byron -361, 16) Jimmie Johnson -362.

Outside of the Top 16, But Still In Playoffs: 17) Austin Dillon -370.

Race Winners: Denny Hamlin (Daytona-1, Darlington-2, Homestead, Pocono-2, Kansas, Dover-1), Joey Logano (Las Vegas-1, Phoenix), Alex Bowman (Fontana), Kevin Harvick (Darlington-1, Atlanta, Pocono-1, Indianapolis, Michigan-1, Michigan-2, Dover-2, Darlington-3, Bristol-2), 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), Kurt Busch (Las Vegas-2)

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

Chase Briscoe was the man on Saturday in Las Vegas.  He led over 80% of the race and swept the stages to score a perfect 60 points and advance to the Round of 8.  That performance also allowed him to take the points lead.  His advantage is 17 points over Austin Cindric, who led laps early and eventually finished sixth.  Noah Gragson is up one place to third after finishing second.  Justin Allgaier is down to fourth despite finishing fourth.

Justin Haley is up one place to fifth after finishing 10th.  That spot came at the expense of Brandon Jones, who finished 11th and scored five fewer stage points than Haley.  Ryan Sieg scored 15 stage points and finished fifth to move up two places to seventh.  Harrison Burton finished ninth but failed to score a stage point.  That performance dropped him to eighth, the final driver in position to advance.

Burton has a two-point advantage over Ross Chastain, who fell back late to a 16th-place finish late.  MIchael Annett used pit strategy just to finish seventh after running around 15th for most of the race.  That performance still dropped him one place to 10th.  Riley Herbst is still 11th after a 12th-place finish.  Brandon Brown finished 15th and stays in 12th.

Round of 12 Point Standings: 1) Chase Briscoe 2110, 2) Austin Cindric -17, 3) Noah Gragson -34, 4) Justin Allgaier -42, 5) Justin Haley -56, 6) Brandon Jones -57, 7) Ryan Sieg -61, 8) Harrison Burton -68, 9) Ross Chastain -70, 10) Michael Annett -78, 11) Riley Herbst -82, 12) Brandon Brown -88.

Note No. 1: Drivers in Bold have locked into the Round of 8.
Note No. 2: Drivers in italics in the point standing sections are currently at risk of elimination.

Regular Season Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Cindric 1178, 2) Chase Briscoe -48, 3) Ross Chastain -89, 4) Noah Gragson -133, 5) Justin Allgaier -225, 6) Justin Haley -233, 7) Harrison Burton -257, 8) Brandon Jones -354, 9) Michael Annett -370, 10) Riley Herbst -477, 11) Ryan Sieg -491, 12) Brandon Brown -594, 13) Jeremy Clements -640, 14) Josh Williams -706, 15) Myatt Snider -709, 16) Alex Labbe -711.

Best of the Rest: 13) Jeremy Clements 538, 14) Josh Williams -66, 15) Myatt Snider -69, 16) Alex Labbe -71, 17) Anthony Alfredo -88, 18) Jesse Little -93, 19) Daniel Hemric -115, 20) Tommy Joe Martins -163, 21) BJ McLeod -187, 22) Joe Graf Jr. -190.

Playoff Points: 1) Chase Briscoe 57, 2) Austin Cindric -7, 3) Justin Allgaier -24, 4) Noah Gragson -32, 5) Brandon Jones -37, 6) Justin Haley -39, 7) Harrison Burton -43, 8) Ross Chastain -47, t-9) Ryan Sieg -55, t-9) Michael Annett -55, 11) Riley Herbst -56, 12) Brandon Brown -57.

Stage Points: 1) Austin Cindric 362, 2) Ross Chastain -51, 3) Chase Briscoe -64, 4) Justin Allgaier -74, 5) Noah Gragson -82, 6) Justin Haley -157, 7) Brandon Jones -187, 8) Harrison Burton -193, 9) Michael Annett -238, 10) Riley Herbst -254, 11) Ryan Sieg -260, 12) Daniel Hemric -264, 13) Anthony Alfredo -308, 14) Jeb Burton -313, t-15) AJ Allmendinger -333, t-15) Brandon Brown -333.

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

Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Chase Briscoe 958, 2) Austin Cindric -14, 3) Ross Chastain -53, 4) Noah Gragson -65, 5) Harrison Burton -92, 6) Justin Haley -109, 7) Michael Annett -162, 8) Justin Allgaier -165, 9) Brandon Jones -195, 10) Riley Herbst -250, 11) Ryan Sieg -256, 12) Brandon Brown -293, 13) Jeremy Clements -320, 14) Josh Williams -377, 15) Alex Labbe -391, 16) Myatt Snider -397.

Race Winners: Noah Gragson (Daytona-1, Bristol), Chase Briscoe (Las Vegas-1, Darlington-1, Homestead-2, Pocono, Indianapolis, Dover-2, Bristol-2, Las Vegas-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.

Sheldon Creed led 89 of 134 laps and won the first two stages Friday night, but got a little too aggressive late in the race and scrubbed the wall.  Despite that, he finished second and scored a race-high 55 points.  That was more than enough to give him the points lead heading to Talladega.  His advantage is eight points over Brett Moffitt, who fell back late to a 15th-place finish after scoring 17 stage points.  Zane Smith remains in third after a seventh-place finish, while Grant Enfinger is still fourth.

Tyler Ankrum and Matt Crafton are tied for fifth (Ankrum wins the tiebreaker due to the better finish in the round).  Ankrum finished 10th Friday night, while Crafton was ninth.  Austin Hill's victory locked him into the Round of 8 and moved him up one place to seventh.  Christian Eckes also moved up one place to eighth after finishing eighth.

Eckes is the last driver provisionally in the Round of 8.  He has a six-point lead on Ben Rhodes, who ran well for much of the night before spinning into the inside wall.  He would finish 23rd.  Todd Gilliland finished 13th, but is now 19 points out of eighth.  Advancing could be a struggle for him.

Outside of the playoffs, Derek Kraus had a very good truck and quite possibly could have won.  Then Kraus hit the wall exiting turn 2 and had contact with Tyler Hill a few laps later that brought him to pit road.  Despite a disappointing 30th-place finish, Kraus is still 11th in points.  He's more than a full race ahead of Tanner Gray, who claimed his second straight third-place finish.  Raphael Lessard is down one place to 13th after having to make an unscheduled stop early and finishing 20th.

Stewart Friesen remains in 14th after being passed on the final lap by Gray for third.  Johnny Sauter is still in 15th after finishing 11th.  Ty Majeski is still 16th despite missing the last three races.  He's nearly 100 points behind Sauter.

Round of 10 Point Standings: 1) Sheldon Creed 2115, 2) Brett Moffitt -8, 3) Zane Smith -13, 4) Grant Enfinger -21, t-5) Tyler Ankrum -37, t-5) Matt Crafton -37, 7) Austin Hill -39, 8) Christian Eckes -46, 9) Ben Rhodes -52, 10) Todd Gilliland -65.

Note No. 1: Drivers in bold have locked into the Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series Round of 8.

Note No. 2: Drivers in italics in the point standing sections are under threat of elimination.

Regular Season Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Hill 699, 2) Brett Moffitt -4, 3) Zane Smith -33, 4) Ben Rhodes -63, 5) Sheldon Creed -71, 6) Christian Eckes -110, t-7) Grant Enfinger -111, t-7) Matt Crafton -111, 9) Tyler Ankrum -144, 10) Todd Gilliland -187, 11) Derek Kraus -195, 12) Tanner Gray -256, 13) Raphael Lessard -275, 14) Stewart Friesen -284, 15) Johnny Sauter -301, 16) Ty Majeski -400.

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.

Best of the Rest (11-20): 11) Derek Kraus 504, 12) Tanner Gray -61, 13) Raphael Lessard -80, 14) Stewart Friesen -89, 15) Johnny Sauter -106, 16) Ty Majeski -205, 17) Tate Fogelman -224, 18) Austin Wayne Self -228, 19) Spencer Boyd -273, 20) Jordan Anderson -276.

Playoff Points: 1) Sheldon Creed 28, 2) Austin Hill -1, 3) Zane Smith -6, 4) Grant Enfinger -9, 5) Brett Moffitt -12, 6) Ben Rhodes -14, 7) Matt Crafton -19, 8) Christian Eckes -23, t-9) Todd Gilliland -25, t-9) Tyler Ankrum -25.

Stage Points: 1) Brett Moffitt 198, 2) Zane Smith -22, 3) Austin Hill -37, 4) Sheldon Creed -38, 5) Ben Rhodes -46, 6) Christian Eckes -50, 7) Matt Crafton -77, 8) Tyler Ankrum -78, 9) Todd Gilliland -100, 10) Grant Enfinger -102, 11) Derek Kraus -114, 12) Johnny Sauter -140, 13) Raphael Lessard -157, 14) Stewart Friesen -169, 15) Sam Mayer -172, 16) Tanner Gray -175.

Note: If everyone were eligible for stage points, Ross Chastain would be 12th in points, while Kyle Busch would be 13th.

Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Hill 476, 2) Brett Moffitt -36, 3) Ben Rhodes -46, 4) Zane Smith -47, 5) Grant Enfinger -53, 6) Sheldon Creed -67, 7) Matt Crafton -75, 8) Christian Eckes -97, 9) Tyler Ankrum -111, 10) Derek Kraus -116, 11) Tanner Gray -126, 12) Todd Gilliland -127, 13) Stewart Friesen -160, 14) Raphael Lessard -162, 15) Johnny Sauter -195, 16) Ty Majeski -253.

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

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

"This is 20 years of agony and defeat and now today with triumph, I don't know if I have any more gas left or if I just filled my tank up to go win every race that I'm going to go race next.  This feeling of growing up here and watching the track get built from the desert gravel pit that it was by Richie Clyne and his group and then when Speedway Motorsports came in and bought it, I'm like, man, there's going to be a Cup race there, I hope I can make my way up through Legend cars.  And just all the memories, all the memories of everybody, my mom and dad, every Saturday night, all the commitment they gave me and my little brother to make it in racing.

"For me it was a hobby.  I never knew I'd get this far.  A guy named Craig Keough here locally here in Las Vegas, the owner of the Star Nurseries here in Las Vegas took a chance on me and let me run his late model a few times and we won a couple races and started working our way up.

"It takes a village to make somebody cut through and make it, and this is my hometown and I have so many people to thank, and I couldn't be more proud and I know that they're very proud right now watching on TV, watching on NBC Sports Network and seeing their hometown boy win at the hometown track." - Kurt Busch, race winner

"Yeah, it was big.  Much needed for our team for sure.  Yeah, I'm proud of the effort and the team this shows, the strength that we've had.  We've had the speed and the strength as a team, so it was tough to have a run first round in the playoffs because I knew that we have the speed as a team to really contend for wins, and we showed it tonight, and we have a lot of really strong tracks coming up.  But we have a lot to race for for the rest of the season, a lot of positions and points, and tonight was just an example of what ‑‑ we've had some frustrating luck recently, and not all luck, just had a couple races that weren't good ones for us where we missed it a little bit with the no practice and such that we were able to work around in 2020, but then, yeah, tonight was ‑‑ and we had rough luck at Bristol.  We cut a tire down at the end when we had rebounded from three laps down." - Matt DiBenedetto, finished second

"We had a dominant car today and I’m proud of the whole FedEx team for giving me such a great car. By far the best car I’ve had in Las Vegas in a long time. It was really, really good. Happy with it and this new tire here. We’ll run that a few more times this year. Really encouraged by the way we ran, but very disappointed that we didn’t get a win. It’s just been the way that the playoffs have gone. Whoever stays out the longest puts themselves in a great spot to win." - Denny Hamlin, finished third

"We were right there in the hunt coming down after the last pit stop there under green. We were third and we were tracking them down just a little bit at a time. Felt like we were maybe going to have a three-way race for the win and then that caution came out and put us all the way to the back. To be able to battle through that and ended up pitting again for tires because we weren’t going anywhere and restarted like 24th there on not the last caution, but the one before that. To be able to drive back up to fourth is really something. The Bass Pro Toyota was really strong tonight. We needed just a little bit to be as good as the 11 (Denny Hamlin) and maybe the 88 (Alex Bowman), but we were a third-place car, no question. Just missed it a tiny little bit. Decent night. Just needed a little bit more, but happy with the team and the job they’re doing. See what we can do next week at Talladega." - Martin Truex Jr., finished fourth

"I guess it is good to be disappointed in a fifth-place finish. We did not need that caution to come out in the middle of the pit cycle like that. I thought it was going to be ok for us, but we just couldn’t get through traffic as well as we needed to. We had a really fast LLumar Camaro. Thanks to everyone at Hendrick Motorsports, because they have been working super hard. Our program is continuing to improve and I just feel like this is another Vegas race that go away from us. At least it was a good points day, which is what we need." - Alex Bowman, finished fifth

"We weren’t great early on and didn’t quite have the long run speed. We worked on it and I thought we were making some gains on it and then we got that damage and got way back in traffic. Then there towards the end, was just able to get lucky on a couple of the last restarts in order to pick off a few spots with the M&M’s Camry and get ourselves in a better position for the finish. It was a pretty dismal day I guess. I looked like it was going to be about 12th or 14th if we didn’t have some good moves on that last restart there to get us a sixth-place finish." - Kyle Busch, finished sixth

"Overall it was a decent night. We had to start mid pack and were able to drive up through there pretty quick. I thought our Mustang was good and we made good adjustments on it throughout the night. By the second stage I thought we were really strong, we just needed to kind of restart with the leaders and stay in touch with them. That caution that trapped a bunch of us a lap down was unfortunate. I think we were running fourth or fifth at the time. That stunk. We were able to rebound alright and we started third on that last restart and tried to push Matt and get there but the top just kind of trained up on us. It was unfortunate to run seventh but we had a good car and really good adjustments all night. I thought we were right there, it just didn’t all work out. I thought our car was really fast though, so I am proud of that effort." - Ryan Blaney, finished seventh

"It just wasn’t the night we wanted with the Autotrader Ford. It’s a good thing we had a little bit of a points cushion to lean on and we’ll run our best the next two weeks. It could have been a lot worse. It is frustrating but we are certainly not out of it. We still have a pretty good points cushion so we will try to get through these next two weeks and put up a good race and build ourselves a cushion." - Brad Keselowski, finished 13th

"That was a fight tonight for sure. THe start of the race we were in the hunt for sure and I felt like we were fairly close and able to get quite a few stage points in the first stage. Then on that restart we got some damage with the 18 car and the 11 I think just kind of shocked at least me. I don’t know if it shocked the 18, I haven’t seen the replay yet. I was coming down the racetrack like we were two-wide and next thing I know we were three-wide and I got some damage on the left rear. Had to pit and went down a lap. We hung out there for a while and eventually got our lap back with 15 to go or so. We were able to fight back to 14th. We salvaged something out of it. We definitely left at least 10 points or so and that is probably a conservative number of points left on the table that would be very nice to have. That is in the past now. Now we move forward and head to Talladega and cross our fingers and see what happens there." - Joey Logano, finished 14th

"Just a bummer of a result tonight. We really had a good car. We needed to keep adjusting to keep up with the track but we were running inside the top 10 before that caution during green-flag pit stops. Then we could never rally back unfortunately. Being stuck back there, we then got caught up with two laps to go and couldn’t recover." - William Byron, finished 25th

"We had a strong DOWFROST Chevrolet tonight at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. We were doing what we needed to do. We were a solid, top-five car in Stage 1 and Stage 2 and were able to earn some points during the end of the stages. We weren’t so fortunate in Stage 3. We were issued a safety violation on pit road with less than 80 laps to go and had to restart at the tail end of the field. We shook it off because we knew that we work well under pressure. We made our way up to 20th and were in pretty good shape, actually, because we were three cars behind the No. 1 and we were probably going to run long. But then I suddenly lost all steering and the water pressure gauge pegged at 400 degrees. We made quick repairs but lost nine laps on pit road and that pretty much did us in. I’m proud of this team for continuing to fight. We’ve got two races left in the Round of 12 and we’re not giving up. It’s on to Talladega Superspeedway where anything can happen." - Austin Dillon, finished 32nd

"We had a fast No. 8 Cat Mining Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE at Las Vegas, just didn’t really have any luck on our side tonight. I was a little tight to fire off, but we had good overall speed in our car. Unfortunately, after our first pit stop of the night, we had a loose right rear tire so we had to make a second stop to fix that and fell a lap down. It’s frustrating to have a car as fast as the one we had and be trapped a lap down, but as a team, we knew we still had a lot of time to get back on the lead lap and into the mix before the race was over. On the final lap of Stage 2, I got into the wall pretty hard and it ended our night early. That’s not the way our team wanted tonight to go with our Cat Mining Chevy, but we’ll look to regroup next week at Talladega Superspeedway." - Tyler Reddick, finished 38th (Crashed out)