Big moves are common during the early portions of the season.  For Denny Hamlin, he didn't have to make that big of a move to get into the lead.  A third-place finish and a third stage victory of the year has put him into the points lead.  His advantage is 12 points over Joey Logano, who came within a lap of victory Sunday before having to settle for second.  Regardless, his run moved him up seven places in the standings.  Kevin Harvick remains in third after finishing sixth.  Of those who were eligible for points, Harvick is the only driver who stayed in the same position that he entered the race in.  Christopher Bell is up six places to fourth after earning his first career victory.

Chase Elliott had the best car all day and should have won, but pit strategy and a late spin put him back to a 21st-place finish.  However, earning 15 stage points meant that the disappointing finish only dropped him back to fifth.  Michael McDowell cut a tire at the start of the race, but was able to fight back to an eighth-place finish.  Back-to-back top 10s for the first time in his career meant that he only dropped to sixth.  Ryan Preece dropped to seventh after finishing ninth.  Kurt Busch is up 12 places to eighth after his wacky day resulted in a fourth-place finish.

Austin Dillon had a terrible day and finished 34th, dropping him from the points lead down to a tie for ninth.  Dillon is tied with Brad Keselowski, who had a day as wild as Kurt Busch's was, yet recovered to finish fifth.  That moved him up six places to 10th.  Cole Custer quietly moved up four positions to 11th after finishing 13th.  Kyle Larson is down five places to 12th after a late crash into the tires not only cost him a chance at victory, but dropped him to a 30th-place finish.

Bubba Wallace struggled with an ill-handling car and tire lockups all day.  A 26th-place finish dropped him to 13th.  Martin Truex Jr. gained 10 spots to 14th after finishing 12th, but it could have been more had he not spun on a late restart.  Corey LaJoie and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. are tied for 15th.

Kyle Busch is currently the first driver out of the playoffs after a topsy-turvy day that saw him all over the grid.  A late incident dropped him to a 35th-place finish.  Chris Buescher gained 13 positions to move up to 18th.  Ryan Blaney is 19th and Ross Chastain back to 20th after crashing out.

Point Standings (1-16): 1) Denny Hamlin 104, 2) Joey Logano -12, 3) Kevin Harvick -21, 4) Christopher Bell -22, 5) Chase Elliott -25, 6) Michael McDowell -29, 7) Ryan Preece -30, 8) Kurt Busch -39, t-9) Austin Dillon -40, t-9) Brad Keselowski -40, 11) Cole Custer -50, 12) Kyle Larson -51, 13) Bubba Wallace -52, 14) Martin Truex Jr. -57, t-15) Corey LaJoie -66, t-15) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -66.

Playoff Points: t-1) Christopher Bell 5, t-1) Michael McDowell 5, 3) Denny Hamlin -2, 4) Chase Elliott -4.

Stage Points: 1) Denny Hamlin 38, 2) Joey Logano -6, 3) Chase Elliott -10, 4) Austin Dillon -11, t-5) Christopher Bell -17, t-5) Bubba Wallace -17, t-7) Kevin Harvick -19, t-7) Kyle Larson -19, 9) Kurt Busch -21, 10) Ryan Preece -23, t-11) Martin Truex Jr. -28, t-11) Kyle Busch -28, t-11) Aric Almirola -28, t-14) Brad Keselowski -30, t-14) Ryan Newman -30, 16) Michael McDowell -32.

Outside of the Top 16, but still in the playoffs: t-19) Cole Custer -34, t-19) Corey LaJoie -34.

Old Point Standings (1-16): t-1) Michael McDowell 77, t-1) Denny Hamlin 77, 3) Kevin Harvick -4, t-4) Christopher Bell -7, t-4) Joey Logano -7, 6) Ryan Preece -10, 7) Brad Keselowski -13, 8) Chase Elliott -15, 9) Cole Custer -18, 10) Kurt Busch -20, t-11) Austin Dillon -31, t-11) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -31, 13) Martin Truex Jr. -32, 14) Kyle Larson -34, 15) Corey LaJoie -35, t-16) Chris Buescher -37, t-16) Bubba Wallace -37.

Race Winners: Michael McDowell (Daytona-1), Christopher Bell (Daytona-2)

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

Austin Cindric had a bizarre evening on Saturday.  He was one of the fastest drivers on-track, then got in a bumping match with AJ Allmendinger at the end of stage one that ripped his fender.  Despite that, he raced back to the lead and nearly won the race before settling for second.  With that, he expanded his points lead up to 24 over Harrison Burton.  Harrison is up two places after finishing sixth.  Daniel Hemric is up two places to third after finishing third.  Brandon Brown's second consecutive top 10 finish to start the season has him in fourth.

Myatt Snider has sole possession of fifth after finishing 13th.  Jeb Burton is sixth after finishing fifth.  Jeremy Clements is up 12 places to seventh after finishing 10th.  Ty Gibbs' victory on debut in the No. 54 puts him in a tie for eighth with Justin Haley.  However, since Gibbs missed the season opener and will not be running full-time, he is ineligible to make the playoffs.

Brandon Jones is up a full 20 places to 10th after coming from the back row to finish fourth.  Kyle Weatherman finished 16th and moved himself up to 11th in his Mike Harmon Racing Chevrolet.  Joe Graf Jr. and Jesse Little are tied for 12th.  Due to Gibbs being ineligible for the playoffs, Graf and Little would have the final two playoff spots at the moment.

Ty Dillon is 14th, but he skipped Saturday's Super Start Batteries 188.  As a result, he is also ineligible for the playoffs.  The next playoff eligible drivers are Landon Cassill and Matt Mills, who are currently tied for 15th, four points behind Graf and Little.

Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Cindric 105, 2) Harrison Burton -24, 3) Daniel Hemric -30, 4) Brandon Brown -33, 5) Myatt Snider -36, 6) Jeb Burton -40, 7) Jeremy Clements -51, t-8) Ty Gibbs -55, 9) Justin Haley -55, 10) Brandon Jones -57, 11) Kyle Weatherman -59, t-12) Joe Graf Jr. -62, t-12) Jesse Little -62, 14) Ty Dillon -65, t-15) Landon Cassill -66, t-15) Matt Mills -66.

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

Note No. 2: Drivers in italics are ineligible for the playoffs.

Note No. 3: If he were eligible for points, Brett Moffitt would be fifth in points.

Playoff Points: t-1) Austin Cindric 6, t-1) Ty Gibbs 6, 3) Brandon Jones -1.

Note: If he were eligible for points, Brett Moffitt would have one playoff point and be tied for third in playoff points.

Stage Points: 1) Austin Cindric 30, t-2) Ty Dillon -13, t-2) Riley Herbst -13, 4) Harrison Burton -14, 5) Myatt Snider -15, t-6) Justin Haley -16, t-6) Brandon Jones -16, 8) Daniel Hemric -17, t-9) Brandon Brown -18, t-9) Jeremy Clements -18, 11) Justin Allgaier -13, 12) Ty Gibbs -20, 13) Noah Gragson -22, 14) Ryan Sieg -23, 15) Andy Lally -24, 16) Kyle Weatherman -27.

Note: If he were eligible for points, Brett Moffitt would be 12th in stage points.

Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Cindric 86, 2) Harrison Burton -10, 3) Jeb Burton -12, 4) Daniel Hemric -15, 5) Brandon Brown -17, 6) Myatt Snider -24, t-7) Kyle Weatherman -35, t-7) Joe Graf Jr. -35, t-7) Jesse Little -35, 10) Jeremy Clements -36, t-11) Landon Cassill -39, t-11) Matt Mills -39, 13) Justin Haley -41, t-14) Ty Gibbs -44, t-14) Josh Williams -44, 16) AJ Allmendinger -45.

Note: If he were eligible for points, Brett Moffitt would be fifth in old points.

Race Winners: Austin Cindric (Daytona-1), Ty Gibbs (Daytona-2)

Note: Wins that are ineligible for playoff ineligibility are in italics.

Ben Rhodes was able to keep up his form from opening night. scoring another victory Friday night to stay perfect.  In the midst of the best stretch in his career, Rhodes expanded his points lead up to nine points over John Hunter Nemechek, who ran out of gas early and lost a lap.  He recovered from that mess to finish third and gain sole possession of second in points.  Despite finishing second, Sheldon Creed was outscored in stage points by Nemechek 10 to five.  As a result, Creed will go to Las Vegas third in points.  Chandler Smith is still fourth in points after finishing 12th.

Matt Crafton is up 11 places to fifth after scoring 10 stage points and finishing sixth.  Carson Hocevar is up three places to sixth despite meeting up with the Fitch barriers while exiting pit road.  He would recover to finish 14th.  Raphael Lessard is still seventh after finishing 26th.  Stage points are the only thing keeping him up there.  Codie Rohrbaugh is up to eighth despite finishing 16th.

Johnny Sauter is up from a tie for 14th to ninth after finishing 18th.  He's followed by three drivers tied for 10th.  Ryan Truex gets the final spot in the playoffs for now by virtue of the best finish of the year between himself, Todd Gilliland and Austin Wayne Self.

Cory Roper had a miserable night in Daytona with multiple spins and issues.  A 34th-place finish dropped him from sixth to 13th in points.  Grant Enfinger missed the race and dropped to 14th.  Marcus Lemonis is not happy that Enfinger wasn't out there.  Derek Kraus finished seventh and moved up to 15th, while Stewart Friesen is 16th.

Point Standings (1-16): 1) Ben Rhodes 100, 2) John Hunter Nemechek -9, 3) Sheldon Creed -13, 4) Chandler Smith -30, 5) Matt Crafton -37, 6) Carson Hocevar -45, 7) Raphael Lessard -46, 8) Codie Rohrbaugh -50, 9) Johnny Sauter -53, t-10) Ryan Truex -55, t-10) Todd Gilliland -55, t-10) Austin Wayne Self -55, 13) Cory Roper -63, 14) Grant Enfinger -64, 15) Derek Kraus -66, 16) Stewart Friesen -67. 

Playoff Points: 1) Ben Rhodes 10, t-2) John Hunter Nemechek -8, t-2) Raphael Lessard -8.

Stage Points: 1) Raphael Lessard 29, 2) John Hunter Nemechek -2, 3) Sheldon Creed -8, 4) Ben Rhodes -9, 5) Chandler Smith -12, 6) Johnny Sauter -16, t-7) Matt Crafton -19, t-7) Grant Enfinger -19, 9) Zane Smith -21, t-10) Austin Wayne Self -22, t-10) Brett Moffitt -22, t-10) Austin Hill -22, t-13) Ryan Truex -23, t-13) Todd Gilliland -23, t-15) Timothy Peters -25, t-15) Hailie Deegan -25.

Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Ben Rhodes 72, 2) Sheldon Creed -11, 3) John Hunter Nemechek -14, t-4) Chandler Smith -25, t-4) Carson Hocevar -25, 6) Matt Crafton -27, 7) Codie Rohrbaugh -30, t-8) Cory Roper -41, t-8) Ryan Truex -41, t-8) Todd Gilliland -41, 11) Austin Wayne Self -42, 12) Derek Kraus -45, t-13) Stewart Friesen -49, t-13) Grant Enfinger -49, t-13) Drew Dollar -49, t-13) Christian Eckes -49.

Outside of the Top 16, but still in the playoffs: 17) Johnny Sauter -50, t-22) Raphael Lessard -53.

Note: If they were eligible for Truck points, Jordan Anderson would be eighth in Old Points, Riley Herbst 13th, Kaz Grala 15th and Timmy Hill 16th.

Race Winner: Ben Rhodes (Daytona-1, Daytona-2)

"I don’t know, this is definitely one of the highlights of my life so far. I’m just so incredibly thankful to be here at Joe Gibbs Racing with all of our partners – Rheem, DeWalt, Pristine Auction, Toyota, TRD. Thank you to Jack Irving and Tyler Gibbs. You guys believed in me since day one. It feels like I’ve prepared my whole life for this moment to race in the Cup Series. Last year was a huge learning curve for me, and I’m very grateful that I got the opportunity to run in Cup. It definitely prepared me to move for Joe Gibbs Racing.

"Whenever we pitted and then we came out, I liked where we lined up, but then the yellows kept coming and I thought the yellows were hurting me because I felt like I needed laps to get back up through there. Honestly, I didn’t think I was going to get there, but Adam (Stevens, crew chief) up on the pit box kept telling me I was going to get there. I didn’t believe it, but he really struggled coming out of (turn) six one time and allowed me to close the gap. I just wish my wife was here to celebrate with me." - Christopher Bell, race winner

"I was trying to keep him behind me.  We gambled by staying out and then I’d say it paid off overall, but you just hate being so close and one lap away.  He started catching me a second a lap and it wasn’t like I blew any corners or anything, he was just faster.  We just got beat, plain and simple.  We’ve got to get our long run speed faster.  We made some gains and gotten better with our Shell/Pennzoil Mustang.  We’ve just got to be able to find a way to keep our rear tires on these things on the road courses.  We’ve identified the issue, now we can go to work.

"[Christopher Bell] was the one that got through with tires.  One more lap.  One more caution lap would have been enough to at least have a door-to-door finish across the line maybe, I don’t know.  It’s hard. When he starts catching you a second a lap.  Gosh, I was just trying to get all I could on that restart, trying to get out there as far as I could because I knew as soon as those guys with tires were gonna catch us really quick, but we’ve made gains with our Shell/Pennzoil Mustang on road courses, but we’re not quite good enough yet.  As you can tell, our long run speed is off.  We’ve got to keep working to get that better, but we maximized the day.  I hate being that close, but congratulations to Christopher.  It’s his first win and I know that means a lot.  It’s always a special one, so I’m happy for him, but not so happy for myself at the moment." - Joey Logano, finished second
 

"We were third-best to be honest with you. [Christopher Bell] was fast there the second half of the race. Maybe I was fourth-best. I thought we were solid. Was trying to hold onto third or fourth fastest and that’s all I’ve got. I just have to get a little bit better. I have to keep getting better to put ourselves in position to win more." - Denny Hamlin, finished third
 

"Man, I just crossed over that fine-line of grip and the car – it’s there, but I was just over-driving. The tires at this track, with the worn-out asphalt in that infield section, is really easy to step over the line. I actually took a deep breath and just said ‘stay cool, stay cool’, and then I pounded that curb and it shot me straight out.  If I’m going to make a mistake, it’s on me to then dig us out of that hole and stay out there on old tires. Really good points day; top-five I think in all the stages. So, that’s a good checkmark to bounce back after the Daytona 500." - Kurt Busch, finished fourth

"It was just one of those never-give-up kind of races.  We just fought and fought and fought and just made some mistakes, caught some bad breaks, kind of all threw together.  But, in the end, just a lot of perseverance, a lot of heart, a lot of will from the entire team and put us in a good spot there at the end, so tried to make the most of it.  We’re not where we need to be on these types of tracks, but we’re not gonna accept that and just run 15th-20th, we’re gonna fight our butt off and I think that’s what we did today." - Brad Keselowski, finished fifth

"There was lots of chaos.  We had a pretty solid day and were a lot better.  We missed all the chaos and finished the race.  Our goal was to score stage points and we did that a couple of times. We also wanted to finish in the top 10 and we did that, so we’re gonna leave and go home." - Kevin Harvick, finished sixth

"That was way too much excitement for me.  The FR8 Auction Ford Mustang was actually really good.  We had a flat tire there coming to the green.  I knew something was wrong.  I should have just pitted, so I screwed that up and that hurt us a little bit.  We lost track position and then missed the chicane.  Pretty much everything that could go wrong went wrong today, but this is what our team is all about — Front Row Motorsports — we grind it out and we fought hard.  We just kept the fight in it and ended up with another top 10, so pretty crazy how that all went down.  It was another great run.  I’m really excited to keep this momentum going.  We’ve got to clean it up a little bit, but not a bad night altogether." - Michael McDowell, finished eighth

"Our No. 37 Kroger/Coca-Cola Chevrolet was the best road course car we’ve had. We struggled early in the race needing a little more forward drive, but Trent (Owens, crew chief) made some really great adjustments and kept working on it to get us where we could make moves. I’m really proud of everyone at JTG Daugherty Racing for giving us a car that was fast and even with the damage from a late-race caution, we were able to hold our track position and get a second top-10 finish for the season. It’s been a great start so far and we’re just going to keep digging forward next week at Homestead-Miami Speedway." - Ryan Preece, finished ninth

"When you have those late-race cautions like that and you have a mixed bag of who stays and who goes, it’s a bit of a gamble either way, I felt like. I thought tires was the right move. Tires won the race, so I think it was the right move. You get back in traffic and it just gets to be so chaotic, and then just depending on who gets through and who doesn’t kind of determines how it’s going to shake out.

"I hate it. I made too many mistakes. We went off track and it was just a bad deal. We had a fast NAPA Chevy and I appreciate the effort. I hate it for Corey (LaJoie). He ran me off there, so I thought he was going to take the lane again, so I went to cross him over and I think that time he was actually going to give me the lane. So, go figure. But we’ll try again next week." - Chase Elliott, finished 21st

"Well, it was a bummer. We didn’t get the finish we deserved. We ran in the Top-10 for most of the day. It was the best road course appearance we’ve had in the No. 3 car in a while. I’m really proud of everybody’s off-season work and I put in some, as well. It was good to be really competitive. They didn’t show it on TV I guess; but the No. 17 (Chris Buescher) and the No. 18 (Kyle Busch) got into it through the last chicane and the No. 17 jumped the last curb. I tried to go low and I don’t know if he got blocked down there, or what, but just got into the grass. We fought to get it back out there. There was a lot of damage. But man, I was really excited. We had a really good car and it should bode well for the rest of the road courses this year. I’m proud of the guys. I just wished we could have salvaged a better finish and got some stage points. We’ll work on it and go to Homestead." - Austin Dillon, finished 34th