Denny Hamlin's excellent form to begin the 2021 season continued Sunday with a fourth-place finish at Atlanta.  That allowed him to maintain his advantage.  His lead is 43 points over Kyle Larson, who did everything except win the race Sunday in Atlanta.  No one could touch him until his tires went away late.  Joey Logano finished a lap down in 15th, but managed to hold onto third.  Martin Truex Jr. finished ninth and stays in fourth.

Brad Keselowski ran into the back of Truex early in the race and completely ruined his day.  The nose was damaged on his AutoTrader Ford, which put him off the pace.  Finishing three laps down in 28th dropped him down to fifth.  Kevin Harvick's day was ruined by a valve stem being clipped during his first pit stop of the day.  He recovered from that to finish 10th and gain a spot to sixth.  Ryan Blaney's victory moved him up from 13th to seventh.  William Byron is up one place to eighth after finishing eighth.

Christopher Bell had a disappointing day, finishing two laps down in 21st.  That dropped him into a tie for ninth with Chase Elliott.  Elliott's day was hampered by nose damage that resulted in his Camaro carrying the equivalent of a hood ornament.  His engine blew shortly after the hood ornament was repaired, dropping him down from a tie for fifth.  Austin Dillon is up one place after a sixth-place finish.  Kyle Busch's fifth-place moved him up three places to 12th.

Michael McDowell was 19th Sunday and slipped down to 13th.  One point behind McDowell is Alex Bowman, who finished third.  He moved into the playoff positions thanks to his run.  Kurt Busch crashed at the beginning of stage two and finished last, dropping from 10th to 15th as a result.  Roush Fenway Racing's Chris Buescher was strong all day and brought his Fastenal Ford home seventh, moving him back into the top 16.

Buescher has the last spot in the playoffs at the moment.  He is six points ahead of Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who had another solid 12th-place finish, but didn't score any stage points.  Ryan Preece fell four spots to 18th after finishing 25th.  Bubba Wallace remains in 19th after finishing 16th, while Ross Chastain and Ryan Newman are tied for 20th.  Chastain finished 14th Sunday, while Newman ran as high as seventh before dropping back to 13th at the finish.

Point Standings (1-16): 1) Denny Hamlin 277, 2) Kyle Larson -43, 3) Joey Logano -63, 4) Martin Truex Jr. -65, 5) Brad Keselowski -71, 6) Kevin Harvick -74, 7) Ryan Blaney -86, 8) William Byron -89, t-9) Christopher Bell -94, t-9) Chase Elliott -94, 11) Austin Dillon -107, 12) Kyle Busch -114, 13) Michael McDowell -119, 14) Alex Bowman -120, 15) Kurt Busch -125, 16) Chris Buescher -133.

Playoff Points: 1) Kyle Larson 8, t-2) William Byron -2, t-2) Ryan Blaney -2, t-4) Michael McDowell -3, t-4) Christopher Bell -3, t-4) Martin Truex Jr. -3, 7) Denny Hamlin -5, t-8) Brad Keselowski -5, t-8) Joey Logano -5, t-8) Chase Elliott -5, t-8) Chris Buescher -5.

Stage Points: 1) Denny Hamlin 85, 2) Kyle Larson -23, 3) Joey Logano -28, 4) Ryan Blaney -30, t-5) Brad Keselowski -33, t-5) Chase Elliott -33, 7) William Byron -39, 8) Martin Truex Jr. -43, 9) Kurt Busch -51, 10) Kyle Busch -52, t-11) Kevin Harvick -53, t-11) Austin Dillon -53, 13) Christopher Bell -54, 14) Alex Bowman -61, 15) Chris Buescher -63, 16) Bubba Wallace -64.

Outside of the Top 16, but still in the playoffs: 21) Michael McDowell -79.

Note: Stage Points include the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona.

Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Denny Hamlin 222, 2) Kyle Larson -20, t-3) Martin Truex Jr. -26, t-3) Kevin Harvick -26, 5) Joey Logano -35, 6) Brad Keselowski -41, t-7) Christopher Bell -45, t-7) Michael McDowell -45, 9) William Byron -53, t-10) Austin Dillon -59, t-10) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -59, 12) Ryan Blaney -60, 13) Chase Elliott -64, 14) Kyle Busch -68, 15) Alex Bowman -72, 16) Chris Buescher -75.

Outside of the top-16, but still in the playoffs: 18) Kurt Busch -81.

Race Winners: Michael McDowell (Daytona-1), Christopher Bell (Daytona-2), William Byron (Homestead), Martin Truex Jr. (Phoenix), Ryan Blaney (Atlanta)

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

Austin Cindric had a very quick car early on Saturday, but then he hit a spinning Brandon Jones right at the end of stage one.  That damaged his Ford Mustang and resulted in the points leader struggling for the rest of the day.  Cindric scrambled to get back to a 13th-place finish, his worst of the year to this point.  It was enough to effectively stand pat for the day.  He lost only one point of his advantage over Daniel Hemric.  Hemric finished ninth after getting a hole punched in his nose by Noah Gragson on pit road.  That led to the aforementioned confrontation, complete with a badly-telegraphed punch.

Harrison Burton is up to third after finishing a strong third on Saturday.  AJ Allmendinger recovered from damage in the lap 40 crash that dropped him to 25th to finish fifth.  That allowed him to claim sole possession of fourth.

Justin Haley is up two places to fifth after finishing eighth and earning 15 stage points.  Jeb Burton hit the wall shortly after the beginning of the final stage and ended up 25th.  That dropped him to sixth.  Myatt Snider is seventh after finishing 11th.  Justin Allgaier's victory moved him up to eighth and more or less locked him into the playoffs.

Jeremy Clements had another strong run, earning six stage points and finishing 12th.  That moved him up to ninth.  Jones' crash didn't end his day, but he did end up 37th.  That dropped him from sixth to 10th.  Brandon Brown ran well early, but had problems late to drop him to a 33rd-place finish.  As a result, he's down to 11th in points.  Riley Herbst remains in 12th.

Michael Annett is the first driver out of the playoffs in 13th, but he's only one point behind Herbst after his best race of the year to date.  Gragson dragged a damaged car all the way to fourth by the finish, moving him back up to 14th.  Landon Cassill is down one place to 15th after finishing 14th.  Tommy Joe Martins remains in 16th.

Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Cindric 277, 2) Daniel Hemric -46, 3) Harrison Burton -65, 4) AJ Allmendinger -83, 5) Justin Haley -84, 6) Jeb Burton -90, 7) Myatt Snider -98, 8) Justin Allgaier -106, 9) Jeremy Clements -112, 10) Brandon Jones -122, 11) Brandon Brown -135, 12) Riley Herbst -142, 13) Michael Annett -143, 14) Noah Gragson -163, 15) Landon Cassill -165, 16) Tommy Joe Martins -171.

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 12th in points.

Playoff Points: 1) Austin Cindric 14, t-2) AJ Allmendinger -8, t-2) Ty Gibbs -8, t-4) Myatt Snider -9, t-4) Justin Allgaier -9, 6) Daniel Hemric -12, 7) Brandon Jones -13.

Note: If they were eligible for points, Martin Truex Jr. would be tied for sixth in playoff points, while Brett Moffitt would be tied for eighth with Brandon Jones.

Stage Points: 1) Austin Cindric 73, 2) Harrison Burton -14, t-3) Daniel Hemric -15, t-3) Justin Allgaier -15, 5) Justin Haley -16, 6) Brandon Jones -26, 7) AJ Allmendinger -40, 8) Riley Herbst -41, 9) Noah Gragson -43, 10) Myatt Snider -45, 11) Michael Annett -48, 12) Jeremy Clements -50, 13) Jeb Burton -54, 14) Ty Dillon -55, 15) Brandon Brown -58, 16) Ty Gibbs -60.

Note: If they were eligible for points, Martin Truex Jr. would be 13th in stage points, while Brett Moffitt would be 16th.

Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Cindric 236, 2) Daniel Hemric -35, 3) Jeb Burton -43, 4) AJ Allmendinger -49, 5) Harrison Burton -59, 6) Myatt Snider -61, 7) Jeremy Clements -69, 8) Justin Haley -73, 9) Brandon Brown -83, 10) Justin Allgaier -98, 11) Landon Cassill -101, 12) Brandon Jones -103, 13) Michael Annett -105, 14) Tommy Joe Martins -106, 15) Josh Williams -107, 16) Riley Herbst -115.

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

Race Winners: Austin Cindric (Daytona-1, Phoenix), Ty Gibbs (Daytona-2), AJ Allmendinger (Las Vegas), Myatt Snider (Homestead), Justin Allgaier (Atlanta)

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

John Hunter Nemechek had a strong truck Saturday afternoon, winning stages one and two.  However, he was no match for his boss.  Regardless, he was far stronger than any of his rivals for the championship.  Nemechek's second-place finish with the full complement of 20 stage points increased his advantage over Ben Rhodes from 14 to 47 points.  Rhodes finished 16th Saturday and didn't score any stage points.  Sheldon Creed finished fifth and remains in third.  Matt Crafton is still fourth after an eighth-place finish.

Stewart Friesen is up one place to fifth after finishing 10th.  He was much better than that, but he spent the entire final stage recovering from a pit road penalty.  Austin Hill is up six places to sixth after finishing a strong second.  Johnny Sauter is up to seventh after finishing in fourth.  Zane Smith is into the top 10 for the first time this year after finishing sixth.

Grant Enfinger is down to ninth after finishing 11th.  Remember that since he missed the BrakeBest Select 159, he is ineligible for the playoffs.  Carson Hocevar now has sole possession of 10th in points after finishing 12th.  Chandler Smith had a nightmare of a race due to mechanical issues.  The 35th-place finish dropped him from fifth to 11th in points, the last spot in the playoffs.  Smith has a four-point lead over Todd Gilliland, who finished 17th.

Brett Moffitt is up three places to 13th after finishing ninth.  This came despite a last-minute engine change that forced him to start from the rear.  Austin Wayne Self fell back to 14th after a 23rd-place finish, while Derek Kraus scored his first stage points of the season Saturday.  That boosted him up nine spots to 15th.  Ryan Truex is back up to 16th after finishing 15th.

Point Standings (1-16): 1) John Hunter Nemechek 204, 2) Ben Rhodes -47, 3) Sheldon Creed -50, 4) Matt Crafton -59, 5) Stewart Friesen -82, 6) Austin Hill -89, 7) Johnny Sauter -101, 8) Zane Smith -105, 9) Grant Enfinger -109, 10) Carson Hocevar -111, 11) Chandler Smith -111, 12) Todd Gilliland -115, 13) Brett Moffitt -116, 14) Austin Wayne Self -122, 15) Derek Kraus -135, 16) Ryan Truex -136. 

Note: If he were eligible for points, Kyle Busch would be seventh in points.

Playoff Points: t-1) Ben Rhodes 10, t-1) John Hunter Nemechek 10, t-3) Raphael Lessard -8.

Note: If he were eligible for points, Kyle Busch would be third in playoff points.

Stage Points: 1) John Hunter Nemechek 66, 2) Sheldon Creed -29, t-3) Matt Crafton -35, t-3) Stewart Friesen -35, t-5) Ben Rhodes -37, t-5) Raphael Lessard -37, 7) Austin Hill -39, 8) Chandler Smith -47, t-9) Zane Smith -51, t-9) Grant Enfinger -51, 11) Johnny Sauter -52, t-12) Brett Moffitt -56, t-12) David Gilliland -56, t-14) Austin Wayne Self -59, t-14) Christian Eckes -59, t-16) Todd Gilliland -60, t-16) Ryan Truex -60, t-16) Derek Kraus -60.

Note: If they were eligible for stage points, Kyle Busch would be third, while Ross Chastain would be 13th and Kaz Grala 16th.

Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) John Hunter Nemechek 127, 2) Ben Rhodes -14, 3) Sheldon Creed -21, 4) Matt Crafton -27, 5) Carson Hocevar -49, 6) Stewart Friesen -50, 7) Austin Hill -53, 8) Zane Smith -54, 9) Grant Enfinger -55, 10) Johnny Sauter -57, 11) Todd Gilliland -59, 12) Brett Moffitt -62, 13) Chandler Smith -64, 14) Austin Wayne Self -67, 15) Ryan Truex -76, 16) Tanner Gray -77.

Race Winner: Ben Rhodes (Daytona-1, Daytona-2), John Hunter Nemechek (Las Vegas), Kyle Busch (Atlanta)

"Gosh, we had a great long run car all day. It took us a little bit to get going. I was pretty free all day, so we made a really good change to tighten me up where I needed it and it looked like Kyle was getting loose and I’m happy it worked in our favor that there was a couple long runs at the end that kind of let us get there. He got slowed up behind some lap traffic, but I’m really proud of this whole BodyArmor, Menards No. 12 group. We’ve been good this year and had some bad breaks and it’s nice to close out a race like that. That was awesome." - Ryan Blaney, race winner

"I don’t know – I think he just got a lot better there that last Stage and it kind of changed up my flow of the race a little bit. I could get out to such a big lead and then I could take care of my stuff; and run the bottom, where it was maybe slower, but I could take care of my tires. He was fast there and I just wanted to maintain that gap that I had, so I had to run in the faster part of the racetrack and just use my stuff up. And then, he was just a lot better than me there late in the run.

"Hate to lead a lot of laps and lose, but we had a really good car that we brought to the track. Our HendrickCars.com Chevy was fast there for a long time. I don’t really know; I don’t know if we got that much worse or he just got way better and, like I said, it just kind of changed up the flow of my race." - Kyle Larson, finished second

"It was a good day to come home third. Obviously wish the No. 5 (Kyle Larson) would have won there, but I’m proud of everybody at Hendrick Motorsports continually bringing really fast race cars to the race track. I feel like our Ally Camaro was pretty good. It was just a little bit off on the long-run stuff. But finally, a day where nothing bad happened. We’ll take a good solid day, a solid top-three, and move onto Bristol." - Alex Bowman, finished third

"Just not fast enough. It’s kind of the story so far. We’re getting our balance decently close, but just not enough speed, not enough balance, handling – not enough grip. Just need more speed. We’ll go to work on it. Just trying to gather a notebook. I just hate that we’re having these clean races and everything, but there’s always just one or two cars that are a little bit faster." - Denny Hamlin, finished fourth

"I thought we were good all day. The M&M’s Messages Camry was fast. Every time I would log my way and claw my way up to the front, we would have a problem. I had a restart issue that sent us back seven spots. Got back up to third and then we sped on pit road. Got back up to fifth. That’s all it is, all day long is just a claw and that’s all you can do. There’s not enough separation in speed between cars and fall-off and all that sort of stuff. Great job by the guys. We definitely improved our car. It was good in the early stages and even better in the late stages, but everybody else was better too. That’s all we had."- Kyle Busch, finished fifth

"Today was a good little step in the right direction from where we’ve been the last few weeks. Everyone on the Bass Pro Shops / TRACKER Off Road Chevrolet team did a great job with adjustments throughout the race. During portions of the race, I couldn’t turn the wheel on entry, so I would just go in there straight. I made up time running some very weird lines. Justin Alexander and the team kept working on it and got it pretty good in Stage 3. I found some grip in the middle of track late in the race. If I would have found that earlier, we might have been better. We’ll keep working on it." - Austin Dillon, finished sixth

"It was a good day. I’m pretty happy with that from start to finish. We were able to fire off and make some progress and head forward and stay with it all day. We didn’t really have to work on much. This car has a lot of similar characteristics to our Homestead car and definitely feel pretty good about these low grip racetracks. We’ll keep working on it and try to tweak on that a little bit and get it to a top five and ultimately winning a race." - Chris Buescher, finished seventh

"For us, we struggled a bit all day honestly with the Bass Pro Camry. Never could get it to do what I wanted and needed it to do. Really fought not having good front grip and then really losing the front tires on the long runs. We couldn’t really loosen the car up because I was sliding the backend all over the place at the same time. Just not a good setup, not a good day. Battled all day and came home with a top-10, which is okay, but nothing like we would normally run here. Have to go back and figure out where we messed up and what we changed that made it so much worse than what we’ve had here the last two trips." - Martin Truex Jr., finished ninth

"I’m very proud of everyone in this group. They work very, very hard. They build a very fast car. It was a car capable of finishing in the Top 10, that’s for sure. I made a mistake on my part that kind of got us out of contention. But it’s something very good to build on." - Daniel Suarez, finished 17th

"Yeah, obviously we broke a motor there later on. We got some damage there on that restart. Kyle (Busch) kind of spun his tires and then I was pushing him and Kurt (Busch) was pushing me. We all just really jammed together hard and ended up hurting the nose some. So, I don’t know if that had something to do with breaking the engine or not.

"I hate it, for sure. I feel like our car was pretty decent. We drove up there – we got up to tenth, or so, at the Stage. I felt like we were in a decent position to work on it throughout the day. I appreciate all the effort. It’s great to be home in Georgia; home for me and home for NAPA Auto Parts. I wish we could have had a good result, but we’ll try again at Bristol." - Chase Elliott, finished 38th (Blown engine)

"I think the No. 18 (Kyle Busch) was the outside-lead car. The No. 9 (Chase Elliott) kind of checked-up, too. I checked up; the No. 17 (Chris Buescher) hit us from behind. It was just the accordion effect and then I jumped to the middle. I’m like ‘I’m here’; I positioned myself. It wasn’t like I rearranged my lanes and made another block.

"He didn’t do anything vicious or malicious there. It’s a 500-miler and these are the days that it hurts the worst. This absolutely hurts the worst because we had a top-five, winning, Monster Energy Chevy." - Kurt Busch, finished 39th (Crashed out)