So far in 2021, Denny Hamlin has done everything but win in the NASCAR Cup Series.  Sunday saw him lead 276 of 500 laps before fading late to third.  That was more than enough to expand his points lead up to 76, more than a full race.  By virtue of winning, teammate Martin Truex Jr. is now second.  Joey Logano is down one place to third despite finishing sixth.  Kyle Larson remains in fourth after his best-ever run at Martinsville.

Ryan Blaney led 157 laps Sunday and won the first two stages.  Taking his air gun with him on his final stop resulted in a costly penalty.   Despite finishing 11th, he moved up to fifth in points.  William Byron is still in sixth after finishing fourth.  Chase Elliott is up two places to seventh after snatching second in the closing laps.  Kevin Harvick struggled early Sunday, but got himself up to ninth by the finish.  That allowed him to stay in eighth.

Brad Keselowski is down four positions to ninth after being eliminated in the Big One on lap 387.  Christopher Bell has sole possession of 10th after leading nine laps and finishing seventh.  Teammate Kyle Busch is up to 11th after recovering from two spins to finish 10th.  Austin Dillon ran better Sunday than his 14th-place finish suggests, but he is down to 12th.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. seemed to bounce off of half the field Sunday, but managed to bring his Chevrolet home 15th.  That allowed him to move up to 13th in points.  Chris Buescher is up three places to 14th despite spinning with Kyle Busch to trigger the Big One after finishing 13th.  Kurt Busch is still in 15th after struggling to a 21st-place finish.  He is currently the final driver in the playoffs on points.  Daytona 500 winner Michael McDowell was also eliminated in the Big One and dropped from a tie for 12th to 16th.

Kurt Busch has a five-point advantage over Alex Bowman.  Bowman had a car good enough to finish in the top five, but was eliminated in the Big One and finished 34th.  Ryan Newman is up one place to 18th despite cutting a tire in the final two laps and limping to a 19th-place finish.  Bubba Wallace is up two places to 19th after finishing 16th, while Ryan Preece is down to 20th.

Point Standings (1-16): 1) Denny Hamlin 379, 2) Martin Truex Jr. -76, 3) Joey Logano -77, 4) Kyle Larson -99, 5) Ryan Blaney -107, 6) William Byron -109, 7) Chase Elliott -119, 8) Kevin Harvick -126, 9) Brad Keselowski -135, 10) Christopher Bell -162, 11) Kyle Busch -167, 12) Austin Dillon -170, 13) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -177, 14) Chris Buescher -187, 15) Kurt Busch -189, 16) Michael McDowell -190.

Playoff Points: 1) Martin Truex Jr. 11, t-2) Kyle Larson -2, t-2) Ryan Blaney -2, 4) Joey Logano -4, 5) William Byron -5, t-6) Michael McDowell -6, t-6) Christopher Bell -6, 8) Denny Hamlin -8, t-9) Brad Keselowski -10, t-9) Chase Elliott -10, t-9) Chris Buescher -10.

Stage Points: 1) Denny Hamlin 119, 2) Ryan Blaney -38, 3) Martin Truex Jr. -44, 4) Joey Logano -45, 5) Kyle Larson -51, 6) Chase Elliott -52, 7) William Byron -55, 8) Brad Keselowski -59, 9) Kurt Busch -84, 10) Alex Bowman -85, 11) Kyle Busch -86, t-12) Kevin Harvick -87, t-12) Christopher Bell -87, t-12) Austin Dillon -87, 15) Bubba Wallace -90, 16) Chris Buescher -96.

Outside of the Top 16, but still in the playoffs: 22) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -112, 23) Michael McDowell -113.

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

Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Denny Hamlin 301, 2) Joey Logano -34, 3) Martin Truex Jr. -37, 4) Kevin Harvick -47, 5) Kyle Larson -51, 6) William Byron -59, t-7) Chase Elliott -73, t-7) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -73, 9) Ryan Blaney -75, t-10) Christopher Bell -82, t-10) Brad Keselowski -82, 12) Michael McDowell -85, t-13) Kyle Busch -91, t-13) Austin Dillon -91, 15) Chris Buescher -99, 16) Kurt Busch -115.

Race Winners: Michael McDowell (Daytona-1), Christopher Bell (Daytona-2), William Byron (Homestead), Kyle Larson (Las Vegas), Martin Truex Jr. (Phoenix, Martinsville), Ryan Blaney (Atlanta), Joey Logano (Bristol)

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

Austin Cindric was quite competitive Sunday in Martinsville, finishing in sixth.  However, he lost some of his points lead.  Daniel Hemric finished third and gained four points on Cindric.  He's still 42 points back, though.  Harrison Burton led the first 52 laps Friday night and finished seventh.  That was good enough for him to stay in third.  Justin Haley is up to fourth after finishing eighth and claiming eight stage points.

Jeb Burton is up to fifth despite getting penalized for holding up the pack during an early caution.  AJ Allmendinger had a bolt come loose on a suspension arm early in the race that cost him two laps.  He recovered to 13th by the finish, but the issue dropped him to sixth in points.  Myatt Snider is still in seventh after finishing 15th.  Justin Allgaier is eighth after finishing ninth despite handling woes.

Jeremy Clements earned 10 stage points this weekend and finished 14th.  That puts him only one point behind Allgaier.  Brandon Jones finished fifth and stays in 10th.  Noah Gragson and Michael Annett are tied for 11th.  Gragson finished second and won the $100,000 Xfinity Dash 4 Cash bonus.  In Annett's case, he recovered from an early spin caused by wheel-hopping to finish 10th.

The JR Motorsports teammates are the last two drivers currently in the playoffs.  They are 10 points ahead of Brandon Brown, who ran well early, but got stuck at the back of the lead lap and never recovered.  His 27th-place finish cost him two places.  Riley Herbst dropped down to 14th after cutting his left rear tire and having to make an unscheduled pit stop.  He ended up finishing 29th, two laps down.  Ty Gibbs is back up to 15th after finishing fourth despite only running three of the seven races to this point.  Josh Williams recovered from an intentional spin that got him penalized to finish 16th and move up to 16th.

Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Cindric 317, 2) Daniel Hemric -42, 3) Harrison Burton -75, 4) Justin Haley -87, 5) Jeb Burton -96, 6) AJ Allmendinger -99, 7) Myatt Snider -111, 8) Justin Allgaier -118, 9) Jeremy Clements -119, 10) Brandon Jones -130, t-11) Noah Gragson -149, t-11) Michael Annett -149, 13) Brandon Brown -159, 14) Riley Herbst -174, 15) Ty Gibbs -189, 16) Josh Williams -191.

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 13th 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, t-4) Josh Berry -5, 6) Daniel Hemric -11, t-7) Brandon Jones -13, t-7) Noah Gragson -13.

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

Stage Points: 1) Austin Cindric 82, 2) Daniel Hemric -14, 3) Justin Haley -17, 4) Harrison Burton -23, 5) Justin Allgaier -24, 6) Noah Gragson -33, 7) Brandon Jones -35, t-8) AJ Allmendinger -49, t-8) Myatt Snider -49, t-8) Jeremy Clements -49, t-11) Michael Annett -50, t-11) Riley Herbst -50, 13) Jeb Burton -55, 14) Brandon Brown -61, 15) Ty Gibbs -62, 16) Ty Dillon -64.

Note: If they were eligible for points, Martin Truex Jr. would be 15th in stage points.

Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Austin Cindric 271, 2) Daniel Hemric -31, 3) Jeb Burton -48, 4) AJ Allmendinger -56, 5) Harrison Burton -59, 6) Myatt Snider -70, 7) Justin Haley -75, 8) Jeremy Clements -77, t-9) Justin Allgaier -101, t-9) Brandon Jones -101, 11) Brandon Brown -104, 12) Michael Annett -109, 13) Josh Williams -117, 14) Noah Gragson -125, 15) Landon Cassill -132, 16) Tommy Joe Martins -133.

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

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

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

The Camping World Truck Series was off last weekend.  They will be back in action on April 17 at Richmond Raceway.

When the series resumes there, John Hunter Nemechek will enter the weekend a little fatigued since he's now a father.  He'll also have a six-point advantage over Ben Rhodes.  Sheldon Creed is third, then Matt Crafton and Stewart Friesen.

Point Standings (1-16): 1) John Hunter Nemechek 211, 2) Ben Rhodes -6, 3) Sheldon Creed -21, 4) Matt Crafton -40, 5) Stewart Friesen -53, 6) Austin Hill -55, 7) Zane Smith -74, 8) Grant Enfinger -80, 9) Todd Gilliland -84, 10) Austin Wayne Self -100, t-11) Johnny Sauter -102, t-11) Carson Hocevar -102, 13) Brett Moffitt -110, 14) Raphael Lessard -112, 15) Chandler Smith -116, 16) Tanner Gray -124. 

Note: If he were eligible for points, Kyle Busch would be 10th 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, Martin Truex Jr. would be third in playoff points while Kyle Busch would be fourth.

Stage Points: 1) John Hunter Nemechek 72, 2) Sheldon Creed -20, t-3) Ben Rhodes -30, t-3) Stewart Friesen -30, 5) Austin Hill -32, 6) Matt Crafton -38, 7) Raphael Lessard -40, 8) Zane Smith -49, 9) Chandler Smith -53, 10) Grant Enfinger -54, 11) Johnny Sauter -57, 12) Todd Gilliland -61, t-13) Brett Moffitt -62, t-13) David Gilliland -62, 15) Austin Wayne Self -63, 16) Christian Eckes -65.

Note: If they were eligible for stage points, Kyle Busch would be sixth, while Martin Truex Jr. would be 10th and Ross Chastain 14th.

Old Point Standings (1-16): 1) Ben Rhodes 144, 2) John Hunter Nemechek -17, 3) Sheldon Creed -21, 4) Matt Crafton -26, 5) Grant Enfinger -45, t-6) Stewart Friesen -46, t-6) Austin Hill -46, t-6) Zane Smith -46, 9) Todd Gilliland -48, 10) Carson Hocevar -55, 11) Austin Wayne Self -62, 12) Brett Moffitt -71, 13) Johnny Sauter -74, t-14) Tanner Gray -75, t-14) Parker Kligerman -75, t-16) Chandler Smith -81, t-16) Ryan Truex -81.

Note: If he was eligible for points, Kyle Busch would be 14th in old school points.

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

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

"This is unbelievable. This place has become a playground for us I guess. We didn’t have the best car all day, but we just kept working on it and never quit on it. Proud of James (Small, crew chief) and all the guys. This Bass Pro/Tracker Toyota Camry came on at the end and that’s when it counts. There’s something about when the lights come on here, we’re really good so that was cool.

"It was good, hard, clean hard racing. He (Denny Hamlin) was getting tight. I couldn’t get the power down so we kind of had opposite things going on there. I could get inside of him, but I couldn’t clear him, he could get the power down on me. It was a fun battle and it was a clean battle. Coach [Joe Gibbs, team owner] will be happy tomorrow. We didn’t make each other mad or do anything stupid." - Martin Truex Jr., race winner

"I really felt like we were not perfect, for sure, all day. But we did make it better I think as the day went on. The run was kind of that right distance for me there at the end to maximize it. I felt like if it was any longer than that, I was probably going to fade again kind of like I had been all day.

"I really appreciate the effort. We worked really hard today to get back to second. I felt like every strategy call and circumstance just kind of went the other direction for us. We had a couple of good restarts there at the end; had a good pit stop and made a good last adjustment just for a short run. But definitely need to be better. Our NAPA team has been working hard. We’ve had a very eventful year I feel like, so it’s nice to just have a solid day. We got some stage points and got a good finish. We’ll try to go get them next week." - Chase Elliott, finished second

"That’s just the cards we were dealt. We had a really good short run car. We just didn’t have a good long run car. We saved a set of tires – we had the tire advantage – but we couldn’t get the car to turn on the long run. That was the bugaboo, you could say, but overall, the FedEx Camry team performed well. We had a really fast car for 20 laps or so, and then it would just kind of go away. Fortunate for us, we had a great day and had ourselves a shot at it, but just wasn’t quite good enough." - Denny Hamlin, finished third

"It was a hard-fought day for us. We had handling issues early on and then once we got back further in the pack – it was just crazy. We had fresh tires and the speed but had to manage traffic. Once we got track position back we were making up ground but got held up a couple times which hurt us. Overall though we had a fast Liberty University Chevy. It was a good day and we learned a lot. On to Richmond next weekend." - William Byron, finished fourth

"Yeah, definitely the restarts were crazy. I didn’t have the best balance on the restarts and that made it even a little crazier for me because I was kind of on defense, I felt like, most of the time. Even when I was on offense, I was kind of on edge. But after we would get 15 to 20 laps in, I actually felt really good. I felt like we were probably a fourth-place car on the long runs, so I was happy about that. To get a top five here at probably, by far, my worst race track feels like a win."- Kyle Larson, finished fifth

"We weren’t very good. It was kind of a confusing race for us. I thought we were decent yesterday the first run and then fired off on this first run and was like, ‘Uh oh.’ I had no rear grip and started fighting loose in and off. We almost went down a lap, but a good strategy play got us up toward the front and a couple good changes got us closer to where I needed to be as well, and then it was just kind of a slugfest, a grinding race from there. There were points I thought we were decent and then the next run we were no good, then we were pretty good, and then no good. We just kept jumping the fence back and forth, and trying to understand where to be was pretty tough. We almost got a top five out of something that was a pretty challenging day. We got something out of it. I was expecting a lot more out of today, but we still got a sixth-place finish with our Shell/Pennzoil Mustang which is just OK." - Joey Logano, finished sixth

"Today was a good day for our No. 8 Childress Vineyards Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, but we definitely had to fight for it. I learned a lot about racing at Martinsville Speedway over the course of the weekend. We fired off strong Saturday night and were able to work our way up a handful of spots after having to start from the rear of the field due to an unapproved adjustment. Then the rain came through and postponed the race, but that also gave our team a good chance to talk about what we had and what we needed to work on. Once we got back going today, I had really good long run speed and was able to use that to capitalize on some good runs to get into the top 10 and grab stage points at the end of stage two. I needed more center turn and to be a little looser during that span of short runs that came in the middle of [the final stage] when we had all those back-to-back yellows while being shuffled back a little bit due to our pit cycle, but luckily the final run of the race was a longer one that allowed us to bring home a top 10 finish. Overall, this was a good weekend for our team and I’m looking forward to carrying this momentum into next weekend’s race at Richmond." - Tyler Reddick, finished eighth

"We had a really good Menards/Pennzoil Ford Mustang tonight. On the long runs we were really good. Denny was good on short runs. I was just kind of trying to hold off the guys behind me until we got 20 or so laps in and then I could kind of start creeping forward. But, we just got that pit road penalty at the end. It’s just a mistake and something that should be avoided. We’ve had an issue the last three times we’ve been here with a car to win, so that’s frustrating but I’m real proud of the effort. I just wish we could close one out." - Ryan Blaney, finished 11th

"First of all, I saw a couple of cars on fire, so luckily nobody got hurt. I was a bit surprised that the safety people took a long time to get to my car. I tried to make sure everything was good to stop the fire, but for some reason, they just weren’t stopping the fire. In that wreck, there wasn’t really anything I could do. I was trying to slam on the brakes to try to slow down, but it was a parking lot in there. I couldn’t do anything about it. [William Byron] put us in that position; he pushed me out of the way. I had a few laps older tires than everyone else." - Daniel Suarez, finished 32nd (Crashed out)

"It’s just unfortunate that we got caught up in it. It looked like some guys got in front of me and the track was blocked. I think I was just barely gonna get stopped in time and somebody clobbered me from behind and just tore us up. It’s a bummer. I think we were really good. We drove up into the top five and lost the power-steering. I was able to manhandle it around the racetrack, but I couldn’t get down pit road where you go to turn in your pit box. Every pit stop, it wasn’t my crew’s fault, I just couldn’t get the car stopped in the box and pointed the right way. That kind of got me in the back, and then I got dumped. We recovered from that and then we got caught up in a wreck that we just didn’t look like I could miss. Just one of those compounding, frustrating short track days, but we had decent speed. We just have to figure out why we lost the power-steering that kind of put us behind." - Brad Keselowski, finished 33rd (Crashed out)

"It’s very frustrating. I hate it for everybody at Hendrick Motorsports; everybody at Ally and Chevrolet that gives us so much support. Everybody works so hard to give us what we need and we had such a good race car today; such a fast Ally Camaro. I had a loose right-front wheel and that’s just part of racing; things are going to happen. Our pit crew is phenomenal every week. I make mistakes, people make mistakes, it happens. It put us behind the eight ball there and then they all crashed in front of me. I stopped and the guys behind me didn’t stop. It was one of those deals." - Alex Bowman, finished 34th (Crashed out)