SPEEDWAY, Ind. - Another week, another solid race for Hendrick Motorsports and its drivers' positioning in the NASCAR Cup Series playoff standings.
In terms of the regular season points picture, the gap tightened between teammates Chase Elliott and William Byron. Elliott snatched the lead from Byron at Dover Motor Speedway last week but after Byron piled up 15 stage points in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, the gap between them narrowed to just four with four races until the postseason.
The winner of the regular season points title gets 15 playoff points.
Kyle Larson registered a second straight top five, coming home second and adding valuable bonus markers in both stages as well. He is the projected second seed in the playoff picture with three victories to his credit and also closed in on Elliott, just 15 points behind in the regular season hierarchy.
Elliott is currently fifth in the playoff projections and Byron sixth.
Finally, Alex Bowman scored a fourth top-10 finish in the last five events, ending the day in ninth. He is now 15th, still 63 points to the good in the playoff standings.
Here's a look at the standings entering next week's race at Iowa Speedway.
NASCAR standings after today
| Driver | Points | Wins |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Denny Hamlin | 706 (ADV) | 4 |
| 2. Kyle Larson | 711 (ADV) | 3 |
| 3. Christopher Bell | 664 (ADV) | 3 |
| 4. Shane van Gisbergen | 392 (ADV) | 3 |
| 5. Chase Elliott | 726 (ADV) | 1 |
| 6. William Byron | 722 (ADV) | 1 |
| 7. Ryan Blaney | 616 (ADV) | 1 |
| 8. Chase Briscoe | 599 (ADV) | 1 |
| 9. Bubba Wallace | 550 (ADV) | 1 |
| 10. Joey Logano | 532 (ADV) | 1 |
| 11. Ross Chastain | 518 (ADV) | 1 |
| 12. Austin Cindric | 439 (ADV) | 1 |
| 13. Josh Berry | 414 (ADV) | 1 |
| 14. Tyler Reddick | 655 (+138) | 0 |
| 15. Alex Bowman | 580 (+63) | 0 |
| 16. Chris Buescher | 559 (+42) | 0 |
| ---------------- | --- | --- |
| 17. Ryan Preece | 517 (-42) | 0 |
| 18. Kyle Busch | 478 (-81) | 0 |
| 19. Ty Gibbs | 464 (-95) | 0 |
| 20. AJ Allmendinger | 435 (-124) | 0 |