The regular season is over, and Denny Hamlin sits atop the reset championship standings. Gone is his 89-point lead, replaced with a 25-point buffer. In fact, the entire top 16 is separated by just 100 points. Hamlin scored 1,027 points in the regular season before being reset to 2,100 as the No. 1 seed.
Ryan Preece secured the 16th and final spot in the Chase standings after earning his first career NASCAR Cup Series win, bumping Shane van Gisbergen out of the Chase field by 17 points.
With Preece’s triumph, the only difference between the owner’s and driver’s standings this year is the fact that the No. 60 has five more points than Preece, as the car jumped Cindric as well for 15th before the points reset.
The biggest gainer in the standings was Daniel Suarez, who jumped two positions with a runner-up finish, netting himself ten extra bonus points right before the Chase reset.
The biggest loser was Riley Herbst, who had to withdraw from the race after suffering “lingering effects” from a wreck at New Hampshire, one week ago. He fell three positions from 26th to 29th in the championship standings.
Watch: Race Rewind: Preece wins his way into The Chase at Daytona
Note: Kyle Busch scored 217 points before his tragic passing, and we have followed NASCAR’s decision to no longer classify Busch in the weekly driver standings.
