NASCAR Cup Series standings: Final playoff spot up for grabs at Daytona
One more race to go before the playoffs. Watkins Glen set up the NASCAR standings for the regular season finale. The thing is, we might get quite a battle at the top of the standings and on the playoff bubble.
By this point in the season, things have shaken out and we have a good understanding of who the top drivers are and which ones are going to move on to next year mentally. With just one playoff spot available, a lot of drivers are going to be heartbroken by the time the race is over.
Heading into Daytona, the regular season championship is up for grabs between Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin. Hamlin trails Truex by 39 points, 822 to 861 in the NASCAR standings. However, if Truex finds himself wrecking early or marred in the back of the field, Hamlin might steal the regular season from him.
William Byron is going to be unable to reach Truex on Saturday night no matter what. However, Byron just added his fifth race win and 8th stage win to his record this season. He leads the Cup Series in both stats.
Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson are both right there in fourth and fifth overall in the NASCAR standings.
What is very surprising is seeing Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher are sixth and seventh in points. That is a huge improvement over last season and RFK Racing looks to be in a great place as far as the speed of their cars.
Keselowski and Kevin Harvick both clinched their playoff spots at Watkins Glen. So, 15 spots have been filled out of the 16 available. That means only one driver on the bubble will walk away with a playoff ticket in their hands.
NASCAR standings put bubble drivers on edge
When you go down to the bubble, you have a few storylines going on. If you just have the points count pulled up, Bubba Wallace is actually 14th overall right now. He has more points than race winners Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Michael McDowell.
However, without a win, Wallace is racing against 16 other drivers at Daytona who are looking to grab a surprise victory. Any full-time winless driver can win and get themselves into the playoffs.
Ty Gibbs is 32 points back from Wallace. Daniel Suárez, who entered Watkins Glen 28 points back, is now 43 points behind the cutline. Everyone else behind Suárez will have to win the race if they want to make the playoffs. Wallace, Gibbs, and Suárez can all point their way into the postseason.
The NASCAR standings show all kinds of battles and stories. Even the ones we didn’t mention are out there looking for more points, to move up, grab a playoff point in the stages, whatever it is. Of course, Chase Elliott is in a must-win situation as well. Not where anyone expected him to be at this point in the season.