NASCAR Cup Series standings: Michael McDowell shakes up playoff race

How about Michael McDowell getting the job done under pressure and shaking up the NASCAR standings along the playoff bubble? For those other drivers without a win, hoping to point their way to the postseason, everything just got that much harder.

The good news for drivers like Bubba Wallace, they have a points cushion. Bad news, Chase Elliott or Daniel Suárez could easily win next week at The Glen. Or it could be a number of other drivers.

At the top of the NASCAR standings we still have a clear-cut favorite for the regular season championship. While Martin Truex Jr. wasn’t a factor for the win this week, he brought the 19-car home P7. For his efforts, Truex leads the Cup points race with 830 to Denny Hamlin’s 770.

Behind Hamlin and Truex is William Byron at 726. Christopher Bell comes in fourth at 709 points, and Kyle Larson is now fifth overall at 698 points, despite six DNFs on the season.

Cup grid (Glen, Daytona to go): Byron-4w, Truex-3w, Busch-3w, Hamlin-2w, Larson-2w, Buescher-2w, Bell-1w, Chastain-1w, Blaney-1w, Reddick-1w, Logano-1w, McDowell-1w, Stenhouse-1w, Harvick +145, Keselowski +143, Wallace +28, Suarez -28, Gibbs -49, Elliott -80, Bowman -80 pic.twitter.com/udksof8AZI

— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) August 13, 2023

Denny Hamlin is likely the only driver that can catch Truex Jr. for the regular season championship. The NASCAR standings leader has a 60-point cushion, but two bad races could slip the script on the No. 19 team. Joe Gibs Racing has to feel good about their chances of putting one of these drivers at the top of the list after Daytona.

Just don’t ask Kyle Busch about the weekend…

The real battle is down at the bubble. Michael McDowell’s win absolutely shook that whole situation up. Bubba Wallace was comfortable and now he’s back on the hot seat.

NASCAR standings come down to the wire on the bubble

Coming into the weekend, Wallace had a 58-point cushion on the cutline. McDowell went in and dominated on his way to a victory. So, that moves him above the non-winners and pushes Bubba down to the cutline now. Just 28 points separate him from Daniel Suárez.

The bad news for Wallace is another week of road course racing at Watkins Glen. Indy was his chance to perform and punch above his weight on the road. He was P5 at Indy in 2022. It just didn’t happen this season with no cautions from Lap 2 until the finish.

Now he heads to another road course, and Daniel Suárez and Chase Elliott have very fast cars from this past week. If they repeat their success, not only will Suárez catch Wallace in points, one of them might just win the race and push the playoff bubble up to Brad Keselowski and Kevin Harvick who are almost locked in on points.

So, the NASCAR standings got shaken up by the McDowell win. Now, other bubble drivers will try their best to make that happen for their own teams.