It was a busy weekend for NASCAR at Kansas Speedway the brought an end to the first of the playoffs in the Truck Series, a rain shortened race for the Xfinity Series, and the 18th different race winner in the Cup Series.
Despite having a couple of bad weeks on the track,Chase Elliott continues to lead the field with 2,040 points. Martin Truex Jr continues to lead the field in stage wins with seven. Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, and Ross Chastain all have dive stage wins exactly.
Cup Series Stage Point Standings:
Chase Elliott – 240
Joey Logano – 213
Ryan Blaney – 208
Martin Truex Jr – 198
Kyle Larson – 191
William. Udon – 189
Ross Chastain – 178
Kyle. Busch – 177
Christopher Bell – 170
Denny Hamlin – 147
Erik Jones – 103
Tyler Reddick – 102
Chase Briscoe – 96
Alex Bowman – 94
Daniel Suarez – 92
Bubba Wallace – 88
Kevin Harvick – 85
Kurt Busch – 77 (still out due to a head injury)
Aric Almirola – 66
Ricky Stenhouse Jr – 55
Brad Keselowski – 47
Austin Cindric – 45
Harrison Burton – 41
Chris Buescher – 34
Austin Dillon – 33
Cole Custer – 33
Ty Dillon – 33
Todd Gilliland – 31
Michael McDowell – 21
Justin Haley – 19
Joey Hand – 14
Corey LaJoie – 8
Cody Ware – 2
After the race in Kansas that brought the 18th different winner of the season when Bubba Wallace took the number 45 car to victory lane for the 23XI Racing sweep, it secured the 45 car would continue in the race for the owner’s championship and move on to the next round in fifth place. It was the second week in a row that the race winner is a non-playoff driver. As a result, the only driver to have secured a spot in the next round going into Bristol for the final race in the round is Christopher Bell.
Currently Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon, Chase Briscoe, and Kevin Harvick are below the cut line and at a risk of being eliminated from the playoffs. After two playoff races with a DNF, Harvick will have to win the race in Bristol to assure he can advance to the next round.
Cup Series Playoff Standings:
Christopher Bell – 2,108
William Byron – 2,098
Denny Hamlin – 2,097
Joey Logano – 2,090
Ryan Blaney – 2,086
Alex Bowman – 2,080
Chase Elliott – 2,078
Kyle Larson – 2,077
Ross Chastain – 2,076
Daniel Suarez – 2,056
Tyler Reddick – 2,052
Austin Cindric – 2,052
Kyle Busch – 2,050
Austin Dillon – 2,049
Chase Briscoe – 2,043
Kevin Harvick – 2,017
In the Xfinity Series, it was the next to the last race in the regular season. Drivers managed to complete stage two before the rains came and washed out the remainder of the race. Noah Gragson notched his fifths win of the season to tie with Ty Gibbs for race wins. That makes a total of 10 race wins for JR Motorsports drivers this season.
After his win on Saturday afternoon, Noah Gragson took over the lead with 2,045 points; five in front of Ty Gibbs.
Xfinity Series Playoff Standings:
Noah Gragson – 2,045
Ty Gibbs – 2,040
AJ Allmendinger – 2,032
Justin Allgaier – 2,030
Josh Berry – 2,022
Austin Hill – 2,016
Brandon Jones – 2,010
Sam Mayer – 2,005
Daniel Hemric – 2,003
Riley Herbst – 2,002
Ryan Sieg – 2,001
Landon Cassio – 2,000
In the Camping World Truck Series the Friday night race brought an end to the first round of the playoffs and the elimination of two drivers.
Camping World Truck Series Playoff Standings;
Zane Smith – 3,037
Chandler Smith – 3,028
John Hunter Nemechek – 3,024
Ben Rhodes – 3,017
Stewart Friesen – 3,013
Ty Majeski – 3,008
Grant Enfinger – 3,007
Christian Eckes – 3,007
Carson Hocevar – 2,099
Matt Crafton – 2,092
Carson Hocevar and Matt Crafton are the first drivers to eliminated from the playoffs.