It was a busy weekend for NASCAR with all three Series running in two different cities as the Truck Series begins its playoffs and the regular series winds down for the Cup and Xfinity Series.

As always, the races at Daytona were filled with yellow flags, crashes, and chaos.  The Wood Brothers finally earned race win number 100 at the hands of the young driver they are replacing next year.  Harrison Burton earned his first career race win by edging out Kyle Busch for the win.  Two of only six drivers who avoided a crash incident all night, Busch raced Burton cleanly and came up just short of extending his streak of winning at least one race every year – a record that stands at 19 years.  NBC broadcaster Jeff Burton watched from the booth as his son crossed the finish line, similar to when Ned Jarrett called the Daytona 500 where his son Dale won the race.

The night of chaos began when Daniel Suarez’s car caught fire in the pits after a spark from Denny Hamlin’s pit.  Suarez left pit road with his rear end on fire and by the time he returned to pit road, the fire had melted the rear of the car.  Suarez said that he felt something hot but could not see the fire with the rear view camera; adding that he no longer uses a rear view mirror.

The point standings got a shake up when NASCAR assessed a penalty on the Joe Gibbs Racing number eleven team for violating the sealed engine policy.  As a result, driver Denny Hamlin and JGR were docked 75 points and 10 playoff points.  The penalty took Hamlin out of the running for the regular season championship and dropped him in the playoff standings.  The point standings got a further shake up with the multiple crashes that despite a new wind deflector designed to keep the cars on the ground failed and sent Josh Berry flying and tumbling.

On Friday night in a chaotic night of racing, part time driver Ryan Truex took the win.

In Milwaukee, the Craftsman Truck Series, also had a first time winner when Layne Riggs, with Dad Scott looking on, crossed the finish line first and separated his shoulder in the celebration.

Tyler Reddick takes over the lead in the point standings with 823 – 17 points ahead of Kyle Larson; but with his four race wins, Larson leads in the playoff standings.

Cup Series Point Standings:
Tyler Reddick – 823
Kyle Larson – 806
Chase Elliott – 805
Ryan Blaney – 755
William Byron- 743
Christopher Bell – 737
Brad Keselowski – 718
Denny Hamlin – 712
Martin Truex Jr – 695
Ty Gibbs – 676
Chris Buescher – 658
Alex Bowman – 648
Bubba Wallace – 637
Ross Chastain – 631
Joey Logano – 586
Kyle Busch – 552
Daniel Suarez – 527
Chase Briscoe – 514
Austin Cindric – 486
Todd Gilliland – 480
Carson Hocevar – 467
Michael McDowell – 459
Josh Berry – 448
Noah Gragson – 426
Ricky Stenhouse Jr – 404
Erik Jones – 381
Ryan Preece – 368
Daniel Hemric – 365
Austin Dillon – 360
Justin Haley – 356
John Hunter Nemechek – 343
Corey LaJoie – 335
Zane Smith – 316
Harrison Burton – 306
Kaz Grala – 166
Cody Ware – 98
Joey Hand – 43
Jimmie Johnson – 39
Derek Kraus – 32
David Ragan – 17
Kamui Kobayashi – 8
Will Brown – 6
Cam Waters – 2

In the Playoff Standings:
Kyle Larson
Chrisotpher Bell
Tyler Reddick
William Byron
Ryan Blaney
Denny Hamlin
Chase Elliott
Brad Keselowski
Joey Logano
Austin Cindric
Daniel Suarez
Alex Bowman
Harrison Burton
Martin Truex Jr
Ty Gibbs
Chris Buescher

In the Xfinity Series Justin Allgaier leads the point standings and the playoff standings.

Xfinity point standings:
Justin Allgaier – 806
Cole Custer – 773
Chandler Smith – 731
Austin Hill – 704
AJ Allmendinger – 674
Riley Herbst – 665
Sheldon Creed – 654
Jesse Love – 620
Parker Kligerman – 605
Ryan Sieg – 576
Sammy Smith – 561
Shane van Gisbergen – 532
Sam Mayer – 527
Brandon Jones – 468
Anthony Alfredo – 445
Brennan Poole – 378
Josh Williams – 354
Parker Retzlaff – 337
Jeb Burton – 335
Leland Honeyman – 330
Jeremy Clements – 307
Kyle Weatherman – 298
Kyle Sieg – 287
Ryan Ellis – 276
Matt DiBenedetto – 253
Aric Almirola – 248
Blaine Perkins – 240
Ryan Truex – 234
Carson Kvapil – 194
Hailie Deegan – 174
Josh Bilicki – 171
Garrett Smithley – 149
Patrick Emerling – 120
Austin Green – 112
Joey Gase – 110
BJ McLeod – 78
David Starr – 77
Jordan Anderson – 71
Caesar Bacarella – 66
JJ Yeley – 61
Ed Jones – 57
Sage Karam – 49
Joe Graf Jr – 48
Logan Bearden – 48
Alex Labbe – 46
Nick Leitz – 41
Brad Perez – 32
Bubba Pollard – 31
Natalie Decker – 27
Justin Bonsignore – 25
Patrick Gallagher – 25
CJ McLaughlin – 24
Conor Daly – 23
Myatt Snider – 18
Preston Pardus – 18
Dexter Bean – 17
Nathan Byrd – 17
Daniil Kvyat – 16
Andre Castro – 16
Chad Finchum – 15
Thomas Annunziata – 12
Glen Reen – 10
RC Emerson – 9
Boris Said – 9
Greg van Last – 5
Armani Williams – 4
Timothy Viens – 2
Ryan Vargas – 2
Gus Dean – 1

Playoff Standings:
Justin Allgaier
Chandler smith
Austin Hill
Cole Custer
Shane van Gisbergen
Riley Herbst
Jesse Love
Sam Mayer
AJ Allmendinger
Sheldon Creed
Ryan Sieg
Parker Kligerman

In the Craftsman Truck Series, Christian Eckes leads the playoffs with 2090 points.  After the first round in the playoffs, two of the 10 playoff drivers will be eliminated; after round two the field will be cut in half to just four for the final race at Phoenix.

Craftsman Truck Series Playoff Standings:
Christian Eckes – 2090
Ty Majeski – 2074
Corey Heim – 2071
Nick Sanchez – 2064
Taylor Gray – 2043
Tyler Ankrum – 2043
Daniel Dye – 2039
Grant Enfinger – 2032
Ben Rhodes – 2030
Rajah Caruth – 2028