This past weekend at Darlington Raceway lived up to the hype.  While parts of the race were calm by comparison, there was plenty of action to end the race…a playoff contender crashes out early, another is fighting a flu like bug, and several others are fighting to survive and make the playoffs.  In the end, another new driver crosses the finish line first, edging out Kyle Busch for the second week in a row and the regular season champion is crowned by a single point!

Chase Briscoe wins the race to secure a spot in the playoff; leaving only two spots for drivers to make it in on points.  After crashing out on lap two, Martin Truex Jr secured his spot at the end of stage two.  But Ty Gibbs who also crashed late in the race took the final playoff spot.

A sick Tyler Reddick won the regular season championship…and 15 bonus points… by a single point over Kyle Larson.

The playoffs begin next week at Atlanta Motor Speedway in a first round that includes road racing at Watkins Glen and some high banked short track racing under the lights at Bristol Motor Speedway.  The last time the Cup Series ran at Atlanta, it ended with the closest win in NASCAR history.

Cup Series point standings (points for the playoff drivers reflect their adjusted point standings for playoff racing):
Kyle Larson – 2,040
Christopher Bell – 2,032
Tyler Reddick – 2,028
William Byron – 2,022
Ryan Blaney – 2,018
Denny Hamlin – 2,015
Chase Elliott – 2,014
Brad Keselowski – 2,008
Joey Logano – 2,007
Austin Cindric – 2,007
Daniel Suarez – 2,006
Alex Bowman – 2,005
Chase Briscoe – 2,005
Harrison Burton – 2,005
Ty Gibbs – 2,004
Martin Truex Jr – 2,004
Chris Buescher – 690
Bubba Wallace – 669
Ross Chastain – 663
Kyle Busch – 587
Todd Gilliland – 500
Carson Hocevar – 471
Michael McDowell – 468
Josh Berry 460
Noah Gragson – 431
Ricky Stenhouse Jr – 419
Erik Jones – 394
Ryan Preece – 393
Austin Dillon – 382
Daniel Hemric – 373
Justin Haley  – 366
Corey LaJoie – 363
John Hunter Nemechek – 355
Zane Smith – 330
Kaz Grala – 169
Cody Ware – 98
Joey Hand – 43
Jimmie Johnson – 39
Derek Kraus – 32
David Ragan – 17
Kamui Kobayashi – 8
Will Brown – 6
Cam Waters – 2

The Xfinity Series has three more races before their playoffs begin with Justin Allgaier leading by 28 points over Cole Custer.  After sitting on the pole Saturday, Cup Series regular Christopher Bell won the race in overtime.

Xfinity Series Point Standings:
Justin Allgaier – 843
Cole Custer – 815
Chandler Smith – 761
Austin Hill – 745
Sheldon Creed – 704
AJ Allmendinger – 700
Riley Herbst – 667
Jesse Love – 651
Parker Kligerman – 639
Sammy Smith – 605
Ryan Sieg – 595
Shane van Gisbergen – 562
Sam Mayer – 536
Brandon Jones – 473
Anthony Alfredo – 456
Brennan Poole – 395
Josh Williams – 375
Leland Honeyman – 344
Parker Retzlaff – 338
Jeb Burton – 335
Jeremy Clements – 313
Kyle Weatherman – 299
Ryan Ellis – 292
Kyle Sieg – 282
Matt DiBenedetto – 271
Aric Almirola – 248
Blaine Perkins – 243
Ryan Truex – 234
Carson Kvapil – 217
Hailie Deegan – 174
Josh Bilicki – 171
Garrett Smithley – 156
Patrick Emerling – 120
Austin Green – 112
Joey Gase – 110
David Starr – 90
BJ McLeod – 78
Joe Graf Jr – 74
Jordan Anderson – 71
JJ Yeley – 61
Ed Jones – 57
Sage Karam – 49
Logan Bearden – 48
Caesar Bacarella – 46
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
Chas Finchum – 22
Myatt Snider – 18
Preston Pardus – 18
Dexter Bean – 17
Nathan Byrd – 17
Daniil Kvyat – 16
Andre Castro – 16
Greg van Last – 13
Thomas Annunziata – 12
Glen Reen – 10
RC Emerson – 9
Boris Said – 9
Armani Williams – 4
Timothy Viens – 2
Ryan Vargas – 2
Gus Dean – 1

Justin Allgaier also holds the lead in the Playoff Points.

The current playoff standings in the Xfinity Series:
Justin Allgaier
Chandler Smith
Austin Hill
Cole Custer
Shane van Gisbergen
Jesse Love
Sam Mayer
Riley Herbst
Sheldon Creed
AJ Allmendinger
Sammy Smith
Parker Kligerman