Kyle Larson has become just the third different driver to lead the championship standings this year, joining Tyler Reddick and Denny Hamlin in that very exclusive club.
Larson is now a single point ahead of Hamlin, and things remain incredibly close three races into the ten-race Chase for the championship.
After a surprise late charge netted him his 40th career win at Bristol, Joey Logano has closed to within 16 points of the lead, sitting third overall after jumping four positions.
Ryan Blaney was trying to rebound after a brake failure resulted in a DNF at Gateway, only to be wrecked out of the Bristol race following contact with Carson Hocevar. He dropped even further behind, now 52 adrift of the lead and sixth overall. He also got punched in the face after confronting Hocevar in the pits...
In the battle to be the best of the rest, Shane van Gisbergen remains 17th, 32 points ahead of Brad Keselowski.
2026 NASCAR Cup points after Bristol II (Race 29 of 36)
| Pos. | Driver | Points | Positions gained or lost |
| 1 | Kyle Larson | 2206 | +1 |
| 2 | Denny Hamlin | 2205 | -1 |
| 3 | Joey Logano | 2190 | +4 |
| 4 | Christopher Bell | 2189 | -1 |
| 5 | Ty Gibbs | 2164 | +1 |
| 6 | Ryan Blaney | 2154 | -2 |
| 7 | Tyler Reddick | 2145 | -2 |
| 8 | Carson Hocevar | 2121 | +1 |
| 9 | Chase Briscoe | 2119 | -1 |
| 10 | Bubba Wallace | 2114 | -- |
| 11 | Austin Cindric | 2090 | +1 |
| 12 | Chase Elliott | 2089 | -1 |
| 13 | William Byron | 2085 | +2 |
| 14 | Ryan Preece | 2082 | -- |
| 15 | Chris Buescher | 2082 | -2 |
| 16 | Daniel Suarez | 2072 | -- |
| CHASE CUTLINE | CHASE CUTLINE | CHASE CUTLINE | CHASE CUTLINE |
| 17 | Shane van Gisbergen | 647 | -- |
| 18 | Brad Keselowski | 615 | -- |
| 19 | Ross Chastain | 592 | -- |
| 20 | Michael McDowell | 570 | -- |
| 21 | Erik Jones | 549 | -- |
| 22 | Todd Gilliland | 520 | -- |
| 23 | AJ Allmendinger | 514 | -- |
| 24 | Josh Berry | 501 | +2 |
| 25 | Austin Dillon | 494 | -1 |
| 26 | Zane Smith | 477 | -1 |
| 27 | John Hunter Nemechek | 465 | +1 |
| 28 | Alex Bowman | 456 | -1 |
| 29 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 450 | -- |
| 30 | Riley Herbst | 415 | -- |
| 31 | Noah Gragson | 376 | +1 |
| 32 | Cole Custer | 370 | -1 |
| 33 | Ty Dillon | 324 | -- |
| 34 | Connor Zilisch | 317 | -- |
| 35 | Cody Ware | 223 | -- |
| 36 | Casey Mears | 13 | -- |
| 37 | Kevin Magnussen | 11 | -- |
| 38 | Jimmie Johnson | 9 | -- |
| 39 | Katherine Legge | 8 | -- |
| 40 | BJ McLeod | 4 | -- |
Note: Kyle Busch scored 217 points before his tragic passing, and we have followed NASCAR's decision to no longer classify Busch in the weekly driver standings.
