NASCAR Championship: Full Driver Standings After Talladega
With ten races complete in the 2023 season, three drivers have now won multiple races. Kyle Busch joined Hendrick Motorsports drivers Kyle Larson and William Byron today by winning at Talladega Superspeedway. The three now have two wins each, while four other drivers have split the remaining races.
Larson maintains his lead in the standings, five points ahead of Busch. He is lucky to hold on to the top spot, but also lucky to have survived such a frightening crash in today's race. The driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet slid up the banking and into oncoming cars, where he was eventually t-boned at full speed by Ryan Preece, who had nowhere to go. The impact crashed the roll cage bars inside of Larson's car, but fortunately it was the passenger side of the car that took the hit.
The only other change in the playoff standings after today's race was Ryan Blaney moving up a spot over Denny Hamlin. Both drivers were strong today, and looked as though they had a decent shot of winning. Hamlin's chances ended on the final restart when he had to duck to pit road for fuel, and Blaney's day was ruined after a tango with Bubba Wallace on the final lap resulted in a race-ending caution. Blaney finished runner-up while Hamlin came home in 15th position.
Both Roush Fenway Keselowski drivers finished inside the top-five today, and are both currently in the playoffs based on points. No other multi-car team has all of their cars in the playoffs at the moment. The next stop for these teams and drivers is a trip to Dover, where they will take on the Monster Mile next Sunday.
2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Standings | |||
Pos | Driver | Team | Race Wins |
1 | Kyle Larson | Hendrick Motorsports | 2 |
2 | Kyle Busch | Richard Childress Racing | 2 |
3 | William Byron | Hendrick Motorsports | 2 |
4 | Christopher Bell | Joe Gibbs Racing | 1 |
5 | Tyler Reddick | 23XI Racing | 1 |
6 | Joey Logano | Team Penske | 1 |
7 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr | JTG Daugherty Racing | 1 |
8 | Ross Chastain | TrackHouse Racing | 0 |
9 | Kevin Harvick | Stewart Haas Racing | 0 |
10 | Martin Truex Jr | Joe Gibbs Racing | 0 |
11 | Ryan Blaney | Team Penske | 0 |
12 | Denny Hamlin | Joe Gibbs Racing | 0 |
13 | Alex Bowman | Hendrick Motorsports | 0 |
14 | Brad Keselowski | RFK Racing | 0 |
15 | Chase Briscoe | Stewart Haas Racing | 0 |
16 | Chris Buescher | RFK Racing | 0 |