NASCAR Playoff standings updated after South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway

There’s been some significant movement in the NASCAR Cup Series playoff points standings following Sunday’s South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Joey Logano took the checkered flag in the Round of 8 opener, becoming the first driver to advance to the Championship 4 at Phoenix on Nov. 10. Christopher Bell, who led 155-of-267 laps, finished runner-up to Logano, and is now 42 points clear of the playoff cutline. Joining Bell above the cutline are Kyle Larson (+35) and William Byron (+27).

NASCAR Cup Series Playoff standings after Round of 8 opener at Las Vegas

Seed	Driver	Points
1.	Joey Logano	1 Win
2.	Christopher Bell	+42
3.	Kyle Larson	+35
4.	William Byron	+27
5.	Denny Hamlin	-27
6.	Tyler Reddick	-30
7.	Ryan Blaney	-47
8.	Chase Elliott	-53

For Bell, Las Vegas has to feel like a missed opportunity. The Joe Gibbs Racing star dominated much of the action and looked to have the upper hand on Logano as he chased him down in the closing laps. Bell got to within a second of Logano but ran out of time. One more lap, and perhaps Bell would have caught him. Instead, it’s a frustrating end to what was a quality run.

Fortunately for Bell, he has quite the points cushion heading into Homestead next Sunday. The same can’t be said for some other playoff drivers who had trouble at Las Vegas, including Reddick, Blaney and Elliott. The trio were involved in the Lap 90 incident, which left their cars with significant damage. Reddick, the Stage 1 winner, finished 35th, Blaney 32nd and Elliott 33rd, 27 laps down.

“We can still have a good day at Homestead and be in the mix at Martinsville,” Reddick said. “Ideally, yeah, it would have been nice to win today. It would be nice to win next week, and that is what we’ll focus on, but thankfully we got some stage points in Stage 1, and we are not absolutely out of it on points yet. We’ve got a few ways, but we have to be perfect from here on out, probably.”