Three Hendrick Motorsports drivers are 1-2-3 in the NASCAR Cup Series standings with four races left in the regular season—the closest competition for the 15-Playoff-point bonus that goes to the regular-season winner since the current system was installed in 2017.
Chase Elliott has a four-point lead over teammate William Byron in second, with Kyle Larson 15 points back in third.
Byron finished second in last year’s Iowa race, and Elliott ran third, but Larson, despite his 34th-place finish, arguably had the fastest car in the field.
Larson won the pole for the inaugural Cup race at the 0.875-mile track and scored a stage win before contact from Daniel Suarez’s Chevrolet spun Larson’s No. 5 Camaro into the outside wall and ruined his race.
“I feel like our team was really, really strong to start the year (this season),” Larson said. “We had those five or six weeks where we had fallen off a bit, but these last two have gone well. We were competitive here at Iowa last year…”
In all probability, the teammates will battle for the regular-season title until the final regular-season race at Daytona. If there’s a spoiler, it’s likely to be Denny Hamlin, who trails Elliott by 20 points despite missing a race for the birth of his son.
“It’s great to see Hendrick Motorsports atop the standings right now—at least three of us are—with just a few races left till the end of the regular season,” Larson said. “That’s something to be proud of, but there’s still a lot of racing left, and the Playoffs can be crazy.”
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