Joey Logano’s fuel-mileage gamble to win Sunday in the Ally 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at Nashville Superspeedway changes the dynamic of the Cup playoff picture heading into Chicago.
Logano was near the playoff bubble without a win before Sunday’s race, but Sunday’s win locks Logano into the playoff field of 16. Bubba Wallace now has a 51-point deficit to Alex Bowman for the final wild card spot.
There are seven regular season races remaining on the 2024 Cup schedule, which includes possible picture-shifting races at the Chicago Street Course, Daytona and Indianapolis.
At the top of the standings, Kyle Larson grew his lead in the regular season playoff standings to 20 points while Christopher Bell now owns the most playoff points (24).
Here’s the full playoff picture after Sunday’s race in Nashville:
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This season’s winners (locked into playoffs)
Top 16 advance to playoffs
1: Christopher Bell (3 wins, 24 playoff points)
2. Kyle Larson (3 wins, 23 playoff points, regular season points leader)
3. Denny Hamlin (3 wins, 19 playoff points)
4. William Byron (3 wins, 16 playoff points)
5. Tyler Reddick (1 win, 8 playoff points)
6. Ryan Blaney (1 win, 7 playoff points)
7. Austin Cindric (1 win, 7 playoff points)
8. Chase Elliott (1 win, 6 playoff points)
9. Joey Logano (1 win, 6 playoff points)
10. Brad Keselowski (1 win, 5 playoff points)
11. Daniel Suarez (1 win, 5 playoff points)
Wild card playoff points standings
12. Martin Truex Jr. (+143 ahead of Wallace)
13. Ty Gibbs (+70)
14. Ross Chastain (+66)
15. Chris Buescher (+56)
16. Alex Bowman (+51)
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17. Bubba Wallace (-51 points behind Bowman)
18. Chase Briscoe (-78)
19. Kyle Busch (-104)
20. Josh Berry (-131)
21. Todd Gilliland (-132)
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: NASCAR playoff picture: Cup points standings after Nashville race
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