BRISTOL, Tenn. — The NASCAR Cup Series championship standings have changed multiple times this season, but a Toyota driver has still led every week. That has since changed after a hectic finish at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday night.
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Kyle Larson, the defending Cup Series champion, now has the points lead over Denny Hamlin heading into the fourth race of the Chase. The Chevrolet driver doesn't have a massive advantage at a mere one point, but he will have an opportunity to build on it at three tracks where he has previous wins — Kansas, Las Vegas, and Charlotte.
Your new points leader, @KyleLarsonRacin 👏 pic.twitter.com/izBGe2MGLy
— Hendrick Motorsports (@TeamHendrick) September 20, 2026
The early portion of the season featured Toyota domination. Tyler Reddick led the way with five wins, and he held the top spot in the standings through San Diego in late June.
Another Toyota driver, Hamlin, won three consecutive races during this stretch. He then took the points lead from Reddick after Sonoma Raceway on June 28.
Hamlin maintained the lead through the end of the regular season as he clinched the No. 1 seed. He then kept it after Chase races at Darlington Raceway and World Wide Technology Raceway despite performing more poorly than he expected.
Saturday night at Bristol, he scored eight stage points early. He missed out on points in stage 2 before getting stuck a lap down in the final stage due to caution during green flag pit stops.
"We just have to get to running a little bit better," Hamlin said. "Today, I thought early on - in the first stage - I really liked my National Debt Relief Toyota.
"I thought we had a car that would contend for the win, and then second stage, when we took the stage points in stage one that put us to the back, and once we lost track position, it just wasn't quite as good."
Hamlin managed to get back on the lead lap during the flurry of cautions in the final stage, but he only scored an eighth-place finish. This proved to be the difference between him and Larson, who piled up points at a track where he has three Cup wins.
Larson started on the pole for Saturday night's race after weather canceled practice and qualifying. Such was the benefit of winning last weekend's race at Gateway. He didn't have as fast of a car as Ryan Blaney or Ty Gibbs, but he still scored 11 stage points while running in the top 10 throughout the day.
Larson then put himself in contention for a top-five finish in the closing laps, which set him up to take advantage of some late contact between Carson Hocevar and Gibbs.
Where did @joeylogano come from?! pic.twitter.com/ATgdlTKBQi
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) September 20, 2026
The two drivers got together in the closing 10 laps, which brought them back to Larson. He began fighting them for the lead while Joey Logano skirted through on the bottom of the track.
Logano went on to win the race, but Larson worked past both Hocevar and Gibbs to take second in the running order. This gave him just enough points to overtake Hamlin for the lead in the standings.
"It was just a good fight all around for the No. 5 HendrickCars.Com Chevrolet team," Larson said after the race. "I don't think we were a top-five car, but we did a great night executing tonight and that's what it takes. We didn't have the best car tonight, but we still came home with a top-two finish.
"We weren't too hot there in the second stage, and really the majority of the final stage, but I'm proud of the pit call and the fight we had to hang on there. We got good stage points early, so we'll take it and try to have more days like today. I'm happy with the effort, and we'll go to Kansas and continue to go to work."
