As Motorsport.com reports, the entire 2026 NASCAR Cup championship picture has been thrown completely upside down with just three races left on the calendar following the Phoenix II weekend. Kyle Larson entered the event leading the standings for Hendrick Motorsports, but a cut tire sent him crashing out of the race. That disaster left him limping home to a 34th-place finish and a meager haul of just three points, blowing the title fight wide open.
That single incident has brought six other contenders right into striking distance, with the top seven drivers in the championship now separated by a razor-thin margin of just 56 points. Christopher Bell has seized the moment to climb into second place, sitting a mere 5 points behind the leader. Meanwhile, Chase Briscoe holds third, currently 24 points off the top spot.
It was not a clean afternoon for everyone near the front. Denny Hamlin battled his own trouble with a flat tire and a pit lane speeding penalty at Phoenix, which dropped him down from second to fourth in the standings. Yet, bizarrely, the penalty and tire drama still resulted in him gaining ground on the lead due to the chaos; he was previously 49 points behind Larson, but now sits 31 points back.
The Team Penske duo of Blaney and Logano made massive strides by erasing at least half of their championship deficit, while Tyler Reddick took race victory to drag himself into the title mix, pulling within 56 points of the lead. Further up the moving order, Chase Elliott secured the biggest jump in the Chase standings by climbing two positions up to tenth thanks to a strong third-place finish.
Further down the order in the battle for 17th, Shane van Gisbergen holds a 46-point cushion over Brad Keselowski and a 56-point advantage over teammate Ross Chastain. The standings reflect the completion of 33 out of 36 races in the season.
Notably, Kyle Busch had scored 217 points before his tragic passing. In line with NASCAR's official decision, he is no longer classified in the weekly driver standings.
