Surprisingly, Denny Hamlin managed to edge closer to Tyler Reddick in the points battle after the San Diego street course race.

While battling for the race win, Tyler Reddick made contact with teammate Corey Heim, and cut a left-front tire down soon after. That cost him over 20 points as he fell to 25th in the running order. Hamlin finished 14th, slicing the margin from 19 points to just eight entering Sonoma Raceway.

The biggest gainer in the standings is Ryan Preece, who vaulted back up into the Chase, moving from 19th to 16th after a strong points day in San Diego. Shane van Gisbergen’s promising day ended in a huge crash, dropping him three positions in the standings to 17th, now five points out.

But SVG wasn’t actually the biggest loser overall, as Ricky Stenhouse Jr. dropped four positions from 22nd to 26th.

There’s also a new driver popping up inside the top ten, with Chase Briscoe replacing Christopher Bell in P10.

2026 NASCAR Cup points after San Diego (Race 17 of 36)

Pos.
Driver
Points

Positions gained or lost

1
Tyler Reddick 
716
—

2
Denny Hamlin
708
—

3
Ryan Blaney
583
—

4
Kyle Larson
536
+2

5
Ty Gibbs
535
—

6
Chase Elliott
534
-2

7
Chris Buescher
500
—

8
Daniel Suarez
478
—

9
Carson Hocevar
476
—

10
Chase Briscoe
431
+2

11
Bubba Wallace
429
+2

12
Christopher Bell
422
-2

13
William Byron
421
-2

14
Erik Jones
372
+1

15
Austin Cindric
370
+1

16
Ryan Preece
367
+3

CHASE CUTLINE
CHASE CUTLINE
CHASE CUTLINE
CHASE CUTLINE

17
Shane van Gisbergen
362
-3

18
Joey Logano
357
—

19
Brad Keselowski
354
-2

20
AJ Allmendinger
346
+1

21
Michael McDowell
333
-1

22
Ross Chastain
327
+1

23
Zane Smith
316
+1

24
Riley Herbst
309
+3

25
Todd Gilliland
306
—

26
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
303
-4

27
John Hunter Nemechek
298
-1

28
Austin Dillon
270
—

29
Noah Gragson
216
—

30
Josh Berry
208
—

31
Ty Dillon
202
—

32
Alex Bowman
199
—

33
Cole Custer
194
—

34
Connor Zilisch
165
—

35
Cody Ware
152
—

36
Kevin Magnussen
11
N/A

37
Casey Mears
10
-1

38
Jimmie Johnson
9
N/A

39
Katherine Legge
8
-2

40
BJ McLeod
3
-2

Note: Kyle Busch scored 217 points before his tragic passing, and we have followed NASCAR’s decision to no longer classify Busch in the weekly driver standings.

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