UPDATED after NASCAR’s penalty to Austin Dillon for his actions on the last lap at Richmond.
Chris Buescher moved into the final playoff spot after NASCAR penalized Austin Dillon for his actions on the last lap of last weekend’s Cup race at Richmond Raceway.
NASCAR allowed Dillon to keep the win but officials took away the playoff eligibility for Dillon and the No. 3 team that went with the victory.
Martin Truex Jr. is 78 points above the cutline even after his last-place finish at Richmond due to an engine failure.
Ty Gibbs is 18 points above the cutline. Bubba Wallace is three points above the cutline after his fourth-place finish. Buescher and Ross Chastain are both tied but Buescher owns the tiebreaker and gets the last playoff spot for now. Chastain is the first driver below the playoff cutline.
The race is just as intense for the regular season championship.
Kyle Larson leads the season standings with 779 points, but Tyler Reddick is five points behind and Chase Elliott is six points behind Larson. It is the closest the top three in points have been at this point in the season. Also, not far behind them is Denny Hamlin. He’s 21 points behind Larson.
The regular season champion earns 15 playoff points. Second place receives 10 playoff points, third gets eight playoff points, fourth gets seven playoff points and it goes all the way down to 10th, which receives one playoff point.
The series next heads to Michigan International Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET Sunday on USA Network).
After Michigan, the series goes to Daytona International Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET on Aug. 24 on NBC) and ends the regular season with the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway (6 p.m. ET on Sept. 1 on USA Network).
Here is the updated playoff report. Those names shaded in yellow are in the playoffs.
