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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