Hendrick Motorsport’s Alex Bowman snatched the win from Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin last weekend at Richmond Raceway to become the eighth different winner in nine races this season in the NASCAR Cup Series.
Bowman has now locked himself into the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs and added his name to the list of contenders in the NASCAR All-Star Race at Texas Motor Speedway (June 13). With eight winners already in the books that leaves eight postseason spots still up for grabs as the series heads to one of the wildest events on the schedule, the GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway (Sunday, April 25 at 2 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
| 2021 Driver Playoff Outlook Following Race No. 9 | ||||||
| Rank | Driver | Points | Wins | Stages | Playoff Pts | Pts From Cutoff |
| 1 | Martin Truex Jr. | 353 | 2 | 1 | 11 | In On Wins |
| 2 | Joey Logano | 352 | 1 | 2 | 7 | |
| 3 | William Byron | 310 | 1 | 1 | 6 | |
| 4 | Ryan Blaney | 304 | 1 | 3 | 8 | |
| 5 | Kyle Larson | 299 | 1 | 3 | 8 | |
| 6 | Christopher Bell | 257 | 1 | 0 | 5 | |
| 7 | Alex Bowman | 236 | 1 | 0 | 5 | |
| 8 | Michael McDowell | 199 | 1 | 0 | 5 | |
| 9 | Denny Hamlin | 434 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 230 |
| 10 | Chase Elliott | 285 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 81 |
| 11 | Kevin Harvick | 273 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 69 |
| 12 | Brad Keselowski | 269 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 65 |
| 13 | Kyle Busch | 245 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 41 |
| 14 | Austin Dillon | 239 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 35 |
| 15 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 222 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 18 |
| 16 | Kurt Busch | 214 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
All eight of the drivers currently in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff outlook without a win this season have won at Daytona or Talladega previously. Brad Keselowski (five Talladega wins), Denny Hamlin (two Talladega wins), Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (each have one Talladega win) have all won at Talladega and are looking for their first win this season. Austin Dillon and Kurt Busch have each won at Daytona.
