The 2020 Cup Series champion is back atop the Cup Series standings after a Pocono race featuring eight cautions and 13 DNFs.
Chase Elliott left the Pennsylvania track with 703 points. He is three ahead of teammate Kyle Larson and 15 ahead of Tyler Reddick. Denny Hamlin is 20 points back of Elliott after finishing second behind Ryan Blaney at Pocono Raceway while William Byron is 57 back after finishing fourth.
MORE: Cup driver points
Elliott last won the regular-season championship in 2022. Larson last won it in 2021. Reddick, Hamlin, and Byron have all fallen short of this achievement, one that awards 15 bonus playoff points.
Blaney, who won his second race of the season on Sunday, has moved up to seventh in the Cup standings. He is 76 points behind Elliott with five races remaining in the regular season.
Blaney is not out of contention for the regular-season championship, but he has some heavy hitters ahead of him on the leaderboard.
While drivers such as Elliott and Larson have secured spots in the playoffs due to wins, Martin Truex Jr. remains in the hunt for his first trip to victory lane this season.
Truex remains winless, but he is sixth in the Cup standings with 640 points. He is 137 above the playoff cutline and in the best position out of the winless drivers.
Truex is in a secure position, while several drivers below him are in more tenuous positions. Ty Gibbs is only 67 points above the cutline after finishing 27th due to an engine issue. Chris Buescher is 44 points above the cutline after finishing 11th. Ross Chastain is only 27 points above the cutline after crashing and finishing 36th.
Chastain's unexpected crash at Pocono opened up an opportunity for Bubba Wallace, who took partial advantage. He missed out on stage points after starting 29th and struggling with handling, but he finished 10th at the 2.5-mile track. This kept him within reach of Chastain as he continued to seek a return to the playoffs.
"It's about points, so we didn't capitalize on points, but the 1 had a bad day, the 54 had a bad day," Wallace said after the race. "It was a nice rebound. Usually, it's the opposite.
"We start really good and end up fading and giving up a lot of track position. Here, we were able to call a good strategy and hang on."
The battle between the bubble drivers and the contenders for the regular-season championship will only grow more intense in the coming weeks. Only five races remain to determine the 16-driver playoff field. Four spots are left after Blaney's win at Pocono.