RIDGEWAY, Va. - After the completion of Sunday's race at Martinsville Speedway, the NASCAR Cup Series regular season is now more than a quarter of the way finished.
And it's never too early to look at the points standings.
Despite some adversity on Sunday, all four Hendrick Motorsports cars remain in more than good shape in terms of being among the 16 drivers to make the playoffs.
William Byron hung on to his points lead while top-five finishes for Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson on Sunday gave Hendrick Motorsports possession of all three top spots. Larson is second, just 16 points behind Byron and Elliott is in third, 32 markers behind.
And the threesome needn't look far behind them to find the fourth Hendrick Motorsports driver, Alex Bowman, who resides in a tie for the fourth position, 35 points behind Byron.
Here's a look at the standings with 19 races remaining in the regular season.
NASCAR Cup Series playoff standings
| Driver | Points | Wins |
|---|---|---|
| 1. William Byron | 259 | 1 |
| 2. Kyle Larson | 243 | 1 |
| 3. Chase Elliott | 227 | 0 |
| t-4. Alex Bowman | 224 | 0 |
| t-4. Christopher Bell | 224 | 3 |
| 6. Denny Hamlin | 218 | 1 |
| 7. Tyler Reddick | 213 | 0 |
| 8. Bubba Wallace | 208 | 0 |
| 9. Joey Logano | 199 | 0 |
| 10. Ryan Blaney | 193 | 0 |
| 11. Chris Buescher | 177 | 0 |
| t-12. Chase Briscoe | 169 | 0 |
| t-12. Ross Chastain | 169 | 0 |
| 14. Ryan Preece | 165 | 0 |
| 15. Michael McDowell | 159 | 0 |
| 16. Kyle Busch | 150 | 0 |
| t-17. AJ Allmendinger | 148 | 0 |
| t-17. John Hunter Nemechek | 148 | 0 |
| 19. Josh Berry | 147 | 1 |
| 20. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 146 | 0 |