After fighting back from some mid-race damage, Denny Hamlin leaves Darlington just 12 points clear of Southern 500 winner Christopher Bell.
The biggest mover in the championship standings was clearly Bell, jumping four positions from sixth to second with his big victory. Bubba Wallace also moved up four spots from 14th to 10th.
The biggest loser was William Byron, who dropped three positions to the bottom of the Chase standings after an engine failure.
2026 NASCAR Cup points after Darlington II (Race 27 of 36)
| Pos. | Driver | Points | Positions gained or lost |
| 1 | Denny Hamlin | 2135 | -- |
| 2 | Christopher Bell | 2123 | +4 |
| 3 | Ryan Blaney | 2119 | -1 |
| 4 | Tyler Reddick | 2111 | -1 |
| 5 | Chase Briscoe | 2098 | -- |
| 6 | Ty Gibbs | 2096 | -2 |
| 7 | Kyle Larson | 2086 | -- |
| 8 | Joey Logano | 2063 | +1 |
| 9 | Chase Elliott | 2063 | -1 |
| 10 | Bubba Wallace | 2054 | +4 |
| 11 | Chris Buescher | 2047 | -1 |
| 12 | Carson Hocevar | 2046 | -- |
| 13 | Daniel Suarez | 2041 | -2 |
| 14 | Austin Cindric | 2033 | +1 |
| 15 | Ryan Preece | 2031 | +1 |
| 16 | William Byron | 2021 | -3 |
| CHASE CUTLINE | CHASE CUTLINE | CHASE CUTLINE | CHASE CUTLINE |
| 17 | Shane van Gisbergen | 616 | -- |
| 18 | Brad Keselowski | 557 | -- |
| 19 | Michael McDowell | 537 | +1 |
| 20 | Ross Chastain | 528 | -1 |
| 21 | Erik Jones | 520 | -- |
| 22 | Todd Gilliland | 489 | -- |
| 23 | AJ Allmendinger | 478 | -- |
| 24 | Zane Smith | 467 | -- |
| 25 | Josh Berry | 448 | +3 |
| 26 | Austin Dillon | 443 | -1 |
| 27 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 432 | -1 |
| 28 | John Hunter Nemechek | 431 | -1 |
| 29 | Alex Bowman | 416 | +1 |
| 30 | Riley Herbst | 409 | -1 |
| 31 | Noah Gragson | 351 | -- |
| 32 | Cole Custer | 333 | -- |
| 33 | Ty Dillon | 316 | -- |
| 34 | Connor Zilisch | 274 | -- |
| 35 | Cody Ware | 202 | -- |
| 36 | Casey Mears | 13 | -- |
| 37 | Kevin Magnussen | 11 | -- |
| 38 | Jimmie Johnson | 9 | -- |
| 39 | Katherine Legge | 8 | -- |
| 40 | BJ McLeod | 4 | -- |
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.
