What is the story about?
Denny Hamlin is closing in on the NASCAR Chase top seed after a top-five finish on Aug. 9 at Iowa.
Hamlin finished fifth, behind winner (and teammate) Ty Gibbs among four Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas in the top six positions.
Tyler Reddick ceded second to Gibbs after a Lap 4 crash ended the No. 45's day before it really started.
Austin Cindric's points cushion for the final Chase spot is down to 29 points ahead of Ryan Preece.
Here's the updated NASCAR Cup Series points standings:
NASCAR points standings, Cup Series points update after Iowa race
Unofficial after Iowa Corn 350, 23 of 26 regular-season races complete; top 16 drivers make the Chase following the Daytona summer race
- Denny Hamlin 923 points, +426 to 17th place (locked into Chase)
- Ty Gibbs +323 (locked into Chase)
- Ryan Blaney +316 (locked into Chase)
- Tyler Reddick +306 (locked into Chase)
- Chase Briscoe +166
- Christopher Bell +162
- Chase Elliott +160
- Carson Hocevar +147
- Chris Buescher +140
- Kyle Larson +132
- William Byron +103
- Daniel Suarez +100
- Joey Logano +89
- Bubba Wallace +68
- Shane van Gisbergen +47
- Austin Cindric +29
- Ryan Preece -29 behind 16th
- Ross Chastain -47
- Brad Keselowski -48
- Erik Jones -50
- Michael McDowell -72
- AJ Allmendinger -88
- Todd Gilliland -105
- Zane Smith -109
- Riley Herbst -140
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -143
- Austin Dillon -144
- John Hunter Nemechek -153
- Alex Bowman -213
- Josh Berry -229
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean:
NASCAR points standings: Cup Series points update after Iowa race, Chase picture
