Playoff standings jumbled after chaotic Southern 500

DARLINGTON, S.C. — There was fire and there was rain. And venerable Darlington Raceway, which hosted its first Cup race in 1950, showed it is still as difficult as ever. 

The result is a jumbled playoffs standings — featuring a former champion first and another last — with two races left in the first round. 

Sunday’s Southern 500 victory by Erik Jones, who is not in the playoffs, means that no one advanced to the second round after 4 hours, 9 minutes of racing Sunday night.

Former champion Joey Logano leads the playoff standings after placing fourth. He has 2,065 points heading into this weekend’s Cup race at Kansas Speedway.

Former champion Kevin Harvick is last among the 16 playoff drivers after his car went up in flames. That could mildly compare to the heat that came from him when he lashed out at NASCAR and the Next Gen car.

“I’m sure it’s just crappy parts on the race car like we’ve seen so many times,” Harvick said of the fire’s cause. “They haven’t fixed anything. It’s kind of like the safety stuff. We just let it keep going and keep going

He wasn’t the only playoff driver to have a bad night. Former champion Chase Elliott crashed and his team was unable to repair it before the 10-minute Damaged Vehicle Policy clock expired. 

Elliott entered the playoffs as the No. 1 seed after winning the regular season. His last-place finish Sunday puts him ninth in the playoffs standing. He’s 24 points from the lead and 25 points from last place heading to Kansas.

Asked what he’ll have to do the rest of the first round to advance, Elliott said: “Run better than we did today.”

Kyle Busch, who has not announced where he’ll race next year, seemed headed for the win until his engine failed shortly after teammate Martin Truex Jr.,