Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the Daytona 500 and will lead the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points following the first race of the season.
Winning the Daytona 500 is nice, and it almost surely guarantees Earnhardt a spot in the NASCAR post season. NASCAR’s post season will be a mixture of drivers who have won one of the seasons first 26 races, and then the drivers with the most points who have not won a race.
The next race on the Sprint Cup Series schedule will take place at the 1-mile Phoenix International Raceway next Sunday.
Full NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Standings after Daytona
| RK | DRIVER | POINTS | BEHIND | WINS | POLES | TOP 5 | TOP 10 |
| 1 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 48 | — | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | Denny Hamlin | 43 | -5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 3 | Brad Keselowski | 41 | -7 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 4 | Jeff Gordon | 41 | -7 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 5 | Jimmie Johnson | 40 | -8 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 6 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 38 | -10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 7 | Matt Kenseth | 37 | -11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 8 | Greg Biffle | 36 | -12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 9 | Casey Mears | 34 | -14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 10 | Joey Logano | 34 | -14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 | Kevin Harvick | 31 | -17 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 12 | Jamie McMurray | 30 | -18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 13 | Bobby Labonte | 29 | -19 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 14 | Reed Sorenson | 28 | -20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 15 | Carl Edwards | 28 | -20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 16 | Marcos Ambrose | 26 | -22 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 17 | Kyle Busch | 26 | -22 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 18 | Terry Labonte | 24 | -24 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 19 | Kurt Busch | 24 | -24 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 20 | Ryan Newman | 22 | -26 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 21 | Alex Bowman | 21 | -27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 22 | Josh Wise | 20 | -28 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 23 | AJ Allmendinger | 19 | -29 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 24 | Justin Allgaier | 18 | -30 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 25 | Cole Whitt | 16 | -32 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 26 | Parker Kligerman | 15 | -33 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 27 | Brian Vickers | 15 | -33 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 28 | Kasey Kahne | 14 | -34 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 29 | Paul Menard | 13 | -35 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 30 | David Ragan | 10 | -38 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 31 | Tony Stewart | 9 | -39 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 32 | David Gilliland | 8 | -40 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 33 | Michael Annett | 7 | -41 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 34 | Kyle Larson | 6 | -42 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 35 | Aric Almirola | 6 | -42 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 36 | Danica Patrick | 5 | -43 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 37 | Michael Waltrip | 4 | -44 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 38 | Clint Bowyer | 2 | -46 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 39 | Martin Truex Jr. | 1 | -47 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
