It’s The Chase For Non-Chasers: Check Out The ‘Best Of The Rest Cup’ Standings

Joe Gibbs Racing came into Homestead with a driver leading the points for both the Chase and SB Nation’s inaugural “Best of the Rest Cup” – but Hendrick Motorsports ended up winning both titles.

Just as Jimmie Johnson grabbed the championship from Denny Hamlin on the final day, so did Mark Martin in the Chase for non-Chasers.

As it turns out, Homestead will mark the conclusion of two exciting points battles: The Chase and the “Best Of The Rest Cup.”

SB Nation’s competition to see which non-Chase driver accumulates the most points in the final 10 races has come down to current leader Joey Logano, Mark Martin (34 points behind) and Jamie McMurray (66 points behind).

If you thought the real Chase was close, check out this week’s “Best Of The Rest Cup” standings.

The top three drivers are closer than in the actual Chase, and only 11 points separate the new leader – Joey Logano – from second-place Mark Martin.

Jamie McMurray’s bad day at Talladega opened the door for the rest of the field to trim his lead in SB Nation’s “Best Of The Rest Cup” standings.

Thanks to McMurray’s 36th-place finish, Joey Logano (fifth at Talladega) and Mark Martin (11th) now make up a tighter points battle from first to third than in the real Chase itself.

Jamie McMurray can’t rest just yet.

Though he has a triple-digit lead in the “Best Of The Rest Cup” point standings – our competition to see which non-Chase driver collects the most points in the Chase – McMurray needs to be wary of the red-hot Joey Logano (four top-11 finishes in the last five races) and Mark Martin (five straight top-15s).

After Saturday night’s performance in Charlotte, you don’t need SB Nation’s non-Chase point standings to tell you that Jamie McMurray is the best of the rest.

Since McMurray won the race – becoming the first non-Chaser to do so during the playoffs since McMurray himself won at Talladega last season – it comes as no surprise that he reclaimed the “Best Of The Rest” Cup points lead from Ryan Newman.

Ryan Newman continued to rocket up the “Best Of The Rest” Cup standings this week – straight to the top, in fact.

Newman finished fifth at Auto Club Speedway, taking advantage of Jamie McMurray’s off day (17th) to take the lead in SB Nation’s non-Chase playoff for the first time.

Though his “Best Of The Rest” Cup rivals keep getting closer, Jamie McMurray has the lead in our competition of the 13th-43rd drivers in the Sprint Cup Series.

We reset everyone’s points before New Hampshire (and added 10 bonus points per pre-Chase win), then let the drivers loose. Each week, we tally whatever points they collected in the Sprint Cup race and add it to their Best Of The Rest Cup total.

Jamie McMurray’s lead in the “Best Of The Rest” Cup standings shrunk after his 13th-place finish at Dover, allowing Ryan Newman to close to within 20 points.

AJ Allmendinger also made a big move after a top-10 finish, as did Joey Logano (23rd to 6th) and Paul Menard (16th to 7th).

New Hampshire was a strong day for the non-Chasers, with Jamie McMurray (third) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (fourth) among a whopping five drivers who recorded top-10 finishes.

That helped several drivers collect big point totals in Week 1 of our “Best Of The Rest Cup” competition – a contest to see which non-Chasers get the most total points in the Chase.