In NASCAR, it would be bad for business if a driver was out of the car for a period of time. Say… 6 Races. Let’s just say for… Breaking a leg snowboarding. The owner of that car would all but lose a shot to win the title with that driver, so you need another way to make the money. In NASCAR, they have the owners points. The Owners make far more money with a owners championship than they do with a drivers championship, although most fans ever only hear about the driver.
The owners points take the combined effort of however many drivers have driven the car during the season, add them up, and boom… there’s your points. That’s why, despite a team like Rick Ware Racing that has exactly 0 full-time drivers in their No. 15 car sit only 17 points behind the Spire Motorsports 77 car with 1 Full-time driver who had missed a single race this season and the Legacy Motor Club No. 42 car sits 43 points ahead of that same 77 though it has had 5 drivers this season.
So this should answer all of your questions about why Chase Elliott is still in conversation in terms of the Playoffs. He’s not a Playoff driver, the 9 is a Playoff car.
With that being said, let’s take a look at the current Owners Championship Standings.
| Rank | owner | car # | points | behind |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hendrick Motorsports | 24 | 4041 | 0 |
| 2 | Joe Gibbs Racing | 11 | 4032 | -9 |
| 3 | Hendrick Motorsports | 5 | 4024 | -17 |
| 4 | RFK Racing | 17 | 4021 | -20 |
| 5 | Joe Gibbs Racing | 20 | 4016 | -25 |
| 6 | 23XI Racing | 45 | 4016 | -25 |
| 7 | Team Penske | 12 | 4014 | -27 |
| 8 | Hendrick Motorsports | 9 | 4002 | -39 |
