2026 NASCAR Power Rankings - COTA

HM: Shane van Gisbergen is once again in the honorable mention spot, with a P2 at COTA. Still sitting P6 in the standings, SVG heads to Phoenix. Of the 10 ovals that SVG has seen multiple times in Cup, Phoenix holds his 4th lowest average finish with a 27.5, only trailing Bristol,

Daytona, and Las Vegas. SVG still sits P5 in the standings, and is off to back to back top 6 finishes. Trackhouse does have a Phoenix win back in 2023, but only has 2 top 10s since then in 10 combined races, none of them coming with SVG. Once again, quick shoutout Chris Buescher. His road course top 20 streak of 22 races came to an end after being caught up in Kyle Busch’s and Jesse Love’s mess, but he does have 7 top 15 finishes in his last 8 Phoenix starts, including 6 straight. 5 of these 7 are top 10s, 3 of which are top 5s.

10: Denny Hamlin stays at the 10 spot with a 10th place finish. This is only Hamlin’s 3rd road course top 10 since the Next Gen debuted in 2022 (23 races). A quiet day was just what the doctor ordered for this 11 team, as they gained 4 spots to 23rd. Hamlin heads to Phoenix, a track he has only finished outside the top 20 at once since 2018 (Hamlin finished 35th in the race preceding this statistic, the 2017 fall race. Hamlin cut a tire in an act of revenge from Chase Elliott, after leading 193 of the 312 laps run, of which Hamlin only ran 275). He's led multiple laps in 4 of the last 5 Phoenix races, including a race high 208 in last year’s championship race, a race Hamlin had locked up until a late race caution and GWC. No doubt he’s a heavy favorite this weekend, as is only this low due to 2 poor plate finishes.

9: Joey Logano finished 15th at COTA. Back to back mid pack runs keeps Logano 6th in points, but over half of his points have come from winning his Duel race and finishing 3rd in the Daytona 500. Logano’s going cold, but we are heading to his 8th best track on the schedule. Going back to 2019, Logo has as many wins as he does finishes worse than 11th, both with 3. Of these 14 races run, 8 are top 10s and 6 are top 4s. While he didn’t lead any laps in November, a race he finished 4th in, the two races prior saw Logano lead the 3rd most laps with 81 in the spring of 2025 and the 2nd most laps with 107 in the fall of 2024, a race in which he won both the race itself and the NASCAR championship. Joey is definitely no slouch at Phoenix, though his fall race stats do look better than his spring.

8: Unless things go horribly wrong this year, I don’t expect William Byron to drop any lower than he already is. A 13th at COTA is Byron’s worst finish at the track in the 6 years of running, while also breaking a 3 year top 5 streak. He did pick up his first lap led of the season and sits 13th in the points. He doesn’t have any flashy finishes so far, but he has been very consistent, scoring 25, 25, and 26 points in the 3 races run so far. Aside from his Daytona 500 win last year, it took him until race 23 to win again, so a sluggish start from Byron is not anything I’d put too much stock into. He finished 6th in the Phoenix spring race last year and was cruising to a P3 in the championship race before a tire failure with 5 laps to go resulted in a 33rd. Phoenix is Byron’s 5th best track on the schedule with 9 top 10s in 16 starts, including 5 of his last 7 finishes being 6th or better, with a win sprinkled in March of 2023. He’s led double digit laps in 5 of the last 6 races, and has collected points in 20 straight stages.

7: Christopher Bell had about as quiet a day you could have while finishing 3rd. He didn't collect any stage points, didn’t lead a single lap, and ran 5th to 15th all day long. After restarting 15th on the final restart, he methodically worked his way through the field, helped by Connor Zilisch’s late race spin, and passed Ryan Blaney for 3rd with 10 to go, which was the first time he entered the top 3 all day. As far as Phoenix goes, Bell has won the last 2 spring races, and 8 of his last 10 finishes have been P11 or better, including 4 top 6s. Bell led 0 laps in the championship race last year, but in the 3 prior races combined for 298 laps led of the total 936. He has 4 straight top 11s, and would likely have bumped that number to 7 if it wasn’t for a tire failure while running in the top 7 in the 2023 championship race.

6: After starting midpack, Kyle Larson ran top 10 for the good bit of Sunday and finished a solid P6. He gained 6 sports in the points standings and now sits 15th. Larson’s first top 10 of the year should be a breath of fresh air for 5 fans, but he still is looking for the race winning speed we haven’t seen out of this 5 car, aside from a few one off races, since this time last year. Larson ran well, but never once looked to be a race winning car. Phoenix is Larson’s 5th best track on the schedule (not counting Dover, which would sit 3rd and push Phoenix to 6th). Larson only has one win, his championship triumph in 2021. In his 23 starts at Phoenix, he has 11 top 5s and 15 top 10s, including 12 of his last 14 finishes being 9th or better. 9 of these starts are 4th or better. All this considered, Larson has led a lap in only 9 Phoenix starts, and only 5 of these races consisted of leading more than 3 laps. He’s only led 13 laps total since the fall of 2023, so while he often runs up front at Phoenix, he rarely finds himself at the front.

5: Chase Briscoe stays at the 5 spot, but was looking to make a jump in the standings. Briscoe jumped out to the lead early, completing the first 8 circuits out front before being passed by Ryan Blaney through the stadium section on lap 9. He stayed in the top 5-10 the rest of the day, before a mechanical failure on lap 63 took him out while running in 3rd. Briscoe finished last, but his effort showed this team hasn’t skipped a beat since the end of last year. Briscoe sits 27th in points right now, but I wouldn’t be worried. While he only has 4 top 10s in 10 Phoenix starts, he did capture his first NASCAR Cup Series triumph here in 2022. Briscoe had less than stellar results here last year, due in part to a crash and a tire failure, but showed decent speed in the fall.

4: Bubba Wallace finishing well in back to back superspeedway races? To be expected, he’s one of the best superspeedway racers on the planet. Bubba Wallace finishing one spot shy of a top 10 and collecting the 9th most points on the day while maintaining his 2nd place points position on a road course? Slightly more unexpected, and that’s why I jumped him so high. Wallace will be the first to tell you his road course game is below average, but there’s been visible improvements over the past couple years, including last Sunday. Wallace only has 3 top 10s at Phoenix in his 16 starts, but both of last years were cut short due to a wreck and a brakes failure. Prior to these 2, Wallace had 4 straight races of no finish worse than 16th and an average finish of 11.75. I think another top 15 is in store for this 23 car, barring a rough day.

3: Ryan Blaney stays at 3, after having possibly the best car at COTA. Bad pit strategy and a fading racecar late in this one leave him P8. Phoenix is Blaney’s 5th best track on the calendar, and his 2nd of tracks he has more than 5 starts at. While Blaney only has 1 win at Phoenix, it was in the most recent running, after a last lap pass moved him by Brad Keselowski to get the final NASCAR win of 2025. Blaney’s engine grenaded down the frontstretch in the spring race, otherwise he'd likely have 11 straight top 10 finishes. Of the 10 top 10s mentioned, only 1 was a finish worse than 6th, with Blaney having an average finish of 3.8 in them. He’s also led at least a lap in 8 of these 11 races, with double digit laps led in 6 of them.

2: Chase Elliott stays at 2. After a surprisingly off day, Elliott made a bold call to pit under green when he noticed Ross Chastain without a wheel and in the gravel. This put Elliott as the first car on fresh tires in 12th, and with some luck, snuck through the Zilisch wreck and ended up in P7. Elliott heads to Phoenix. He’s seen success here, winning in 2020 along with the title, but has only seen 2 top 5s since, none of which have been in the Next Gen car. Elliott only has 3 top 10s since this car debuted 5 years ago, but they have come in the last 3 races. He also led 30 laps in the most recent race here, ending up P10. Elliott is never really bad at any race track, and I expect no different at Phoenix.

1: What do I say that hasn’t already been said? Tyler Reddick just became the first person in history to 3-peat to start the season. Reddick heads to Phoenix, a track he’s seen little success at. It ranks at 16th in terms of average finish for Reddick, and of his 12 starts, he only has 2 top 5s and 4 top 10s. He did lead 68 laps in the spring race in 2024, along with finishing 10th, but only has 1 top 10 since, and has yet to lead another lap since. I don’t see a 4-peat happening this week, but I also didn’t see him winning the 500 or Atlanta either. As the years have gone on, it’s typically been a bad idea to count out Tyler Reddick. One thing’s for sure, he’s going to reign atop the points standings for the foreseeable future.