NASCAR Power Rankings - Bristol

Honorable Mention: John Hunter Nemechek brought the Legacy 42 to a 14th place finish, which isn’t an amazing run, but he was on pace for another top 10, possibly top 5, before a tire issue set them back. Nemechek these past few weeks has shown speed that we haven’t seen out of him since his Xfinity days. Could Legacy be finally turning the corner?

10. Tyler Reddick had a solid day at Bristol, consistently around the 15th place area, which is exactly where he finished. New Hampshire is another solid track for Reddick. Of his 5 starts, he’s only finished worse than 13th once, a 21st in 2022. He’s got back to back 6th place finishes, including 53 laps led last year. 

9. Chris Buescher had a solid top 5 run going, which seemed to go belly up late, with Buescher taking home an 11th. One spot better and he’d be tied with both Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell with 16 top 10s on the year, the most in the series. Instead, he’s still tied with Hamlin for 3rd. Buescher’s average finish the last 4 races is 9.25, so it seems pretty fair to put him at spot 9. From his time in Front Row equipment to 2023, he had never finished better than 15th at New Hampshire, but last year, he finally managed a top 5. 

8. Kyle Larson has now gone 17 races since his last win, one race away from half the season. Larson looked to be making a strategy move early, but it failed, and from then on, a bad day got worse. He cut a tire and broke a toe link, and then wrecked from said toe link, subjecting him to 32nd place. New Hampshire is a decent track for Larson. His last 4 races have been top 15s, with 3 of them being 7th or better. However, since his first race there, in which he led 14 laps, Larson has only led 8 laps since. 

7. Chase Elliott is on a sinking ship right now. In the first 23 races, Chase Elliott finished worse than 15th 4 times, with 0 finishes worse than 20th. In the last 6 races, he’s matched his sub 15ths with another 4, and has 2 additional finishes of 38th or worse. Since Watkins Glen, Elliott has an average finish of 22, salvaged by his 3rd at Gateway a couple weeks back. If the 9 wants to fight for a championship, much less make the Round of 8, he’d better figure it out, and quick. He only has 3 top 10s at New Hampshire in his career, and 3 of his last 6 finishes have been 18th or worse. He does have a silver medal snuck in that group; however, with a silver medal in 2023.

6. Christopher Bell finally won again, something he hadn’t done since May, and that race only paid money, not points. You’d have to go back to March 9th as the last time Bell won a points race. However, there’s a solid chance he repeats what he did in the spring and go back to back, considering we’re headed to New Hampshire. Bell’s never lost an Xfinity Series race here, and in the Cup Series, he has 3 podiums in 5 races and 2 wins in the last 5 years.

5. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: Bubba Wallace is hot. Although he was caught up in a wreck and finished 34th, Wallace had a strong run going. He led 12 laps and was top 10 all day, and put on tires late to try and make a charge, but was wrecked with 13 to go. Had he not been wrecked, it’s possible this would’ve been Wallace’s 7th top 10 in 9 races. Wallace has finished top 10 twice in the last 3 races at New Hampshire, but was wrecked last year for a 34th.

4. William Byron maintains his 4th in the power rankings with a 12th at Bristol. A solid run punched him into the Round of 12 early, and the 24 was on autopilot the rest of the day. In his 7 races at New Hampshire, Byron has never finished top 10, but he does have 3 finishes of 12th or better. However, 3 of his last 4 have been 20th or worse. Don’t expect big things this weekend out of William.

3. Denny Hamlin was never a factor Saturday. He started 6th and immediately started dropping positions. He did try and make a comeback late in stage 2, but would have a tire fall off, solidifying his sub 30th place run. Hamlin heads to New Hampshire without 2 crew members. Hamlin has a handful of wins, but his last one came in 2017. Hamlin has since had a few runner ups, but his last finish there was a 24th. He did lead 43 laps in that one, however.

2. Ryan Blaney is back to #2. He and Ty Gibbs alternated stage wins and 2nds, and finishing 4th overall. That’s Blaney’s 8th top 10 in 9 races and his 5th top 5 in 7. However, since the Next Gen started racing, Blaney has never been able to muster better than 18th, including back to back sub 20ths. Short, flat tracks are Penske’s bread and butter, however, and it might just be a good run for Blaney.

1. Chase Briscoe retains the #1 spot. After a surprisingly poor qualifying run, Briscoe rallied to 9th. He led the 2nd most amount of laps on the day with 127. New Hampshire is Briscoe’s 3rd best track by average finish in the Next Gen era, with 9.0. He finished 2nd in this race last year, along with a 10th in 2023 and a 15th in 2022. Also, keep in mind of the “where MTJ was good at” rule. Truex’s last win came here, and after the first race in 2016, he finished top 10 the remaining 10 races in his career here, apart from a 12th in 2021. I’d say your winner is gonna come from a JGR car this weekend and it’s a good chance it’s this one.