NASCAR Power Rankings Post Las Vegas

Honorable Mention: Chris Buescher’s consistency continues, with another solid top 10 run resulting in a P12. There’s not much more I can say, he’s just always really solid come Sunday. Rarely the best, but even more rarely out to lunch. Talladega could be a solid result, as an RFK car has finished a photo finish P2 in the last 3 Talladega races (barring a DQ from Ryan Preece in the spring). Buescher also has a win at Daytona in 2023 and led some laps before being wrecked early stage 2 in the spring.

10: Joey Logano locked up a 6th place finish on Sunday after a 2-tire gamble set him up for the win. Logano still has a nasty deficit to the cutline, but can easily make that up with a win at either of the next two tracks, something he’s done at both of them a combined 4 times, although his last win at both came all the way back in 2018.

9: Bubba Wallace had a really good run going Sunday, consistently inside the top 8, before a speeding penalty stage 2 doomed his day. Wallace never really recovered and ended up 22nd. Wallace is headed to Talladega, the track he captured his maiden Cup Series win at back in 2021. With that being said, this is Wallace’s only top 5 at the track, with his only other top 10s being a 9th and an 8th in the last two races respectively. 

8: Tyler Reddick had much of the same as his teammate, minus the speeding penalty. He came home with a 5th place finish (in an extremely ugly paint scheme, so close yet so far on the paint scheme scale). Reddick won at Talladega last spring, but only mustered a 20th and a 14th in the races since. This might be Reddick’s last shot at a win this year, which might come as a surprise considering he’s the reigning regular season champion, but then again, Chase Elliott went winless in 2023 and MTJ went winless in 2024, both following a regular season championship. Look out, Byron fans.

7: Ryan Blaney and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad racetrack. In 3 of the 4 fall races at Las Vegas, Blaney has finished 28th or worse, with only a 6th in 2023 to save him. Adjacent with this, however, is his success at Martinsville, where his last 3 fall races hasn’t had a finish worse than 3rd, including back to back wins. I know I’m skipping over Talladega, (which is a solid track for Blaney, with 3 wins) but if you’re a YRB fan, all eyes are on Martinsville. 

6: Chase Briscoe finished 4th at Las Vegas and led 57 laps. He dropped a spot in the rankings. That should tell you how close this top 7 is. Briscoe has only 2 top 10s at Talladega, most recently coming in the spring of 2023. With that being said, in his 9 starts at Talladega, he’s only finished worse than 15th twice here, a 30th last fall and a 37th in 2022. Briscoe also finished 4th in the Great American Race to kick the season off, leading 4 laps. 

5: The other Chase, being Elliott, is back to 5th on the list. Again, after an 18th place run, it’s not necessarily that I think Elliott had that bad of a performance to warrant dropping him 3 spots, it’s just the fact that there were 3 others with better standout performances. Chase Elliott most recently has a win at Talladega in 2022, along with a win in 2019. He also won at Atlanta earlier in the summer, so look for Elliott to gain on that cutline, if not advance himself into the next round.

4: This might just be Denny Hamlin’s year. Now locked into the championship race, Denny Hamlin does not care in the slightest about the next 2 races, with all eyes on Phoenix. Hamlin has several wins at drafting tracks, but the last one came at Talladega in 2020 in 100% fair conditions and absolutely in no way was there any controversy at all. 

3: We should be talking about what a solid day William Byron had, if not talking about his advancement into the Championship Round. Instead, we’re talking about the fact that the most consistent driver all year long is now 15 points out thanks to his late race run in with Ty Dillon. It’s a shame the 24 team couldn’t perform when the lights were the brightest, I suppose. While Byron does not have a win at Talladega, he does have 5 straight top 7 finishes, and 10 of his last 11 starts are top 15 finishes. Byron is also the reigning Daytona 500 champion 2 years running. 

2: Christopher Bell had a really solid run Sunday, which sits him nicely at 2 in the rankings and 3 in the playoffs. He’s going to need every one of those points, because Bell is just as likely to finish outside the top 30 as he is to finish top 10 at Talladega. He did finish 6th here last year, but also finished 35th in the spring. Bell did nab a win at Atlanta early in the year, so maybe the tides are turning for Bell at superspeedways. 

1: Sunday finally looked to be Kyle Larson’s day. He led 129 laps, finished 2nd in stage 1, and won stage 2. Larson fans see Talladega coming up and probably sigh, but it might not be as bleak as it seems. Larson’s last 2 finishes in Alabama are 2nd in the spring and 4th last fall. At 35 above the cutline, all Larson needs is a solid top 15 at Talladega, regroup, and to perform at Martinsville, something he is absolutely capable of. That 21 race winless streak might be coming to an end here soo