By Noah Poser, Staff Writer
With teams preparing to head to Las Vegas for the first mile-and-a-half of the year, it’s the first sign the NASCAR season is no longer new, but rather in full swing.
And while this upcoming weekend marks the first “standard” race of the season without the unknowns that come with superspeedways, road courses or short tracks with multiple tire compounds, we can deduce one thing from the first four races.
Christopher Bell has officially arrived.
And after winning each of the past three races and positioning himself as the early championship favorite, he is the clear No. 1 in the first edition of the Kickin’ the Tires power rankings as the series heads to Vegas.
1. Christopher Bell
Season Stats: 3 Wins, 3 Top 5s, 3 Top 10s, 114 Laps Led, 1 Stage Win
Bell may have won at Atlanta and COTA despite not being the dominant driver in those races, but that wasn’t the case at Phoenix. Bell led 105 laps and won a stage en route to a narrow victory over teammate Denny Hamlin and now heads to Vegas, where he led the most laps and finished second his last time at the track.
2. William Byron
Season Stats: 1 Win, 2 Top 5s, 3 Top 10s, 100 Laps Led, 1 Stage Win
Byron was fast once again in the desert, winning the opening stage and running inside the top three for much of the day before an untimely caution derailed his chances of leaving Phoenix with a win. Still, he managed to rally from a lap down to finish sixth and he remains the points leader.
3. Kyle Larson
Season Stats: 2 Top 5s, 2 Top 10s, 12 Laps Led, 1 Stage Win
It hasn’t been the most consistent start to the season for Larson, as he has two top fives, but also two finishes of 20th or worse in the first four races. He got back on track this past weekend, finishing third in a race where he probably wasn’t as fast as his finish would indicate. Nonetheless, he was in contention for the win at the end of the day.
4. Kyle Busch
Season Stats: 1 Top 5, 3 Top 10s, 55 Laps Led
Busch is quietly on a run of three straight top 10 finishes. After a dominant showing at COTA resulted in a top five, he backed it up with an eighth place finish at Phoenix and currently sits eighth in points. The early returns have been much more promising than what we saw out of Busch and RCR at any point last season.
5. Tyler Reddick
Season Stats: 2 Top 5s, 2 Top 10s, 9 Laps Led
Reddick would probably be higher in these rankings had he not suffered a power steering issue that was completely out of his control at Phoenix. He spent most of the day running inside the top five before succumbing to the issue and finishing 20th. Despite the poor luck, he’s a likely candidate to bounce back and be running up near the front at Vegas this weekend.
6. Denny Hamlin
Season Stats: 1 Top 5, 2 Top 10s, 9 Laps Led
“What could have been” is the story of Hamlin’s race at Phoenix. Hamlin didn’t finish in the top five in either stage, but after some late-race adjustments, found himself in contention for the win, but it just wasn’t meant to be. He was oh-so-close to ending Bell’s win streak and locking himself into the playoffs with a win, but second place is still a solid result.
7. Chase Elliott
Season Stats: 1 Top 5, 2 Top 10s, 2 Laps Led
A theme of the day at Phoenix was a handful of drivers ended up finishing better than their race pace may have indicated. Elliott was another one of those guys, finishing 10th despite not running that high up for the majority of the second half of the race. A good result, but the No. 9 team will look to pick up the pace at Vegas.
8. Chris Buescher
Season Stats: 1 Top 5, 3 Top 10s
Ditto for Buescher. He, like Elliott, Hamlin and Larson, arrived on the scene just when it mattered most. He didn’t run in the top five really at all, but when the checkered flag waved he crossed the line in fifth. It was his second consecutive top 10 and his third top 10 finish in the first four races.
9. Alex Bowman
Season Stats: 3 Top 10s, 17 Laps Led
Bowman’s best starting position this season was 13th at Atlanta. Naturally, that was the one race he didn’t finish inside the top 10. Bowman went from 38th to sixth at Daytona, 21st to ninth at COTA, and this past weekend at Phoenix, went from 32nd to seventh. If he and the No. 48 team figures out qualifying, he may be a threat to win some races as the season progresses.
10. Ryan Blaney
Season Stats: 1 Top 5, 2 Top 10s, 23 Laps Led, 1 Stage Win
Blaney, like Reddick, slips a few spots due to no fault of his own. But this particular ranking has less to do with lack of speed and more to do with back-to-back poor results. After losing an engine at Phoenix and finishing 28th, Blaney has finished 19th or worse in the past two races. On the flip side, he showed top five speed at Phoenix and should be able to rebound at Vegas.
11. Joey Logano
Season Stats: 207 Laps Led, 1 Stage Win
Logano finished 29th in the first stage, second in the second stage and finished the race in 13th after leading 81 laps at Phoenix. The performance perfectly sums up the reigning champion’s puzzling start to the season, as he leads the series in laps led through four races, but has yet to finish inside the top 10. His best finish so far this season has been 12th at Atlanta, but despite that, he sits ninth in points.
Next up: Josh Berry, Ross Chastain, Michael McDowell, John Hunter Nemechek, Bubba Wallace