By Noah Poser, Staff Writer
This week marks the return of the Kickin’ the Tires NASCAR Power Rankings unlike you’ve ever seen them before.
In the past, these rankings comprised of the top 11 drivers in NASCAR’s premier series in terms of overall performance, and more importantly, how they’ve been performing in recent weeks.
In this latest edition, the criteria remains the same, but with the end of the regular season fast approaching and the playoffs looming, the focus will shift to only the drivers who have found victory lane this season.
With eight races remaining in the regular season, 12 drivers have already won a race to punch their ticket to the playoffs (assuming we see no more than four new winners in the next eight races).
Here’s how they stack up as things stand right now.
1. Denny Hamlin
Season Stats: 3 Wins, 8 Top 5s, 9 Top 10s, 487 Laps Led, 4 Stage Wins
In four starts in June (he missed Mexico after the birth of his son), Hamlin had finishes of third, first and second before a wreck relegated him to a 31st-place finish at Atlanta. Despite missing a race, he still sits fourth in the standings and remains tied with Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell for the series lead in wins. He’s the clear leader in the clubhouse right now.
2. Chase Elliott
Season Stats: 1 Win, 6 Top 5s, 10 Top 10s, 136 Laps Led
It may come as a surprise to some to see Elliott at No. 2 on this list, but after his win at Atlanta he’s currently riding a three-race streak of top five finishes. He finished third at Mexico, fifth at Pocono and then snapped a 44-race winless streak at his home track in Atlanta. He had no finishes worse than 15th in five June races and is second in the standings, having closed the gap between he and points leader William Byron to just 37 points.
3. Kyle Larson
Season Stats: 3 Wins, 9 Top 5s, 12 Top 10s, 851 Laps Led, 8 Stage Wins
Larson hasn’t been his usual dominant self as of late, but he does have three top 10 finishes in the last five races, which is better than most of the guys behind him in these rankings, and continues to lap the field when it comes to playoff points. As a bonus, he’s coming up on a stretch of tracks he’s had a lot of success at, including Sonoma and Indianapolis where he’s the defending race winner.
4. Ryan Blaney
Season Stats: 1 Win, 7 Top 5s, 8 Top 10s, 348 Laps Led, 3 Stage Wins
Blaney kicked off June with a win at Nashville and it’s been up and down since with a second top five finish but also two finishes of 32nd or worse in that stretch. Admittedly, these past five races summarize Blaney’s season really well in the sense that he’s been quick and finishing up front when he’s able to stay out of trouble, but unfortunately trouble has found him quite often this season. But one thing is certain, the No. 12 bunch has the speed to contend.
5. Christopher Bell
Season Stats: 3 Win, 7 Top 5s, 11 Top 10s, 153 Laps Led, 1 Stage Win
Finishing a distant second behind race winner Shane van Gisbergen at Mexico not withstanding, Bell hasn’t found himself in contention for victories very often lately. He hasn’t won a points-paying race since early March when he reached victory lane at Phoenix for what was his third win in a row at the time. He did win the All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro in May, but he’s led just 11 laps in the six races since. Still, he’s performed worthy of a top five spot on this list and should be in contention on the upcoming road courses.
6. Chase Briscoe
Season Stats: 1 Win, 6 Top 5s, 8 Top 10s, 164 Laps Led, 1 Stage Win
Briscoe performed a fuel-saving masterclass at Pocono to join the ranks of winners this season, and while for many it appeared to come out of nowhere, it was only a matter of time before Briscoe parked it in victory lane following his move to Joe Gibbs Racing. In addition to his Pocono win, Briscoe finished seventh at Mexico and is another driver who should expect to do well during the stretch of road courses coming up.
7. William Byron
Season Stats: 1 Win, 7 Top 5s, 10 Top 10s, 769 Laps Led, 7 Stage Wins
It may not be time to panic for Byron and company just yet, as he continues to maintain the points lead he’s held for the vast majority of this season, but it’s been far from smooth-sailing for the No. 24 team lately. Sure, he had a couple top ten finishes in June, but he also had three finishes of 27th or worse. Byron has led a lot of laps this season and won plenty of stages, but still has just one win on the season. More importantly, his Hendrick teammates Elliott and Larson are closing in on him in the standings.
8. Ross Chastain
Season Stats: 1 Win, 3 Top 5s, 8 Top 10s, 58 Laps Led
Following his win in the Coca-Cola 600 to end the month of May, Chastain picked up where he had left off in June with a couple solid finishes inside the top 11 in the next two races. It’s been a bit of a struggle since with a trio of finishes outside the top 15, but when you compare this recent stretch to those below him in these rankings, it still feels like Chastain is in a pretty good spot all things considered.
9. Joey Logano
Season Stats: 1 Win, 2 Top 5s, 4 Top 10s, 358 Laps Led, 2 Stage Wins
Logano would be the first to tell you that outside his win at Texas in May, this season has not gone as he nor his team would have hoped. Since the win, Logano has just two top 10 finishes and he has just four such finishes in the first 18 races. While a healthy haul of stage points has kept him afloat in the standings, a summertime turnaround would be a truly welcome sight for the No. 22 team.
10. Shane van Gisbergen
Season Stats: 1 Win, 1 Top 5, 2 Top 10s, 85 Laps Led, 1 Stage Win
It was known that van Gisbergen was going to struggle on ovals this season, and so far that has been the case. The other expectation was that it likely wouldn’t matter in terms of hurting his chances to make the playoffs, as he was likely to win at least one road course race this season. He checked that box a few races ago with a dominating performance in Mexico and now heads to Chicago this weekend as a heavy favorite to go back to victory lane at the sight of his first career Cup Series win two years ago.
11. Austin Cindric
Season Stats: 1 Win, 1 Top 5, 4 Top 10s, 251 Laps Led, 3 Stage Wins
Cindric’s season has been eerily similar to his teammate Logano. Both have one win, have bagged at least a couple stage wins and led a fair bit of laps throughout the season. But consistency hasn’t come easy for Cindric, just as it hasn’t for Logano, too. He had one top 10 finish in June (a 10th-place finish at Pocono) and sits just 15th in the standings right now. Obviously the win should send him to the playoffs as of right now, but he’s not quite a contender for anything more at the moment.
12. Josh Berry
Season Stats: 1 Win, 2 Top 5s, 3 Top 10s, 169 Laps Led, 1 Stage Win
When Josh Berry scored his first career win at Las Vegas in March, it appeared at the time to be a sign of things to come. Instead, his season has gone in the complete opposite direction since. Berry has just one top 10 in 13 races since the win in Vegas and sits a middling 19th in the standings. In Berry’s defense, he’s suffered from a fair bit of bad luck over the course of this stretch, but he doesn’t appear to be a contended at this point of the season.