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Power Rankings: Darlington ace Keselowski eyeing second 2021 win
By Pat DeCola | Published: May 4, 2021 21
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NASCAR.com's Pat DeCola ranks the top 20 NASCAR Cup Series drivers after the race at Kansas Speedway and before Darlington Throwback Weekend.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
20. Ryan Newman (-1)
Season-high: 18
Season-low: Out
Comment: While a 16th-place run is nothing special, Newman scored more than 20 points in back-to-back races for just the second time this season. With a strong history at Darlington -- albeit with no top 10s since 2017 -- he could stretch it to three this weekend.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
19. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (-2)
Season-high: 12
Season-low: Out
Comment: For a driver who was so consistently solid to open the season, back-to-back finishes outside the top 30 are tough to swallow. With no top 10s at Darlington and a dismal average finish of 25.2, he might be heading in the wrong direction as we approach the halfway mark of the regular season.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
18. Kurt Busch (--)
Season-high: 6
Season-low: 18
Comment: No matter which way you slice it, Busch is on pace for one of the worst seasons of his career with just two top 10s so far -- after notching one in more than half of the season's 36 races last year. Typically strong at Darlington, a seventh top 10 in his last nine tries there would go a long way to rebooting a lagging No. 1 team.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
17. Tyler Reddick (+3)
Season-high: 17
Season-low: Out
Comment: Reddick isn't getting enough attention at the moment despite four top-eight finishes in his last five races. He notched a top 10 in his first Darlington race last spring and -- given his tendency to ride the wall better than just about anyone -- it should be a lucrative track for him in his burgeoning career.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
16. Chris Buescher (--)
Season-high: 14
Season-low: Out
Comment: With a career-best 70 laps led already this season and a solid 16.5 average finish, Buescher is on pace for his best season to date ... and currently finds himself on the right side of the playoff bubble. Darlington did not go well for him last year (no top-20 finishes) but he finished 17th or better in each of his first four starts there.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
15. Alex Bowman (-2)
Season-high: 8
Season-low: 17
Comment: Bowman has hit his marks a handful of times this season (third at Atlanta, win at Richmond) but has been otherwise somewhat lost, with a 22.89 average finish in the other nine races. The runner-up in NASCAR's first race back after last year's pause, Bowman could get back into the swing of things this weekend.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
14. Matt DiBenedetto (+1)
Season-high: 14
Season-low: Out
Comment: DiBenedetto and the No. 21 bunch have consistently improved since the beginning of the season and, honestly, they look like a top-10 team at the moment. With a pair of Darlington top 10s -- including one in the No. 95 Toyota -- he should keep it rolling on Sunday.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
13. Christopher Bell (-5)
Season-high: 8
Season-low: 16
Comment: Bell had a late-race spin that ruined an otherwise decent day at Kansas, keeping him out of the top 10 for the second straight week after notching two straight solid runs. He narrowly missed a top 10 in last year's second Darlington race, and it's a good bet he gets back headed in the right direction this weekend.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
12. Michael McDowell (+2)
Season-high: 10
Season-low: Out
Comment: McDowell has finished in the top 15 in more than half of this season's races and has a better average finish than half of Hendrick Motorsports' drivers -- in other words, he's no fluke. Though he's never finished in the top 10 at Darlington, don't count him out ... he got better in each race last year, including a pair of finishes of 17th or better.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
11. Austin Dillon (+1)
Season-high: 11
Season-low: 16
Comment: With four straight top 15s, three of which were in the top 10, Dillon continues to trim down an average finish of 13.4 that already stands as a heavy career-best. He's never had a disastrous race at Darlington (worst finish of 22nd in 2015) and the most recent runner-up at the track indicates he could be a sneaky sleeper this weekend.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
10. Kyle Larson (--)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: 14
Comment: A fourth finish of 18th or worse in the last five races for Larson looks a lot worse than it actually was, as the No. 5 driver spent a good portion of Sunday's race dominating to the tune of a race-high 132 laps led. He'll get another crack at a victory at Darlington, arguably his best winless track (6.7 average finish).
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
9. Chase Elliott (--)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 10
Comment: The No. 9 team still has a ways to go, but days like Sunday and the top-five finish that came out of it will go a long way to build some momentum right now. He's had some rough outings at Darlington, including last year, but he did lead 142 laps combined in the second two at the track in 2020 and finished fourth in the first one.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
8. Kyle Busch (+3)
Season-high: 6
Season-low: 14
Comment: Now that there's a number in the win column, Busch's season looks a whole lot more palatable so far. It might be premature to say he and the No. 18 team are fully "back" but with such a strong Darlington history behind him (nine of the past 11 races were top 10s; three top threes) there's a great chance he's competitive again this weekend.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
7. Ryan Blaney (-2)
Season-high: 5
Season-low: 15
Comment: Kansas' 21st-place run broke up a streak of seven straight top-11 finishes for Blaney, who was still right there in the mix at the end on Sunday. Interestingly, the No. 12 Team Penske driver is still searching for his first Darlington top 10 after eight tries (20.4 average finish).
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
6. Kevin Harvick (+1)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 9
Comment: Sure, he's yet to win, but Harvick is still finishing in the top 10 consistently and his average finish of 9.5 would be fifth-best in his career. With three Darlington wins from 2014-on and nine top fives in the last 10 races there, it's hard to see how that number doesn't continue to shrink this weekend.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
5. Joey Logano (-1)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: 5
Comment: Logano surprisingly never quite materialized as a threat to win on Sunday, even ending a streak of four straight 2021 races with laps led. The Penske years have gone reasonably well for him at Darlington, with five top-six finishes from 2015-on after none during his stint with Joe Gibbs Racing.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
4. Brad Keselowski (+2)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: 11
Comment: It sure is looking like that four-race run outside the top 10 was a blip on the radar for Keselowski, who has put together back-to-back strong outings since. Consistently a front-of-the-field driver at Darlington, look for the 2012 champ to potentially add his second track victory this weekend.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
3. William Byron (--)
Season-high: 3
Season-low: 18
Comment: While he hasn't led a ton of laps since the early portion of the season, Byron continues to be the biggest overachiever of 2021 — but there are no signs at all that he and the No. 24 team aren't for real. With a top-five showing in last year's Southern 500, it wouldn't surprise anyone at this point if Byron notched a 10th straight '21 top 10.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
2. Martin Truex Jr. (--)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: 7
Comment: Truex has essentially been impossible to keep out of the top 10 this year at the non-wild-card-races (i.e. not Daytona, Bristol Dirt or Talladega), and he could very well become the first three-time 2021 winner this weekend. He tends to be hit-or-miss, results-wise, at Darlington, but won the 2016 Southern 500 and has led 16 or more laps in five of the last seven, including 196 in last year's crown jewel.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
1. Denny Hamlin (--)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 4
Comment: Hamlin has finished outside the top 10 in each of the past two weeks, is the only JGR driver to not win in 2021 ... and still has an 87-point standings lead on his second-place teammate. Feels like we say it every week, but this has to be where Hamlin finally breaks through, right? The three-time Darlington winner is one of the best at taming the "Lady in Black," with an average finish of 7.5.