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Power Rankings: Veteran Austin Dillon rounding into Next Gen force
By Pat DeCola | Published: March 1, 2022 21
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NASCAR.com's Pat DeCola ranks the top 20 NASCAR Cup Series drivers after the race at Auto Club Speedway and before Sunday's race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX).
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
20. Daniel Suarez (Not ranked last week)
Season-high: 20
Season-low: Out
Comment: Boy, did it look like Suarez was set to pick up his first Cup Series win late at Auto Club on Sunday. Vegas should offer a good proving ground for the emerging No. 99 team — Suarez has just one top 10 there in nine tries, and none since 2018.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
19. Bubba Wallace (-3)
Season-high: 16
Season-low: 19
Comment: Wallace was involved in a four-car incident with a few Fords in the final stage, helping to saddle him with a 19th-place Auto Club run. He'll look to make his way back into the top 10 at Vegas, where he last did so in February of 2020 with a sixth-place run.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
18. Brad Keselowski (-4)
Season-high: 14
Season-low: 18
Comment: Keselowski was one of the Fords in Wallace's aforementioned wreck, only he ended up a little further down in the pack (27th) at the end of it. If any of his Penske prowess carries over, Vegas could be a momentum builder for the No. 6 — the 2012 champ has three wins there, with 12 top 10s in 17 starts.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
17. Erik Jones (Not ranked last week)
Season-high: 17
Season-low: Out
Comment: The biggest revelation coming out of Auto Club — Erik Jones sure looks like a 2022 winner, doesn't he? The 25-year-old reminded everyone why he was such a hot prospect coming up on Sunday. Vegas marked one of his six top 10s from 2022, so keep an eye on him again this weekend.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
16. Kurt Busch (+1)
Season-high: 15
Season-low: 17
Comment: Fontana was a strong race for Busch, who started from the rear, served a pass-through penalty and still landed in the top 10. His second-most recent Cup win came in his hometown of Vegas and he'll be in the mix on Sunday.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
15. Aric Almirola (+4)
Season-high: 15
Season-low: Out
Comment: Who's here for the Almirola final-season title run? It might be/definitely is a little too early to even remotely think about that, but AA has shown every indication that he means business in his swan song season. He's struggled at Vegas in the past with just three top 10s in 17 starts, though interestingly they came amidst a decent stretch from 2017-19 where he finished 14th, 10th, 6th, 7th and 13th consecutively.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
14. William Byron (-2)
Season-high: 10
Season-low: 14
Comment: The season has not gotten off to the start Byron wanted, with a second straight finish outside the top 30 after hitting Tyler Reddick during his incident. He's led six or more laps in five of the last six Las Vegas races — only two of which resulted in top 10s.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
13. Alex Bowman (-4)
Season-high: 9
Season-low: 13
Comment: Bowman hasn't led a lap and has been shut out of the top 10 through two races, but no need to worry about the No. 48 team longterm quite yet. He was also shut out of the top 20 at Vegas last year, but the four races there prior to that netted an average finish of 8.75.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
12. Austin Dillon (+3)
Season-high: 12
Season-low: 15
Comment: Dillon tends to run well on the tracks 2-miles in length or bigger, but expect the veteran to be more well-rounded this year in the Next Gen era as it all falls into place for him. He tends to finish at least in the top 15 at Vegas, so he should keep it rolling again this weekend.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
11. Chase Briscoe (--)
Season-high: 11
Season-low: 14
Comment: The early returns point to SHR being more competitive across the board in 2022, and I'm becoming increasingly more convinced a Briscoe breakout needs to be talked about louder. His Vegas returns last year were pedestrian, but the Fords have been fast there in recent history and it could be another strong weekend ahead for him.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
10. Austin Cindric (+3)
Season-high: 10
Season-low: 17
Comment: Gosh, Austin Cindric — have a month of February, why don't you? The Daytona 500 winner followed that up with an Auto Club pole and a decent 12th-place finish. Hard to see him slowing down this weekend at a great track historically for the No. 2 car.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
9. Tyler Reddick (+1)
Season-high: 8
Season-low: 10
Comment: Reddick is 21st in points and has no top 10s yet, surely he should be trending the other way, right? Well, what do your eyes tell you? Reddick's first win is imminent and it would not be surprising to see him emerge as one of Kyle Larson's biggest competitors as the season wears on.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
8. Kevin Harvick (--)
Season-high: 7
Season-low: 8
Comment: So, that SHR resurgence? Harvick's going to lead the charge there, and you can be sure he won't be winless again this season. His two Las Vegas wins came with SHR, and Sunday would be an unsurprising end to a winless streak that now stretches back to the 2020 Bristol Night Race.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
7. Ryan Blaney (--)
Season-high: 7
Season-low: 9
Comment: Not much to say about Blaney's 18th-place Auto Club run, but he's probably already moved on to Vegas anyway — and for good reason. The No. 12 driver might mark it as his best track despite not winning there yet, with eight top 10s in 11 starts and a formidable 8.8 average finish.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
6. Martin Truex Jr. (--)
Season-high: 6
Season-low: 6
Comment: At a track where it typically excels, Martin Truex Jr. being the second-highest finishing Toyota at 13th in the running order isn't where the manufacturer wanted to be at Fontana. Truex could help right the ship on Sunday at Vegas, where he has two wins and just one finish worse than eighth from 2017-on.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
5. Denny Hamlin (--)
Season-high: 5
Season-low: 5
Comment: Hamlin will have to wait for that first career Auto Club win (one of very few "firsts" remaining for the future Hall of Famer) after he finished 15th at Fontana. He's been the driver to beat at Vegas the past couple of years, entering the weekend as the most recent winner there with 47 or more laps in the past three races.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
4. Kyle Busch (-1)
Season-high: 3
Season-low: 4
Comment: Many had Busch pegged as the favorite for Auto Club but an early spin derailed his race and he only recovered to finish 14th. He'd love to add another hometown win to his collection (just one Vegas Cup win, in 2009) and should have a good shot. His last three finishes there net out to an average of 4.0.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
3. Chase Elliott (-1)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: 3
Comment: Elliott and Co. valiantly fought their way through the field to make it back to the front on Sunday ... only to have teammate contact while battling for the lead essentially end his day. They'll get it sorted out and head to Vegas, which has produced perhaps the biggest mixed bag of results of any track in Elliott's career thus far — though he was runner-up there last fall.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
2. Joey Logano (+2)
Season-high: 3
Season-low: 2
Comment: Logano is once again looking like he'll be in the sport's elite class of drivers this year, and the wins are sure to come. He might be Sunday's favorite if it weren't for Larson, as the No. 22 driver absolutely rakes in the Vegas spring race. His finishes there, from 2013-on, respectively: 12th, 4th, 10th, 2nd, 4th, 7th, 1st, 1st, 9th.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
1. Kyle Larson (--)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 1
Comment: We've seen him excel across disciplines, so I guess we shouldn't be surprised Larson acclimated to the Next Gen so quickly, picking up right where he left off after last season's title. His first win for Hendrick came at Las Vegas last year so, uh, don't expect him to lose any steam this weekend — another win is the most likely outcome.