Power Rankings: Who advances at the Roval — Chase Briscoe, Austin Cindric … or neither?

12. Alex Bowman (-1)

Season-high: 5


Season-low: 16


Comment: No news yet on whether Bowman will be medically cleared to race on Sunday, his last shot to win and advance in this year's playoffs. If he is, Bowman is certainly capable of pulling off the last-ditch victory to advance — he's never finished outside the top 10 in four Roval races and was runner-up there in 2019.

11. Christopher Bell (+1)

Season-high: 2


Season-low: Out


Comment: Bell is not quite where he thought — or wanted — to be heading into the Round of 12 finale after dominating the Round of 16, but facts are facts and he likely needs to win on Sunday to keep his title hopes alive. The good news for Bell is that his first-ever Cup win came on a similar track at Daytona's road course and he's had the performance in his No. 20 Toyota all year to compete near the front of the field. He'll be one to watch Sunday for sure.

10. William Byron (-8)

Season-high: 1


Season-low: 16


Comment: Byron is another that — pending the result of his appeal to be heard Thursday — likely finds himself in must-win territory and, again, has a good shot to do so. The No. 24 driver earned a pole at the Roval in 2019 to spark a three-year stretch of averaging a 7.66 average finish there with at least 23 laps led in each.

9. Austin Cindric (+1)

Season-high: 9


Season-low: 19


Comment: Cindric landed his first top 10 of the playoffs at Talladega, but it still wasn't quite enough to bump him off the bubble heading into Sunday's elimination race. That said, he's in tremendous position to advance given how he and his team have continued to progress each week for months, combined with his road-racing background. He never finished worse than sixth in four NXS starts at the Roval and he's a more sure thing to land in the top 10 there Sunday than to not. It would likely take a bit of calamity to knock him out of contention.

8. Chase Briscoe (--)

Season-high: 8


Season-low: 20


Comment: Then again, Briscoe is the driver Cindric is currently sharing the bubble with, and he's equally as good on road courses. He's also in the midst of his best four-week stretch of the year, averaging a 10.5 finish over the last four playoff races. Though he finished 22nd in this race last year as a rookie, Briscoe won the inaugural Xfinity Series event there in 2018 and led 21-plus laps in each of his three NXS tries.

7. Daniel Suárez (+2)

Season-high: 7


Season-low: Out


Comment: Though 'Dega was just the second top 10 of the playoffs for Suárez, he's yet to finish outside the top 20 through the first five races and sits on the good side of the bubble. This year's Sonoma winner should have an incredible shot to keep his position — or better it — and advance to the Round of 8 after Sunday.

6. Kyle Larson (--)

Season-high: 1


Season-low: 9


Comment: Larson turned in his worst finish of the playoffs at Talladega — 18th — but still scraped together 30 points to bring his average to 33.2 per postseason race so far and keep him plus-18 on the elimination line. As the defending Roval winner and most recent road-course winner in general, there would need to be some mighty circumstances for Larson to miss at this point despite a somewhat tenuous points gap between him and the bubble.

5. Joey Logano (-4)

Season-high: 1


Season-low: 11


Comment: A week after we wondered here if Logano was the new title favorite, here he is back out of the provisional Championship 4 — that's Talladega for you. The 2020 Roval runner-up has never finished outside the top 10 on this layout at Charlotte and, like his fellow plus-18 driver Larson, it would take a colossal collapse on Sunday for one of the sport's best all-around drivers to miss the Round of 8.

4. Denny Hamlin (+1)

Season-high: 1


Season-low: 20


Comment: Hamlin continues to be on fire in the playoffs and it's hard to see how he's not on a pretty straight trajectory to the Championship 4 with how well the next round sets up for him as well. He just has to get there, of course, and sitting plus-21 to the elimination line isn't a lock by any means. Coupled with just one top 10 in four Roval races, it's at least worth questioning, but he feels relatively safe at the moment.

3. Ross Chastain (+1)

Season-high: 1


Season-low: Out


Comment: Chastain is having a tremendous postseason run thus far and has a legitimate shot to send Trackhouse to the Championship 4 in its first season even making the playoffs. Given the team has been so strong on road courses this year, the No. 1 driver should be in the mix to win outright, even if his personal Roval stats (no top 20s in three starts) leave room for improvement.

2. Ryan Blaney (+1)

Season-high: 1


Season-low: 10


Comment: Apart from a 30th-place finish at Bristol, Blaney is vacuuming up points at a heck of a pace so far in the playoffs with at least 34 in the other four races and 43-plus in each of the last two to put him highest in the running order among drivers who haven't clinched a Round of 8 spot yet. All this coming from the last winless driver in the playoffs, too. It's hard to see how that fact remains over the final five races, and he could cash in this weekend at the Roval where he's found nothing but success (one win, 5.8 average finish).

1. Chase Elliott (+6)

Season-high: 1


Season-low: 9


Comment: Well alrighty then. Elliott wasn't too concerned about advancing after his Texas woes, and we've now seen why after a thrilling win at Talladega on Sunday to propel him to the Round of 8. He could very well make it two in a row, too, as the winner of literally half of the Cup races ever run on the Roval. Consider him once again the championship favorite.