Power Rankings: Will Kyle Larson finally tame Darlington for first time?
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NASCAR.com's Pat DeCola ranks the 20 hottest Cup Series drivers after the race at Kansas Speedway and before Sunday's race at Darlington Raceway (3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
20. Ty Gibbs (-3)
Season-high: 14
Season-low: Out
Comment: Gibbs was looking stout early on at Kansas before spinning out and wrecking his car while trying to get it going again. Still, the speed is very much there, and he fared reasonably well in his fist Cup attempt at Darlington last fall, turning in a 15th-place result.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
19. Chase Briscoe (-3)
Season-high: 14
Season-low: Out
Comment: After turning in a mesmerizing three straight top fives from Bristol to 'Dega, Briscoe has finished far off the lead lap each of the past two weeks for a total of 12 combined points. His Darlington career started off well — 11th in his first start there in 2021 — but his finishes have gotten progressively worse each time out.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
18. Corey LaJoie (-2)
Season-high: 18
Season-low: Out
Comment: We're at the point now where a top-20 result is — at the very least — the expectation for LaJoie and the boys, but he tossed in some laps led at Kansas for good measure. He'll now try to make it happen once more at Darlington, where he has just one top 20 in 10 career starts.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
17. Daniel Suárez (-1)
Season-high: 10
Season-low: 19
Comment: It wasn't much at all, but a return to the top 15 and a decent points day (28) is enough of a rebound for Suárez, who is starting to get things going again after a difficult slump post-Vegas. Darlington has been rough on him over the years (21.9 average finish) but he did finally crack through for his first top 10 there in this race last year.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
16. Chris Buescher (-3)
Season-high: 13
Season-low: Out
Comment: Minor dip here for Buescher but overall he's still riding a five-race streak, during which he's averaged a finish of 12.2. He's been an underrated performer at Darlington in his career as well and turned in a pair of top 10s there in 2021.
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15. Bubba Wallace (+4)
Season-high: 15
Season-low: Out
Comment: Wallace looked every bit himself once again at Kansas, a track he and Toyota clearly have figured out at the moment. He only had one top 20 in his first eight Darlington starts before finally cracking the top 10 last fall, so he could keep it rolling on Sunday.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
14. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (+1)
Season-high: 12
Season-low: Out
Comment: Apart from a mishap at Richmond, Stenhouse hasn't finished outside the top 15 since Atlanta — and not outside the top 20 since Vegas — in what has been his best season in years thus far. Like so many others, he's starting to make pace at Darlington and landed his first top 10 there in this race last year.
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13. Brad Keselowski (-2)
Season-high: 9
Season-low: Out
Comment: Kansas snapped Kes' only top-10 streak of the season, but he could make a reappearance there in short order. The 2018 Southern 500 winner has always excelled at Darlington, landing in the top 10 in half of his 18 trips there.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
12. Chase Elliott (+2)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: Out
Comment: Through his first six races this year, Elliott has certainly been good ... we just haven't seen him be "great" yet, but rest assured it's coming. He's had a competitive car each of the past two spring races at Darlington, and it wouldn't be a shock to see him snag win No. 1 this weekend.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
11. Joey Logano (+1)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 12
Comment: That's more like it. The two-time (and defending) champ is much more of the driver that finished runner-up at Martinsville and sixth at Kansas and not the one that finished 30th or worse in the other three of the past five races. He's also the defending winner of this Darlington race and led a whole bunch of laps there last fall, too, before landing fourth.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
10. Ryan Blaney (-5)
Season-high: 4
Season-low: 13
Comment: Blaney had been running quite well heading into Kansas — where he wasn't "bad" — so his big drop is more about getting leapfrogged by others. That said, his Darlngton outlook factors in here as well, and he has an uncharacteristic one top 10 in 12 total starts there.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
9. Tyler Reddick (+1)
Season-high: 3
Season-low: 15
Comment: Reddick did indeed lead 23 laps out front at Kansas but was unable to make it three in a row for 23XI at the track. Still, he's got just as good a shot to snag win No. 2 of 2023 this weekend at a track seemingly made for his driving style and where he landed in the top three in both races last year.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
8. Christopher Bell (-5)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 10
Comment: Bell likely would've landed up in the top 10 with most of the other Toyotas at Kansas (and led three laps of his own), but a wreck saddled him with a last-place finish. After some proverbial bumps and bruises in his first several Darlington starts, Bell looked the part there last year with a pair of top-six finishes.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
7. Kevin Harvick (--)
Season-high: 5
Season-low: 11
Comment: Harvick will be thrilled to make the trip down to South Carolina to one of his favorite tracks as a slump-buster after four straight finishes outside the top 10. He's been one of the Lady in Black's best dance partners over the years, with three wins and 11 top 10s in his last 12 starts there alone.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
6. William Byron (+2)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 14
Comment: Byron quietly had one of the more interesting/unique races on Sunday, and his charge back through the field to land third after an early-race mishap and other issues was impressive. He's been above average at Darlington of late as well and led a combined 74 laps in last year's two races.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
5. Kyle Busch (-3)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 8
Comment: There aren't going to be a whole lot of races in which Busch picks up only two points, but unfortunately for him, Kansas was one of them. For Darlington, he finished 30th or worse there in each of the last three races — but led 19 laps in last year's spring race and 155 in the fall. Don't sleep on him.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
4. Denny Hamlin (+5)
Season-high: 4
Season-low: 12
Comment: Sometimes, Hamlin isn't appreciated enough for just how skilled he is as a driver, and outclassing friendly foe Kyle Larson on Sunday obviously is no easy feat. But he did just that. There's a chance Hamlin wins out the rest of the month of May, starting at Darlington — where he has a ridiculous four wins at one of the hardest tracks on the schedule.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
3. Martin Truex Jr. (+1)
Season-high: 3
Season-low: 14
Comment: After leading 68 strong laps in his Dover win, Truex topped that number in fewer total laps run at Kansas (79 laps led) in a dominant showing for Toyota, and he might just be getting started. The two-time Darlington winner — one of which was this race in 2021 — consistently leads a bunch of laps there and typically finishes well (12.8 average).
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
2. Kyle Larson (+4)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 11
Comment: Larson very nearly walked out of Kansas with what would've been a series-leading third win of 2023, and he already looks much more like his 2021 version than what we saw last year (which, to be clear, was still excellent). There might not be a more "Kyle Larson" kind of track than Darlington — Bristol dirt included — and it's been a shock to see him not win there yet. Trust me when I tell you — that will not last much longer.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
1. Ross Chastain (--)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 7
Comment: Just another drama-free day at Kansas for Mr. Chastain. Post-race fireworks aside, Chastain still did what he's been doing consistently — finishing in the top five. He's another one that Darlington fits to a T, and there's no reason to think he won't be among the favorites again on Sunday. Just maybe, perhaps, not if you polled his peers at the moment.