Power Rankings: Why Chase Elliott will turn on the jets in second half
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NASCAR.com's Pat DeCola ranks the 20 hottest Cup Series drivers after the race at Sonoma Raceway and before the race at Nashville Superspeedway on June 25 (7 p.m. ET, NBC).
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20. Daniel Suárez (-5)
Season-high: 9
Season-low: Out
Comment: Suárez turned in a lackluster performance in search of a repeat Sonoma win, compiling his fifth finish outside the top 10 in the last six races. Nashville is a home race for Trackhouse Racing, and he's fared reasonably well there so far, with an 11.0 average finish in two starts.
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19. Michael McDowell (+1)
Season-high: 14
Season-low: Out
Comment: McDowell once again made his presence felt on a road course, but he was really looking to capitalize even further on his seventh-place finish knowing it stood as one of his better chances to make the playoffs. Still, he's been better of late just about everywhere and was respectable at Nashvillle each of the last two years (16th, 13th).
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18. Ty Gibbs (+1)
Season-high: 17
Season-low: Out
Comment: It still wasn't a top 10 — he has none of those since Bristol — but Sonoma's P18 was still Gibbs' best finish since Darlington, and he did show speed at points throughout the weekend. He hasn't started a Cup race at Nashville yet but led four laps and landed fourth in last year's Xfinity Series race there.
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17. Bubba Wallace (--)
Season-high: 13
Season-low: Out
Comment: After looking like he was knocking on the door of a win from Kansas to Charlotte, Wallace has stagnated a bit the last two weeks. He hasn't finished in the top 10 at Nashville yet but got close last year with a P12.
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16. Alex Bowman (+2)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: Out
Comment: Bowman has yet to land in the top 10 since his return three races ago, but he turned in a decent day at Sonoma to stay afloat in the playoff picture. A Nashville win would be huge for him on several levels, but he's still looking for his first top 10 there, too.
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15. Brad Keselowski (-3)
Season-high: 9
Season-low: Out
Comment: The good news is that Keselowski has already matched his top-10 total from last year (six), but the bad news is he did that last month at Darlington and has none since. Still, he's vastly improved year over year, and Nashville should offer a good barometer as he has finished outside the top 20 there in both attempts.
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14. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (--)
Season-high: 12
Season-low: Out
Comment: Stenhouse is turning himself into a nice little road racer with his P12 at Sonoma coming on the heels of a strong P7 at COTA earlier this year. He's been solid in the first two races at Nashville as well, even notching a sixth-place result in 2021.
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13. Tyler Reddick (-2)
Season-high: 3
Season-low: 15
Comment: His COTA win has him almost certainly in the playoffs, but Sonoma will still likely be looked at as a missed opportunity for Reddick, who was fast this past weekend but instead picked up a second straight finish outside the top 30. He'll look to at least match or, ideally, better his first two starts at Nashville, which have each yielded 18th-place results.
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12. Chase Elliott (+4)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: Out
Comment: It sure feels like two weeks from now, Elliott's prognosis could be much different than at current — when he's buried in the standings and in a must-win position. Apart from the mishap at Charlotte, he's looked great since his return from injury and now has another week off to recalibrate, refresh and get reset for the second half of the season after a bumpy first half. Oh, and he's the defending Nashville winner. Again, two weeks from now it would not be a shocker to see him back in the provisional playoff field and in the title hunt.
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11. Chris Buescher (+2)
Season-high: 11
Season-low: Out
Comment: The Buescher road-course renaissance continues as the left-and-right maestro turned in a seventh-straight top 10 on road courses to enter some primo territory there. He's having a career year, so he could certainly keep it going at Nashville, but history suggests otherwise with two finishes of 30th or worse.
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10. Christopher Bell (--)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 10
Comment: After briefly losing his way in the late spring, Bell is starting to regain his footing as we enter summer mode — when JGR typically turns up the dial — and could turn in more wins sooner than later. He picked up a top 10 in each of the two Nashville races, so it could be next weekend.
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9. Denny Hamlin (-2)
Season-high: 4
Season-low: 12
Comment: Sunday very likely would've been a much different race if Hamlin, who won the pole and looked quite fast himself, had been in the mix at the end instead of crashing out earlier on. He was last year's polesitter at Nashville and led a bunch of laps before settling in sixth, so he could have another shot at a win when we return next weekend.
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8. Kevin Harvick (--)
Season-high: 3
Season-low: 11
Comment: Harvick will have to end his career without winning in his home state in his final season, but he still ran respectably at Sonoma and was just short of a top 10. He's taken quite well to Nashville in Cup so far, with a P5 and a P10 in the track's first two races.
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7. Ross Chastain (-1)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 7
Comment: After three straight finishes outside the top 20, Sunday was just the kind of race — a quiet, non-dramatic top 10 — Chastain needed to regain his foundation. Still in search of his first 2023 win, he'll probably be viewed as a favorite at Nashville after turning in a runner-up in the first race there and another top five last year.
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6. Kyle Larson (-1)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 11
Comment: Kind of a non-standard race for Larson, who wound up a decent eighth place but had a quiet day overall and earned no stage points. That could change at Nashville, where he's been lights out with a win and a P4 in the first two races.
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5. Joey Logano (+4)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 14
Comment: After saying at Charlotte he had to be perfect the rest of the season, Logano has gone out and run two perfect races for a pair of P3s the last two weekends. The defending champ will likely be competitive again at Nashville, where he's yet to finish outside the top 10.
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4. Ryan Blaney (-1)
Season-high: 3
Season-low: 13
Comment: Blaney had one of the more interesting races at Sonoma and nearly completed a furious comeback charge to the front before eventually faltering to the back of the pack late. He crashed out of the first Nashville race but rebounded splendidly last year with a third-place running.
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3. William Byron (-1)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 14
Comment: A potential option to win at Sonoma, Byron never really got it going but did still manage to score a decent 30 points in his 14th-place effort. He scored just two points last year at Nashville, but that was a bit of a fluke — he ran P3 there the year before.
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2. Martin Truex Jr. (+2)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: 14
Comment: Truex and the No. 19 team are clicking on all cylinders right now and a second career championship is absolutely in the cards, a season removed from doubting if he'd even continue racing. It was Nashville last year where he announced he would be back for 2023, and since then, it's been a steady climb back to contender status. He's clearly not done yet.
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1. Kyle Busch (--)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 8
Comment: If Busch and Truex — two of the sport's longest running superstars and longtime teammates until this year — are going to keep competing for wins and trying to one-up each other, we're here for it. A fourth championship between them is on the table this year and, right now, that edge might go to Busch, but it's a tossup. Naturally, they were both competitive at Nashville last year (each leading 50+ laps), but they finished 21st and 22nd.