Power Rankings: Denny Hamlin begins 2024 season where he hopes to end it — on top
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NASCAR.com's Pat DeCola ranks the top 20 NASCAR Cup contenders before Monday's 2024 Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway (4 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
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20. Daniel Suárez (-1)
Season-high: 20
Season-low: 20
Comment: After a disappointing 2023 campaign, Suárez didn't quite get the immediate boost to 2024 he was looking for, missing the cut to make it into this year's Busch Light Clash (though he did win the Mexico Series race that followed, which certainly doesn't hurt). A rebound still appears on the table this year, but don't expect it to spark at Daytona, either — No. 99 has just one top 10 there in 13 tries.
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19. Chase Briscoe (+3)
Season-high: 19
Season-low: 19
Comment: Considering Briscoe had just eight top 10s all of last season, kicking off 2024 on the right foot as he becomes the big dog at SHR with a seventh-place run in the Clash bodes well for a potential strong campaign ahead. He's crashed out of four of his six Daytona starts but could still be a guy to keep an eye on Monday — he led a race-high 67 laps in last summer's regular-season finale at the track.
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18. Michael McDowell (-2)
Season-high: 18
Season-low: 18
Comment: McDowell has seen big gains the past few years but still seems just a touch off running with the top contenders on a weekly basis. That could change this year, of course, as we've seen him put together strong stretches at times. Look for him to get off to a good start as a recent winner of the "Great American Race" combined with Ford's recent strength at the 2.5-mile track.
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17. Chase Elliott (-3)
Season-high: 17
Season-low: 17
Comment: At some point, it feels likely that Elliott might ascend to the top of this list ... but a second-to-last result (with a steering issue) in The Clash isn't going to help him get there. Still, Elliott should have a major rebound campaign up his sleeve, and it wouldn't be all that surprising to see him come right out and win Daytona to immediately quiet any of his doubters — along with being the first one in the playoffs a season removed from missing it entirely.
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16. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (+1)
Season-high: 16
Season-low: 16
Comment: Alright, Ricky, time to see what you can do. You're the only driver in the field who can become a back-to-back Daytona 500 winner for just the second time since Sterling Marlin did it in the mid-1990s, so no pressure. He's typically always in the mix at some point on the superspeedways, and with his recent history there's no reason to think he won't be this Monday, too.
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15. Alex Bowman (+3)
Season-high: 15
Season-low: 15
Comment: There are going to be constant comparisons between Hendrick Motorsports teamates Elliott and Bowman this year, and for now — keeping in mind we literally have just one exhibition race to go off of — Bowman has the edge, landing a respectable sixth in LA. He'll be a threat to win the Daytona 500 pole, too, so he might just keep the mojo going.
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14. Bubba Wallace (-2)
Season-high: 14
Season-low: 14
Comment: Wallace didn't have an especially noteworthy Clash, landing just outside the top 10 despite showing some speed. Eyes are usually on him at Daytona, however, and this weekend will be no different. He's come close to winning the 500 before, and a victory on Monday could propel him to new heights in a pivotal campaign for the vet.
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13. Chris Buescher (-4)
Season-high: 13
Season-low: 13
Comment: Looking to build off his massive breakout 2023 campaign, Buescher ... fizzled out a bit in Los Angeles and didn't make the field for the Clash itself. There's a strong chance that all gets wiped away on Monday, however, as one of the sneaky contenders to win the 500 and nab himself a playoff spot for the second year running.
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12. Ross Chastain (-5)
Season-high: 12
Season-low: 12
Comment: Nothing much to write home about from LA for Chastain, but perhaps a trip to his home state for the sport's biggest race in his fresh, new Busch Light fire suit might be just what he needs to spark up a strong 2024. His hard-nosed aggression will likely translate to superspeedway wins at some point — surely alongside plenty of "crash" listings on his results sheet on RacingReference.com — and it's not unreasonable to think the first one comes on Monday.
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11. Brad Keselowski (-2)
Season-high: 11
Season-low: 11
Comment: The Clash at The Coliseum had not been historically kind to the RFK cars (and, again, wasn't to Buescher this year, either) but the 2012 champ was able to break through and land a top 10 in LA for some early momentum. One of the favorites to win Daytona — which would be his first 500 victory — Keselowski could get off to a hot start here and never look back, like the days of old.
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10. Martin Truex Jr. (-2)
Season-high: 10
Season-low: 10
Comment: Truex was unable to successfully defend his 2023 LA Clash victory but still turned in a respectable ninth as he looks to put last fall's postseason tumble behind him. Seemingly always a Daytona 500 contender and seemingly always coming up just short, he's still worth keeping an eye on this Monday. After toiling with a potential retirement the past few years, there's an outside chance this is his final shot at the Harley J. Earl.
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9. Christopher Bell (-4)
Season-high: 9
Season-low: 9
Comment: We haven't even handed out the 2024 bingo cards yet, but there's a good chance "only two-time defending Championship 4 contender misses the cut for The Clash" probably wouldn't have been on it. Bell's season didn't quite get off to the start he was hoping for, but there is absolutely no reason to panic here. He'll be back to participating in races — and winning them — in no time.
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8. Tyler Reddick (-4)
Season-high: and 8
Season-low: 8
Comment: Still expected to be perhaps the breakout driver of 2024 with several wins and a championship within reach this year, Reddick's Clash performance was moderately pedestrian. Daytona could be interesting for him as he has top fives in two of the past three summer racees but has yet to finish better than 27th in five tries at the 500.
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7. Ty Gibbs (+8)
Season-high: 7
Season-low: 7
Comment: Now we're cooking. Plus-eight for a driver that finished 18th? Yes. We'll see if it sticks, but the eye test very much indicated that Gibbs — who led a race-high 84 laps before scrapping with the studs at the front of the field in the closing laps shuffled him back — has arrived. He made his mark in a big way in the Xfinity Series at Daytona a few years back, and he might just do it again Monday.
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6. Kyle Busch (+7)
Season-high: 6
Season-low: 6
Comment: Another big winner in LA was Busch, who landed on the podium for the second consecutive year at The Coliseum. He kept it rolling almost immediately last year, with another strong performance out west with an Auto Club win — will he follow this year's showing with his first Daytona 500 win?
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5. Joey Logano (+5)
Season-high: 5
Season-low: 5
Comment: If you were spending the past few months wondering how Logano would respond to being bounced in the first round of the playoffs in his title defense season, I think we got our answer in LA — intensely. Logano isn't messing around this year, clearly, and it wouldn't surprise anybody in the world to see him go out and will his way to a second Daytona 500 win this weekend on grit alone.
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4. William Byron (-1)
Season-high: 4
Season-low: 4
Comment: Decent little outing in LA for Byron, turning in his third straight LA Clash top 10. With big expectations this year — Byron was the consensus pick among NASCAR.com staffers for 2024 champion — No. 24 might just get his title hunt off to a good start on Monday.
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3. Ryan Blaney (-1)
Season-high: 3
Season-low: 3
Comment: Blaney didn't do anything wrong to lose the spot here; he was just leapfrogged (more on that in a moment) despite finishing third in The Clash. Perhaps the overall favorite to win his first Daytona 500, things are still looking pretty good for the champ as he looks to defend his title.
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2. Kyle Larson (-1)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: 2
Comment: One thing it feels like we're going to see this year — in addition to plenty of wins, most likely — is a lot of ho-hum, routine top fives for Larson like we got in The Clash and like we saw in 2021 when he scored as whopping 20 of them. Daytona has been an extremely fickle beast to the '21 champ so far, but the thing about Larson? He can win literally any race he enters.
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1. Denny Hamlin (+5)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 1
Comment: And here he is. Hamlin and all of his accompanying story lines appear to be the prevailing theme of the 2024 season — for now, anyway — and he did nothing to dispel that notion in Los Angeles, winning The Clash and carrying all the momentum into one of his best races this weekend. Let the "Season of Denny" commence?