Power Rankings: Daniel Suárez makes statement but what’s next?
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NASCAR.com's Pat DeCola ranks the top 20 NASCAR Cup contenders after Daniel Suárez's win at Atlanta Motor Speedway and before Sunday's race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
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20. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (Not ranked last week)
Season-high: 16
Season-low: Out
Comment: While he wasn't able to fully capitalize on a pair of races to open the season that suit his style, Stenhouse did turn in his best performance since last spring's Bristol Dirt Race with a P6 at Atlanta. It'll be interesting to see if he's able to keep it rolling, though -- the 2023 Daytona 500 winner has finished outside the top 20 in four straight Las Vegas races.
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19. Corey LaJoie (--)
Season-high: 19
Season-low: Out
Comment: LaJoie missed out on replicating his strong Daytona top five (or recent Atlanta successes) but did leave Georgia with a solid P14 for his second-best finish since Talladega last fall. He's actually finished 20th or better in three of the past four Las Vegas races as well, so he could hang around these parts for at least another week ... or perhaps much longer.
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18. Austin Cindric (Not ranked last week)
Season-high: 18
Season-low: Out
Comment: It's early yet, but you have to like what we've seen thus far from Cindric, who hasn't been this high in points since the race after his Daytona 500 win -- in 2022. Team Penske tends to excel in Vegas, and Cindric earned his only top 10 there in this race last spring.
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17. Brad Keselowski (-2)
Season-high: 11
Season-low: 17
Comment: Keselowski is one of only a handful of drivers to lead in both races thus far, and to show for it he has a pair of 33rd-place finishes and 16 total points. Nowhere to go but up for the three-time Las Vegas winner, who also turned in a top five there just a few short months ago.
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16. Alex Bowman (-3)
Season-high: 13
Season-low: 16
Comment: Last week, Bowman showed he was ready to rebound in 2024 with a strong Daytona 500 runner-up and followed it up by finishing five laps off the pace in 27th at Atlanta. He should get back on the horse this weekend, however, with strong recent Vegas results -- including winning this race in 2022.
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15. Chase Elliott (+1)
Season-high: 15
Season-low: 17
Comment: He's still searching for his first top 10 of 2024, but bit by bit, Elliott is putting the pieces back together toward a return trip to Victory Lane; it's just a matter of when. Vegas has been sort of a "full spectrum" track for him, with four finishes outside the top 20 and a runner-up in the last seven races there alone.
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14. Tyler Reddick (-4)
Season-high: 8
Season-low: 14
Comment: Before we jump to any conclusions about Reddick's difficult start, just know he opened last season with finishes of 39th and 34th ... and then promptly landed in the top five in three of the next four next races, culminating in his first win of 2023. He's yet to land a top five at Las Vegas, but he's been knocking on the door, with four finishes in the top eight in his last five races there.
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13. Daniel Suárez (Not ranked last week)
Season-high: 13
Season-low: Out
Comment: Now that's more like it. The talent was never in question here, but the results -- a seven-year stretch featuring stints at Gibbs, SHR and Trackhouse that only netted one win — felt fair game. If he keeps it rolling at Vegas (where he has a 20.7 average finish and two top 10s in 13 starts), we'll know he's a true contender this year.
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12. Ross Chastain (+2)
Season-high: 12
Season-low: 14
Comment: Suárez nearly leapfrogged his teammate in one fell swoop, but Chastain had a solid race of his own via a 38-point P7 on Sunday. Three of his last four starts at Vegas have yielded top fives (including a runner-up), so there's a strong chance Trackhouse makes it two in a row this weekend.
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11. Chris Buescher (+1)
Season-high: 11
Season-low: 13
Comment: The RFK Racing cars had plenty of eyes on them to open the season with two drafting-style tracks on tap, but it netted just one of four possible top 10s between Buescher and Keselowski. The No. 17 driver notched the sole top 10 at Atlanta, but it might be more struggles ahead this weekend -- he has just one career top 10 at Las Vegas in 14 starts.
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10. Bubba Wallace (+1)
Season-high: 10
Season-low: 14
Comment: Don't look now, but Wallace is averaging an elite 7.4 over the last five races, dating back to last season. His two best Vegas runs have come in the spring race (including a P4 last year) but overall, it's been a rough track for him, with just the two top 10s and a 22.0 average finish in 12 starts.
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9. Martin Truex Jr. (--)
Season-high: 9
Season-low: 10
Comment: Truex hasn't quite landed in the top 10 yet but has kept up enough to still score a modicum of points and slot seventh in the standings so far. There might not be a better track for him to break into the top-10 column, however, than Vegas -- Truex has done it in 12 of the last 13 races there, with two wins sprinkled in.
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8. Joey Logano (-1)
Season-high: 5
Season-low: 8
Comment: After experiencing one of his most memorable weekends at Atlanta last year, Logano probably can't wait to forget the weekend that was this past one. Las Vegas should be a welcome sight for him, however, as it's one of his best tracks. No. 22 owns a strong 10.0 average finish there, with three wins from 2019-on.
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7. Ty Gibbs (+1)
Season-high: 7
Season-low: 8
Comment: Gibbs was able to pick up his first top 10 of the season at Atlanta for the second straight year -- only this time it came three races earlier. He's got a tall task ahead of him this weekend, though. Las Vegas (26.0 average finish) stands as one of his worst tracks in his young career.
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6. Christopher Bell (-2)
Season-high: 4
Season-low: 9
Comment: Very few seemed to have a good race at Atlanta if they did at Daytona -- a trend that Bell contributed to, seeing a P3 in the opener followed by a P34 in race No. 2. He owns two of the past four Vegas poles and has two straight top fives there, so it feels like he'll bounce back Sunday.
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5. Kyle Larson (-2)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: 5
Comment: Larson and superspeedway-style racing often don't mix, and that was once again the case Sunday after he was snakebitten and crashed out after leading 17 laps. Good luck keeping him down for long, though, as there might not be a better driver at Las Vegas, where No. 5 has a 9.9 average finish overall and two wins and two runner-ups in the past six races.
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4. Denny Hamlin (-2)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 4
Comment: Hamlin led double-digit laps in each of the season's first two races but doesn't yet have a top 10 to show for his efforts. He's been quite good at Vegas lately as well, though, so we could see him break that pattern on Sunday.
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3. Kyle Busch (+3)
Season-high: 3
Season-low: 6
Comment: We were literallyaboutthisclose to seeing Busch win the second race of the season for the second straight season, but alas, he'll have to settle for the points lead. The Las Vegas native hasn't won there in some time (2009), but he's still quite good at his home track, with a 10.6 average finish overall.
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2. Ryan Blaney (+3)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: 5
Comment: Historic photo finish with a ridiculous margin of victory? Of course Blaney was in it; he just didn't happen to win this one. His results at Vegas haven't been as good lately (20.75 average finish last four races), and yet he still has a strong 12.0 average finish overall. It should be another good weekend ahead for the champ.
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1. William Byron (--)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 4
Comment: The Daytona 500 champ couldn't make it two in a row at Atlanta but probably still collected plenty of notes for the postseason opener down the road. He's the defending Vegas winner -- in a race he dominated, with 176 laps led -- so, hey, maybe he makes it two-out-of-three this weekend. That ain't half bad.