Power Rankings: Will Elliott or Larson topple Reddick for Regular Season Championship?
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NASCAR.com's Pat DeCola ranks the top 20 Cup Series drivers after Harrison Burton's win at Daytona International Speedway and before Sunday's Cook Out Southern 500 regular-season finale at Darlington Raceway (6 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
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20. Harrison Burton (Not ranked last week)
Season-high: 20
Season-low: Out
Comment: We noted Burton as a "never say never" type a few weeks back in terms of making this year's playoffs, and he showed Saturday night the beauty of why drivers are never fully out of it until the playoff field is official. He could actually keep it rolling a bit this weekend at Darlington, where one of his other best career finishes (6th) came in last year's spring race.
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19. Austin Cindric (--)
Season-high: 16
Season-low: Out
Comment: Cindric wound up 18th on the scoresheet but the talented superspeedway driver made up for it by scoring a decent 26 points -- the second most he's put on the board since his June 2 win at Gateway. He's been able to hang around for full races at Darlington for the most part in his five starts there, but thus far has yet to finish inside the top 15.
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18. Chase Briscoe (--)
Season-high: 11
Season-low: Out
Comment: Briscoe has just been so consistently slightly above average this year, it's almost a testament to his talent to still be that close to the playoffs driving for an organization on its way out. It does indeed look like Darlington will be the end of the road for Stewart-Haas Racing's championship aspirations, though Briscoe did turn in one of his two top fives of the season there earlier this year, so an upset is possible.
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17. Daniel Suárez (-3)
Season-high: 12
Season-low: Out
Comment: Normally it's a good thing for a driver to be on fire heading into the playoffs ... but not like that, Daniel. No. 99 is certainly thankful to escape his Daytona fiasco, and also that he's already locked in and doesn't need to sweat Darlington -- Suárez has led exactly one lap there in 13 starts with just one top 10 (10th).
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16. Kyle Busch (+1)
Season-high: 3
Season-low: 20
Comment: Once again, Busch saw his chance at a 2024 playoff spot slip just out of his grasp at the checkered flag of a superspeedway-style race, this time at Daytona. It's still hard to believe he's in the position he's in because of how close he was to being a two-time 2024 winner, but the facts are the facts: He needs to win Sunday at Darlington if he's going to compete for this year's title. He's a past winner at the South Carolina track, but it was all the way back in 2008 and he has just one top 10 there in the last six races. It's more likely than not his chase for title No. 3 will have to wait until 2025.
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15. Joey Logano (+1)
Season-high: 5
Season-low: 20
Comment: Logano was once again strong at Daytona, leading a bunch of laps before getting caught up in a late wreck and getting derailed to finish 31st, despite scoring 25 points. He's a recent winner at Darlington (spring 2022) and would love to use a Southern 500 win to build some steam heading into the playoffs.
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14. Ross Chastain (+1)
Season-high: 5
Season-low: 15
Comment: Chastain certainly hasn't been "bad" this year, but as it stands, he has a bit of a mountain to climb with only one race to do it if he wants to make this year's playoffs after one top 10 in the last seven races have him 27 points below the bubble. The thing about Chastain, though -- it seriously feel like he could pull this off, and we've seen what he's capable of under pressure before.
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13. Alex Bowman (-3)
Season-high: 8
Season-low: 18
Comment: Apart from following it up with a P3 the next week at Pocono, Bowman has been quite underperforming since his Chicago win, averaging just 13 points a race over the last four outings. The former spring Darlington runner-up has had some rough races there recently but could theoretically get it going on Sunday.
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12. Bubba Wallace (--)
Season-high: 10
Season-low: 19
Comment: Wallace has had an incredibly strong summer, netted 32 points at Daytona and ... still walked out of the 2.5-mile superspeedway on the outside looking in. Four straight Darlington top 10s, however, give him and the No. 23 team some hope yet. A win might be necessary to scoot on through to the playoffs, and Wallace absolutely could make it happen.
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11. Chris Buescher (+2)
Season-high: 9
Season-low: 16
Comment: Buescher has gotten quite close to a few wins this year and has hardly had anything resembling a bad race, yet could find himself on the wrong side of the bubble and his title hopes dried up a week from now. After what happened at Darlington earlier this year, he's certainly been itching to get back there for another crack at the win, but above all else he mostly just needs a clean race to ensure he doesn't miss the postseason.
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10. Martin Truex Jr. (-1)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 10
Comment: Truex is just about a lock to advance to the postseason, but, man, he's riding what can only be defined as the opposite of momentum after six finishes of 24th or worse over the last seven races. That said, even though his recent finishes at Darlington haven't been great, he seems to always be a contender at the "Lady in Black" and winning his last planned Southern 500 to clinch a playoff spot could have a way of reinvigorating a No. 19 team that lost its footing over the second half of the regular season.
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9. Ty Gibbs (+2)
Season-high: 4
Season-low: 15
Comment: Gibbs also appears relatively safe to advance, and a strong top-five run at Daytona was much needed to solidify his position. He'll need some sort of catastrophe to not make it, and, as the spring runner-up with 34 laps led, it's more likely than not that he's making his first Cup Series Playoffs appearance next weekend.
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8. Brad Keselowski (--)
Season-high: 5
Season-low: 18
Comment: Keselowski has now netted consecutive top 10s for the first time since a stellar Darlington/Charlotte/Gateway string of first, second and third finishes, respectively. Obviously, as the spring winner at the S.C. track he should be among the favorites this weekend and it's possible he could be in the conversation for championship favorite sooner than later if he keeps this pace.
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7. Denny Hamlin (-4)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 9
Comment: A heartbreaker of a point penalty combined with a tough-to-swallow P38 at Daytona have taken the wind out of the sails of Hamlin and the No. 11 team, but it is a resilient group. Though the Regular Season Championship is no longer in play, there are few out there better than Hamlin at one of NASCAR's most difficult tracks and he could make a big statement this weekend with a win.
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6. William Byron (--)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 8
Comment: Byron led a lap in consecutive races for just the first time since the last Darlington race and Charlotte, but ultimately was caught up in a late wreck and had his race spoiled for just 15 points. He could return to Victory Lane this weekend, though, as No. 24 has led multiple laps at Darlington in four of the past five races there, along with winning last year's spring race.
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5. Ryan Blaney (--)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: 12
Comment: After winning Pocono, the defending champ has just one top 10 in the following four races, with each finishing spot worse than the last. He'll need to buck his Darlington history if he wants to stop that trend, as the 18.5 average finish he's compiled there doesn't inspire much confidence for No. 12 to have a strong regular-season sendoff. That said, he does have a pair of top 10s there in the last three races.
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4. Christopher Bell (+3)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: 15
Comment: Though he didn't lead any laps, Bell's P3 at Daytona was a nice rebound from a two-point Michigan showing after he wrecked out before halfway in that one. Bell has found the front somewhat consistently at Darlington with laps led in four of his 10 starts, but it surprisingly has only yielded a pair of top 10s for him there so far.
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3. Chase Elliott (+1)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: 17
Comment: OK, here we are -- one race to decide the Regular Season Championship, down to three drivers separated by just 18 points with Elliott bringing up the rear. It's entirely possible -- sort of like the actual championship -- the winner will need to actually win this race, so it feels worth it to note that Elliott hasn't led at single lap at Darlington since 2020 and has only done so in three of his 15 starts there.
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2. Kyle Larson (--)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 5
Comment: Larson scored more points at Daytona than his finishing position of 21st would indicate so it wasn't a completely lost day for him, but still -- two finishes outside the top 20 the past two weeks have him now 17 points shy of Tyler Reddick for the top spot heading into the finale. It honestly feels likely we see this pair literally battling for both the race win and regular-season crown on Sunday, and last year's Southern 500 winner could have the edge.
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1. Tyler Reddick (--)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 14
Comment: Reddick crashed out at Daytona and has half the wins that Larson does, but the No. 45 driver enters Sunday as the driver atop the mountain everyone was hoping to climb when we started the season back in February. His first Darlington win feels like an eventuality, and an imminent one at that, and he led a whopping 174 laps there in the spring. Elliott and Larson will have to pry the trophy from his tightened grip.