Power Rankings: William Byron back on top after elite month of May
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20. Daniel Suárez (Not ranked after last points race)
Season-high: 9
Season-low: Out
Comment: A season that started so well has gone south for the driver of the No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet. Suárez was quick in last year's Coke 600 but was a non-factor Monday at Charlotte, where he finished 23rd, his third finish outside the top 20 in the last four races. He also finished 23rd in last year's inaugural Cup race at Gateway, though he did earn stage points by finishing seventh in Stage 2.
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19. Chase Briscoe (-2)
Season-high: 14
Season-low: Out
Comment: The topsy-turvey nature of Briscoe's speed continues to perplex. A poor start to the Coca-Cola 600 saw Briscoe mired at the bottom of the leaderboard before recovering to a 20th-place finish. It was a May to forget for Briscoe, who finished 30th, 32nd, 17th and 20th in four Cup races following a three-race streak of top fives. Focus shifts to Gateway, where he won the pole in 2022 and led 27 laps before suffering a flat left-rear tire.
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18. Ty Gibbs (--)
Season-high: 17
Season-low: Out
Comment: The result doesn't match this rookie's performance in his first 600-mile Cup race. A great day turned sour at Lap 375 when the No. 54 Toyota was collected in a pileup, relegating Gibbs to a 26th-place finish, two laps down. Up next is his first trip to Gateway in any series.
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17. Alex Bowman (Not ranked after last points race)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: Out
Comment: Welcome back, indeed. Bowman returned to action for the first time since Talladega after suffering a back injury while racing a sprint car. The result? A 12th-place finish in NASCAR's longest race (and still in the playoff grid, by the way). Bowman was 13th in the No. 48 Chevrolet at Gateway a year ago, so another trip back to the top 10 is very much in play.
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16. Chris Buescher (-1)
Season-high: 13
Season-low: Out
Comment: Solid and steady once again for Buescher, who won Stage 2 on Monday. His eighth-place finish at Charlotte is his fourth top 10 in the past five races. He missed the inaugural trip to WWT Raceway due to an illness last year, but Zane Smith piloted the No. 17 Ford to a 17th-place finish in his Cup debut.
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15. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (+1)
Season-high: 12
Season-low: Out
Comment: Another week, another race where Stenhouse impresses. The Daytona 500 champ came home seventh at Charlotte for his seventh straight top-15 finish, notching an average finish of 13.5 -- on pace to beat his 2022 mark of 22.8 by nearly 10 positions. Momentum builds for the No. 47 team, which finished 32nd in last year's trip to Gateway.
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14. Joey Logano (-1)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 14
Comment: The defending series champion was nowhere to be found through the majority of the Coca-Cola 600. He finished fourth in Stage 2 but was otherwise a nonfactor and finished 21st. The good news: He won at Gateway a year ago by besting Kyle Busch in an overtime restart. The No. 22 team will look to find that traction again Sunday.
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13. Bubba Wallace (+1)
Season-high: 13
Season-low: Out
Comment: Don't look now, but Wallace is very much making his presence known lately. His fourth-place finish at Charlotte marked a career-best third consecutive top-five finish -- a stretch that doesn't even include a runner-up performance in the exhibition All-Star Race. Gateway wasn't as kind to the No. 23 Toyota in 2022 as Wallace finished 26th, but he certainly has a hot hand right now.
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12. Chase Elliott (-3)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: Out
Comment: So, Monday night wasn't ideal. Elliott is out for Sunday's race after officials deemed he intentionally crashed Denny Hamlin out of Monday's Coca-Cola 600. The 2020 champ will miss his seventh race of 2023, putting further emphasis on his need to win in order to make the playoffs once he returns at Sonoma. Perhaps the sharper sting -- Charlotte marked his first DNF and first finish worse than 12th since February's Daytona 500.
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11. Brad Keselowski (--)
Season-high: 9
Season-low: Out
Comment: A 19th-place finish didn't do justice to Keselowski's overall speed at Charlotte, where he posted the third-most fastest laps behind only Tyler Reddick and Ryan Blaney. Despite that, Keselowski has still earned three top 10s in the past five races, continuing an upward trend for RFK Racing. He'll aim to improve from a 20th-place showing in St. Louis a season ago.
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10. Tyler Reddick (+2)
Season-high: 3
Season-low: 15
Comment: That Carolina Blue No. 45 Toyota sure was quick at Charlotte. Reddick averaged a 5.23 average running position in the Coke 600 en route to a fifth-place finish after leading 28 laps, his third top 10 in the past four races. He didn't have an amazing race at Gateway in 2022 with a 16th-place run, but the No. 45 car did finish third with Kurt Busch behind the wheel.
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9. Christopher Bell (-1)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 10
Comment: Monday was a night of what-could-have-beens for the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team. Bell was lightning fast early in the event, but multiple brushes with the wall eventually relegated Bell to a 24th-place finish after leading 48 laps. Bell did finish ninth at WWT Raceway a year ago, so expect him to get back on track this weekend.
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8. Denny Hamlin (-2)
Season-high: 4
Season-low: 12
Comment: The white-hot streak is officially over for Hamlin. Elliott's retaliation handed Hamlin his worst finish of the year and first DNF since the regular-season finale in August 2022 at Daytona. Gateway was a bit of an adventure for him last year (perhaps thanks to a certain watermelon farmer), leading the No. 11 Toyota to a 34th-place finish. Suffice to say he's looking for a quieter trip this year.
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7. Ryan Blaney (+3)
Season-high: 4
Season-low: 13
Comment: What a way to change the narrative, huh? Gone is the 59-race winless streak that hung over the No. 12 Team Penske Ford, and better yet -- he's only one point shy of the series points lead after winning Monday's Coke 600. That also marked his fifth top 10 in the past six races while leading laps in three of the past five. And oh, by the way, he finished fourth at Gateway in 2022 after leading 12 laps. Good things right now for Blaney.
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6. Kyle Busch (+1)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 8
Comment: "Rowdy" did what Rowdy does at Charlotte -- run up front, spin out, drive in reverse for a quarter lap and battle back for a sixth-place finish. It was Busch's third top 10 in the past five races and now he returns to a track at which he finished second a season ago.
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5. Kevin Harvick (-2)
Season-high: 3
Season-low: 11
Comment: Harvick and crew chief Rodney Childers continue to overcome adversity on a weekly basis. After starting second, the No. 4 Ford freefell to 30th in the opening stage then rallied back to the top 10 -- only to be plagued by a frontstretch spin at Lap 357. Somehow, someway, Harvick still finished 11th and led 19 laps. He's hoping for a better go at Gateway this year after a brake failure led to a 33rd-place DNF in 2022.
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4. Kyle Larson (--)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 11
Comment: A great night went south fast for the 2021 series champion after Larson spun at Lap 375, triggering a multicar pile-up that relegated him to a 30th-place DNF. Larson was 12th a season ago in St. Louis, best of a Hendrick bunch that looks quicker this time around.
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3. Martin Truex Jr. (+2)
Season-high: 3
Season-low: 14
Comment: Truex turned in a steady third-place finish in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, quietly in the hunt all night. His 7.29 average running position was fifth-best Monday en route to his third top-three finish in the past six races. The 2017 Cup champ was sixth at Gateway a year ago, so don't be surprised to see the No. 19 Toyota in the mix again this week.
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2. Ross Chastain (-1)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 7
Comment: Chastain was uncharacteristically silent Monday evening, rolling to a 22nd-place finish at Charlotte with an average running position of just 18.61. That's his fourth finish outside the top 20 in the past seven races, and Charlotte marked the first time since Bristol Dirt the No. 1 Chevrolet failed to lead a lap. He walked away from Gateway with an eighth-place finish (and perhaps a few less friends) in 2022, so perhaps it'll be a quick turnaround for the series points leader.
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1. William Byron (+1)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 14
Comment: The hottest hand in NASCAR still belongs to Byron, who led 91 laps Monday en route to a runner-up finish at his home track. The No. 24 Chevrolet has now led laps in each of the past five races, all of which resulted in top-10 finishes and now four straight top fives. A stellar month of May has put the spotlight on Byron and crew chief Rudy Fugle, and they're showing no signs of slowing down any time soon.