Power Rankings: Kansas shaping up to be turning point for rising 23XI Racing
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NASCAR.com's Pat DeCola ranks the 20 hottest Cup Series drivers after the race at Dover Motor Speedway and before Sunday's race at Kansas Speedway (3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio).
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
20. Corey LaJoie (Not ranked last week )
Season-high: 18
Season-low: Out
Comment: If you're not seeing the progression here, you're not paying attention. Dover is one of the most difficult tracks the sport races at — and one at which LaJoie had just one previous finish at better than 23rd — and he went out and turned in one of his better all-time performances. He landed his best Kansas showing in this race last year in 12 career starts, too.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
19. Bubba Wallace (+1)
Season-high: 16
Season-low: Out
Comment: Wallace narrowly missed out on his third top 10 of the season with Dover's 12th-place run, but it was a step in the right direction. With a pair of top 10s at Kansas last year — including a win there last fall — this weekend could be the turning point for Wallace and 23XI as a whole.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
18. Daniel Suárez (--)
Season-high: 10
Season-low: 19
Comment: A week after finally landing back in the top 10 for the first time since Vegas, Suarez was once again back in the doldrums after a crash at Dover saddled him in 35th. Unfortunately for him, Kansas isn't the best place for a cold-streak snapper, with just two top 10s in 12 starts career starts there (albeit with one of them coming last fall).
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
17. Ty Gibbs (Not ranked last week)
Season-high: 14
Season-low: Out
Comment: Gibbs continues to impress, and as we approach the 1/3 marker of the season, it feels noteworthy that he's currently averaging a better finish (17.3) than the defending champion (17.7). A crash landed him 34th in last fall's first try at Kansas. Expect a much better result Sunday.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
16. Chase Briscoe (-2)
Season-high: 14
Season-low: Out
Comment: Dover was a difficult race for SHR as a whole, and Briscoe fared the worst of the four of them (P30). He's been about pedestrian at Kansas in his four starts there so far, still in search of his first top 10 and averaging a 19.0 finish.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
15. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (+2)
Season-high: 12
Season-low: Out
Comment: Stenhouse has essentially been a top-15 car all season, and he'd be a strong contender for a playoff spot if he hadn't already provisionally clinched one by winning the Daytona 500. One of his biggest tests of the season comes this weekend at Kansas, where he has just one top 10 in 20 starts. As these things seemingly always go, that lone top 10, naturally, came in this race last year.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
14. Chase Elliott (+1)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: Out
Comment: Elliott didn't quite get the Dover win we thought he would, but for the third race in a row since he's been back from injury, the 2020 champ looked solid. The former Kansas winner is just as solid in the heartlands, however, and Elliott will be among the favorites once again this weekend.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
13. Chris Buescher (+3)
Season-high: 13
Season-low: Out
Comment: That's now back-to-back top 10s for Buescher for the first time since last summer as RFK continues to rise. Kansas has been an interesting track for him, landing a P6 there all the way back in 2017 driving for JTG Daugherty, but just three total across 14 starts.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
12. Joey Logano (-5)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 12
Comment: In absolutely no way is he out of it, but Logano's title defense so far has not been seamless — his 17.7 average finish is on pace to be the worst since his age-21 season in 2011. All three of his Kansas wins have come in the fall, and overall the midwestern track is not his strongest (17.1 average finish).
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
11. Brad Keselowski (+2)
Season-high: 9
Season-low: Out
Comment: At no point during RFK's 2022 struggles did Keselowski lash out, point fingers or, honestly, even seem stressed at all — and his patience is beginning to pay off. The 2012 champ is averaging a finish 4.2 spots better than last year's 19.2 result, and it's hard to see how the two-time Kansas winner doesn't improve on last year's finishes (14th, 25th).
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
10. Tyler Reddick (-4)
Season-high: 3
Season-low: 15
Comment: Reddick looked a lot more like himself at Dover, landing in the top seven with several other Toyotas. I have a really good feeling about him — and 23XI as a whole — at Kansas, and given he'll be in the car that won this race a year ago and has been fast there in general lately, he's my pick to win Sunday.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
9. Denny Hamlin (+2)
Season-high: 6
Season-low: 12
Comment: Two solid stage results and a strong overall finish helped Hamlin enjoy his best points day of the season as he's trending up. He's been one of the best at Kansas of late, compiling two wins and another three top-fives in the last seven races alone.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
8. William Byron (+4)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 14
Comment: Byron certainly looked like the man to beat on Sunday, and though he was, it was an encouraging step in the right direction after several up and down weeks. Kansas has been one of the tracks he's taken too quickly, and he's been one of the best drivers there for the past three-plus years.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
7. Kevin Harvick (--)
Season-high: 5
Season-low: 11
Comment: After looking fully rejuvenated earlier in the season, Harvick has now struggled to stay inside the top 20 for three races in a row. He's a three-time Kansas winner and had four straight top-fours there before last year's two non-top-10s, though, so a turnaround could happen Sunday.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
6. Kyle Larson (-3)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 11
Comment: Ask yourself this — will Larson finish the season with his current average finish (18.2) or worse? No. Of course not. Better days are ahead — especially once luck decides to take a turn in his favor — and the 2021 fall Kansas winner will most definitely be fast again this weekend.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
5. Ryan Blaney (+3)
Season-high: 4
Season-low: 13
Comment: Blaney put a 50-spot on the board to help keep him afloat in the points race in one of his more promising weekends of the season. He led in both Kansas races last year — for a total of three laps — and he's had some solid runs there over the years but is still looking for his first win.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
4. Martin Truex Jr. (+5)
Season-high: 4
Season-low: 14
Comment: Even though, at times, he'd previously gone years without winning, seeing Truex go winless last year felt ... odd. With that monkey off his back — and still in top-tier equipment — it'll be interesting to see where he takes things from here and if he winds up making, perhaps, one more Championship 4 run. He's been elite at Kansas since being aligned with Gibbs in some fashion, and two in a row is very much possible.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
3. Christopher Bell (-1)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 10
Comment: Bell relinquished the points lead but still had a strong weekend at Dover, turning in his fourth top 10 in the last five weeks. He's been solidly trending toward a Kansas win the past few years, and after dual top fives there last year, it would not be surprising at all to see it happen this weekend.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
2. Kyle Busch (-1)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 8
Comment: Busch led 25 laps at Dover but ultimately fell to an empty 21st-place finish, stifled without any stage points. He's been exceptional at Kansas of late — and won this race two years ago — after the track was a quagmire for him for years.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
1. Ross Chastain (+3)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 7
Comment: No. 1 is in the No. 1 car, No. 1 in the standings and, seemingly, the No. 1 story line every week. No matter how you feel about him, Chastain continues to make his presence known and is determined to find the front of the field — which he's paid to do and which he does. He turned in a pair of seventh-place Kansas runs last year, and there's no reason to think he won't be up there again on Sunday.