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Power Rankings: RFK Racing off to hot start; will it break Chevy’s hold on 2023?
By Pat DeCola | Published: 14 Mar, 2023 21
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NASCAR.com's Pat DeCola ranks the 20 hottest Cup Series drivers after the race at Phoenix Raceway and before Sunday's contest at Atlanta Motor Speedway (3 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
20. Michael McDowell (Not ranked last week)
Season-high: 20
Season-low: Out
Comment: McDowell continues to search for his first 2023 top 10 but inched closer with his best-ever finish at his home track, a P13 at Phoenix. Noted for his superspeedway acumen, the 2021 Daytona 500 champion will look to capitalize on Atlanta's high banks this weekend.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
19. Austin Dillon (-5)
Season-high: 12
Season-low: 19
Comment: Dillon was unable to make it back into the top 10 at Phoenix but had a decent rebound (P16) after a rough showing in Las Vegas (P27). He wrecked out of both Atlanta races last year and finished 35th in both, so the former Daytona 500 winner will be itching to get going this weekend and change his fortunes in Georgia.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
18. Austin Cindric (-2)
Season-high: 15
Season-low: 10
Comment: Apart from his sixth-place Vegas run, Cindric has otherwise been shut out of the top 20 in every race this year -- including The Clash. There's some reason for concern but also reason to think Cindric, who finished third and led seven laps last time we were at Atlanta just months after he won the Daytona 500, will be just fine this weekend.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
17. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (+3)
Season-high: 16
Season-low: Out
Comment: Stenhouse has yet to land back in the top 10 since winning this year's "Great American Race," but all eyes will be on the Daytona 500 winner with the second superspeedway-style race of the season on tap. Like Dillon, he had identical finishes outside the top 30 at Atlanta, so he'll be looking to cash in at a place he can capitalize after a couple of tough breaks last year.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
16. Bubba Wallace (+1)
Season-high: 17
Season-low: Out
Comment: Small sample size, obviously, but in the two races Wallace has finished this year, he's averaged a 9.0 result -- not bad at all, in what hasn't been a banner year for Toyota thus far. Atlanta is certainly one he has circled, as well, despite no top 10s at the track yet. A scan of his results sheet there shows clear improvement over the years.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
15. Chris Buescher (+4)
Season-high: 15
Season-low: Out
Comment: Buescher is thus far turning in career-best -- by quite a bit -- figures in average start and finish, with no true bad races for the No. 17. There's a slew of favorable tracks ahead for RFK Racing, and it's not impossible to think it could be the first non-Chevrolet team to win in 2023.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
14. Brad Keselowski (+4)
Season-high: 14
Season-low: Out
Comment: While the result wasn't exceptional (18th), Keselowski turned in one of his better all-around weekends in RFK equipment at Phoenix; he even earned as many points as the ninth-place car. He was previously lights out at Atlanta but missed the top 10 in both races last year -- don't count on it happening again.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
13. Tyler Reddick (+2)
Season-high: 9
Season-low: 15
Comment: Reddick landed third at Phoenix, scoring a whopping 46 of his 72 total points for the season on Sunday alone. Three of his last four Atlanta races resulted in finishes of 26th or worse -- however! -- he was sixth there in summer 2021 and led five-plus laps in each of last year's races.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
12. Martin Truex Jr. (-3)
Season-high: 7
Season-low: 12
Comment: Truex is still picking up a good amount of points and hasn't been bad at all, but he hasn't led any significant laps since Daytona. That should change this weekend at Atlanta, a track he's excelled at over his career with a style of racing he's become quite underrated at in recent years.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
11. Denny Hamlin (-4)
Season-high: 6
Season-low: 11
Comment: Hamlin had one of the more lucrative (26 points) 23rd-place finishes you're likely to see this season, only having a bad result after a run-in with old friend Ross Chastain in the closing moments of the race. The superspeedway ace will be a factor in Sunday's race, though it's worth noting he was held out of the top 20 in both races last year.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
10. Daniel Suárez (--)
Season-high: 10
Season-low: 14
Comment: Suarez's top-10 streak to open 2023 was finally snapped, but he still owns the fourth-best average finish (10.8) in the series, even outpacing teammate Ross Chastain (12.0) and his hot start. He's not typically known as one of the bigger threats on superspeedways, but he could turn some heads this weekend -- he averaged a 5.0 finish at Atlanta last year.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
9. Ryan Blaney (+4)
Season-high: 9
Season-low: 13
Comment: That's now back-to-back runner-ups at Phoenix for Blaney -- something to file away for later on should he make the Championship 4. He could wind up being the favorite to win Sunday, too, with a win and four top fives in the past five Atlanta races.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
8. Christopher Bell (-3)
Season-high: 4
Season-low: 10
Comment: We might not quite be there yet, but we're quickly approaching the "Christopher Bell, flagship JGR driver" era. He looked like the car to beat at Fontana -- where he had the pole -- before crashing and finishing 32nd. Otherwise, he hasn't finished worse than sixth this year. He led 16 laps in this Atlanta race last year before sinking to 23rd.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
7. Alex Bowman (+1)
Season-high: 7
Season-low: 15
Comment: The points leader? You're looking at him. Bowman finally had a good race at his home track, with his P9 good enough to have him atop the standings by Sunday night. He turned in a pair of top fours at Atlanta in 2021 and notched a top 10 in this race last year, too.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
6. Kevin Harvick (--)
Season-high: 6
Season-low: 11
Comment: Ah, so close. The 2014 champ nearly did it Sunday, but If Harvick is going to get his 10th and final Phoenix win, he'll now have to do it at season's end and potentially for the title. No pressure. As far as his first win of 2023? He's still looking for that but now heads to one of his other best tracks at Atlanta.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
5. Joey Logano (-2)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 5
Comment: Logano didn't quite look like himself in the early going at Phoenix -- a track he dominated at a few months ago en route to the title -- but rebounded nicely to nearly squeeze out his third top 10 of 2023. His Atlanta races with Team Penske have gone much better than with Joe Gibbs Racing, but he's still yet to win there. Doesn't mean he can't, though.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
4. Ross Chastain (-3)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 5
Comment: Chastain picked up stage points in both races and might've gotten his third top 10 of the season if Denny Hamlin hadn't squeezed him into the wall on the final restart. The runner-up in both Atlanta races last year should make some noise this weekend.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
3. Kyle Larson (+1)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: 5
Comment: For the second straight race, Larson led a bunch of laps -- 201 this time -- and did not win. The 2021 champ was runner-up in this upcoming Atlanta race that year ... another one that he spent plenty of time out front in (269 laps led).
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
2. Kyle Busch (--)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: 3
Comment: Though there are four drivers with more top 10s than him, Busch owns the third-best average finish in the series and the best among the season's three winners so far. Atlanta didn't go so well for him last year (33rd, 20th), but he had five straight top sevens, including two runner-ups in the five races before 2022.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
1. William Byron (+10)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 14
Comment: Two wins in the first four races? Surely a job for the No. 24 car. Byron has now done something that *almost* didn't happen last year -- winning back-to-back races (Harvick managed it late in the 2022 regular season). And guess what? Naturally, he's the defending winner of this Atlanta race, too.