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Power Rankings: Blaney rallies at Daytona — is Fontana win next?
By Pat DeCola | Published: February 21, 2023 21
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NASCAR.com's Pat DeCola ranks the 20 hottest Cup Series drivers after the Daytona 500 and before Sunday's race at Auto Club Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
20. Chris Buescher (Not ranked last week)
Season-high: 20
Season-low: Out
Comment: This spot nearly went to his teammate/owner Brad Keselowski -- the RFK Racing duo were the two highest lap leaders, and Buescher nearly pushed his boss to the Daytona 500 win before things went haywire. Buescher is already on sleeper watch, and it wouldn't be the biggest shock to see him pick up his first Fontana top 10 this weekend.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
19. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (Not ranked last week)
Season-high: 19
Season-low: Out
Comment: In some ways, it felt like Stenhouse was due for a 500 win sooner or later, but this one still came as a surprise. The single-car team now has 25 races to focus on building a strong playoff contender, and Stenhouse will look to make it two in a row this weekend at Fontana. He picked up his first of five 2022 top 10s at the track last year.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
18. Aric Almirola (+1)
Season-high: 18
Season-low: 19
Comment: Almirola led several times throughout the 500 but had to settle for a P21 after getting caught up in one of the late wrecks -- a missed opportunity for the strong superspeedway racer. No. 10 has just three top 10s in 14 Fontana starts, but the good news for him -- they're in the last three trips there.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
17. Chase Briscoe (-1)
Season-high: 16
Season-low: 17
Comment: It's a tough feeling to be in the Daytona 500 for 182 laps only to be wrecked out and walk away with two total points, but sometimes that's just how it goes on superspeedways, as it did for Briscoe on Sunday. He did lead five laps, however, and led 20 at Fontana last year in his first Cup start at the track -- a P16.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
16. Austin Dillon (-4)
Season-high: 12
Season-low: 16
Comment: As we have seemingly always seen from the No. 3 car at Daytona, Dillon was in contention for the win late. However, things got squirrely, and he was saddled with a finish outside the top 30. Last year's Fontana runner-up should be strong again this weekend, especially considering new teammate Kyle Busch is one of the best there.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
15. Austin Cindric (+2)
Season-high: 15
Season-low: 17
Comment: No Daytona double-dip for Cindric, but it could be a lot worse than wrecking out and leaving the track with 20 points and a P23 finish. Last year's Fontana pole winner will look to bring one last win to Team Penske on the 2-mile layout of the track his boss built.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
14. Alex Bowman (+1)
Season-high: 14
Season-low: 15
Comment: Bowman may want to reconsider his Daytona front-row dominance because the long string of 500 pole winners not winning the race continued Sunday. That said, he'll be happy with a strong P5-showing as he heads to a track he dominated at in 2020 for a win.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
13. Tyler Reddick (-4)
Season-high: 9
Season-low: 13
Comment: Reddick's regular-season 23XI debut was cut short after he, Erik Jones and Chase Elliott were knocked out of the race shortly after the halfway mark. He was just shy of the top 10 in his first Fontana go-'round in 2020 (P11) but led 90 laps last year despite finishing 24th.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
12. William Byron (-5)
Season-high: 7
Season-low: 12
Comment: Byron has the unfortunate distinction of placing the lowest (P34) among cars that made it to overtime, and he'll look to climb out of a minor hole this weekend. He's yet to land in the top 10 at Fontana but has led in every one of his four starts there and finished exactly 15th in his first three trips.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
11. Daniel Suárez (+3)
Season-high: 11
Season-low: 14
Comment: Suárez not only picked up his best-ever Daytona 500 finish -- it's his first top 10 at Daytona in 12 starts, period. He appears destined for a major breakout this year, and it'll be interesting to see if he can top last year's fourth-place run at Fontana.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
10. Ryan Blaney (+3)
Season-high: 10
Season-low: 13
Comment: One could argue Blaney deserves his own trophy for wheeling his machine -- more repair tape than car by the end -- to a finish in the top 10. Auto Club has the feel of a track he could get dialed in at, and Blaney once rattled off three straight top 10s there from 2017-19.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
9. Kevin Harvick (+2)
Season-high: 9
Season-low: 11
Comment: Well, it looks like Harvick will wrap his career as just a one-time Daytona 500 winner, but overall, it was still a pretty decent points day (30) as the 2014 champ exits Florida in eighth place in the standings. He'd love to get one final win in his home state of California as well, and he's got some history at Fontana with a victory in 2011.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
8. Denny Hamlin (-2)
Season-high: 6
Season-low: 8
Comment: After three in five years, Hamlin hasn't won a Daytona 500 since 2020 -- is he cooked? All kidding aside, Hamlin still led six laps and made it all the way to the end, and he'll be just as much of a contender this weekend as he still looks for his first Fontana win.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
7. Martin Truex Jr. (+1)
Season-high: 7
Season-low: 8
Comment: One of the early developing story lines in 2023 is the 2017 champ certainly looking like the MTJ of old -- and perhaps even a bit more determined and hungrier than we've seen in recent years. His days of domination aren't that distant, and he picked up a win from the pole at Fontana during them (2018).
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
6. Chase Elliott (-2)
Season-high: 4
Season-low: 6
Comment: Not much to say about Elliott's Daytona experience as he was caught up in the first big wreck and landed P38 before we really knew if he had a contending car. As far as Auto Club, he and crew chief Alan Gustafson have a decent handle on the place (12.2 average finish), but they'd love to find that extra gear to make it to Victory Lane (no wins, just one top five in six starts).
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
5. Ross Chastain (--)
Season-high: 5
Season-low: 5
Comment: The Florida native led in the Daytona 500 -- six laps -- for the first time in his career, landing in the top 10 when all was said and done. Despite it being a bigger track, we've seen aggressive driving at Fontana in the past, and it could play into Chastain's favor as he seeks his first top 10 there this weekend.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
4. Christopher Bell (+6)
Season-high: 4
Season-low: 10
Comment: Bell isn't typically among the list of names when discussing superspeedway prowess, but it's hard to argue 20 laps led and a third-place finish in the Daytona 500. He's just really, really talented and continuously improving -- it's probably not long before he's viewed as a threat at every track. He could certainly use a turnaround at Fontana, where his first two starts have yielded finishes of 38th and 36th, respectively.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
3. Kyle Larson (-1)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: 3
Comment: Everything I just said about Bell can be said to the same measure about Larson, his longtime dirt rival. The 2021 champ didn't fare as well on the results sheet (P18) but did lead laps and was hanging around late. The difference between them for this weekend, though? Larson has four Fontana finishes of second or better, two of which are wins.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
2. Kyle Busch (+1)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: 3
Comment: Can you imagine if Busch, after everything that happened with his contract last year, came out and won his first Daytona 500 in his first race with Richard Childress Racing? That would've been a statement, and he nearly did just that. Still, he has an even better shot to do it in race No. 2 this weekend as the leader in wins at the track among active full-time drivers.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
1. Joey Logano (--)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 1
Comment: Logano came *thisclose* to netting back-to-back race wins, one for the 2022 championship and the other for the 2023 Harley J. Earl. Still, a runner-up to start a title defense is just about as good as you can hope for, and with that kind of mojo, it would just make sense to see him seal the deal on his first Fontana win this weekend.