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Power Rankings: Alex Bowman bookending season with speed
By Pat DeCola | Wednesday, September 30, 2020
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NASCAR.com's Pat DeCola ranks the 12 remaining drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs after the race at Las Vegas Motor speedway and before the race at Talladega Superspeedway.
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12. Austin Dillon (-2)
Comment: The shine is starting to wear off of Dillon's playoff run (though more due to circumstance than his own performance), and that could continue this weekend at Talladega. He has been victim to circumstance more times than he'd like there, as well, having crashed out of five of his 14 starts (including this year's spring race) to the tune of just three top 10s.
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11. Aric Almirola (-3)
Comment: We know Almirola can get it done at Talladega (won fall 2018), but little do we talk about just how consistently great he has been there the past few years. The Bacon Man was fourth last fall as well, part of his streak of eight straight races with a top-nine finish at one of NASCAR's most unpredictable tracks.
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10. Clint Bowyer (-1)
Comment: Bowyer probably wasn't too happy to see his former teammate win at Vegas, as it makes it that much harder for him to clinch a spot in the Round of 8 on points. Luckily for him, though the Talladega finishes haven't been there much over the past five years (save for a runner-up in fall 2018), Bowyer had a nice stretch of excellence there in the early part of the decade. A win is not impossible.
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9. Kyle Busch (-2)
Comment: Busch had a nice rebound to finish sixth Sunday but was leapfrogged by his brother and now sits on the wrong side of the bubble heading into one of his worst tracks. The defending series champ does have one victory there but has amassed an average finish of 20.7 over 30 starts with no top fives since 2017.
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8. Chase Elliott (-2)
Comment: Elliott is in need of a bounce-back weekend after a frustrating night at Vegas, and the fact he's the only non-Ford driver to break up the blue oval party at the Alabama track since Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s win in 2015 probably helps ease the sting a little bit.
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7. Joey Logano (-2)
Comment: Logano led 33 laps at Talladega in the spring, and with three wins under his belt, he stands as one of the drivers to beat this weekend. It'll be interesting to see how many friends he has to work with in the draft. Logano has led multiple laps in nine of the last 10 Talladega races.
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6. Alex Bowman (+5)
Comment: After showing plenty of early-season speed, it appears Bowman is a legitimate threat to win again and why not this weekend? He was seventh in the spring and all three of his top 10s at Talladega have come in the last five races.
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5. Brad Keselowski (-1)
Comment: Keselowski's Richmond win already feels like ages ago, and it's a bit concerning he has strung together a streak of three finishes outside the top 10 in the last four races. Perhaps Talladega (series-best five wins) is the remedy he needs.
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4. Kurt Busch ( +8)
Comment: You might think Busch's mojo is set to run out at Talladega, where he has yet to win in his career. He's the only driver not feeling any pressure coming into the weekend, however, and his 21 top-10 finishes there are five more than anybody else in the series.
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3. Martin Truex Jr. (--)
Comment: Truex did what he has needed to do over the past few months, and that's bank as many top fives before this weekend as possible ... because it's unlikely he'll get one Sunday. He'll have a shot at a Roval win the next week, but with an 0-for-31 record and just two top fives at 'Dega, he could be in for a rough weekend.
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2. Denny Hamlin (--)
Comment: Arguably the best superspeedway driver going these days, Hamlin has proven to be a constant presence in the top five at the end of these races assuming he has made it through cleanly to that point. He certainly does not need to win Sunday, but he'll likely be in the mix.
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1. Kevin Harvick (--)
Comment: Harvick has the least amount of pressure on him except for Kurt Busch this weekend, and he'll likely just be looking to keep it clean and hang around until the end Sunday. He has no wins at Talladega since 2010 and a respectable 15.9 average finish.
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