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Power Rankings: Denny Hamlin turns corner at Kansas, set to take off soon?
By Pat DeCola | Published: May 17, 2022 21
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NASCAR.com's Pat DeCola ranks the top 20 NASCAR Cup Series drivers after the race at Kansas Speedway and before Sunday's All-Star Race at Texas Motor Speedway (8 p.m. ET, FS1).
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
20. Daniel Suárez (-4)
Season-high: 13
Season-low: Out
Comment: Another week with a fast car, another disappointing result for Suárez, who continues to be among the unluckiest drivers this year. Even still, he's putting together his best average finish (18.5) since 2019 and could be one of the biggest threats to race his way into the main event on Sunday.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
19. Erik Jones (-2)
Season-high: 14
Season-low: Out
Comment: After back-to-back top 10s at Talladega (where he led more laps than the rest of the season combined) and Dover, Jones has now finished 25th or worse the last two weeks. Another driver looking to race his way into the show on Sunday, Jones should be able to make some noise at Texas.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
18. Tyler Reddick (-4)
Season-high: 7
Season-low: 18
Comment: For a driver everyone pegged as a slam dunk to win his first race and even potentially make a dark horse championship run ... Reddick is on pace for a career-worst average finish (18.1) and is slated to finish with fewer top 10s than he had in 2021. Most still expect him to win a race this year, myself included, but there's a big problem if it comes Sunday and not in the following few months -- an All-Star Race win doesn't secure a playoff spot.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
17. Kurt Busch (Not ranked last week)
Season-high: 12
Season-low: Out
Comment: From the drop of the green flag, the 2004 champ is rarely out of any race he's in ... but this win came out of left field -- he had just one top 10 in the previous seven races, averaging a finish of 25.7 over that span. Texas marks a great spot for him to keep the momentum rolling, with eight straight top 10s there before last fall's P16.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
16. Chase Briscoe (-1)
Season-high: 10
Season-low: 16
Comment: We continue to see comers and goers this year and after a hot start, Briscoe could definitely be considered a goer at the moment, with no top 10s since Martinsville. He finished a nondescript 15th at Texas last year and, while it certainly could happen, an All-Star win would be about as surprising as Busch's Kansas win. Then again, so was his Phoenix win.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
15. Austin Cindric (+3)
Season-high: 10
Season-low: 19
Comment: Cindric still hasn't finished in the top 10 since COTA, but did pick up his second 11th-place run since then on Sunday at Kansas ... so he's close. He was exceptional at Texas in the Xfinity Series -- one win, 4.9 average finish in eight starts -- and could be one to watch on Sunday night.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
14. Aric Almirola (-2)
Season-high: 11
Season-low: Out
Comment: Almirola continues to be shut out of the top 10 -- five races in a row now -- but is still averaging a playoff-worthy 14.7 finish. As winners keep adding up, he'd better find his way to Victory Lane, however, because points-ing his way into the playoffs may not be an option.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
13. Denny Hamlin (+7)
Season-high: 5
Season-low: 20
Comment: Hamlin has finished outside the top 20 in seven races this year -- calling it now that the rest of the way he won't do so more than seven times, with about two-thirds of the season left. Hamlin and the Toyotas as a whole appeared to turn a corner this weekend and had a field day at Kansas, and that might just be exactly what the 47-time winner needed to spark his season. Being the winning car owner of the race probably didn't hurt matters, either.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
12. Austin Dillon (+1)
Season-high: 10
Season-low: 20
Comment: Removing a forgivable crash on Bristol dirt last month, Dillon is averaging a 10.0 finish in the other seven races dating back to COTA -- pretty strong stuff for a driver with a 17.7 average finish over 313 career races. He has just two top 10s in 17 Texas starts -- but one of them was a win, in 2020 -- so he might be worth keeping an eye on this Sunday.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
11. Kevin Harvick (--)
Season-high: 5
Season-low: 12
Comment: SHR isn't lighting it up across the board of late so it's tough to pin anything on Harvick specifically, but he's led in only three races this year -- twice only for a lap each -- for a total of 13 circuits out front. For a driver who led 1,531 paces on the way to nine wins just two seasons ago, this is very un-Harvick-like and certainly concerning. Perhaps a trip to Texas (three wins) gives him a jump-start.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
10. Christopher Bell (--)
Season-high: 10
Season-low: Out
Comment: Bell has started ninth or better in seven of the last eight races, leading laps in four of them. At some point, the combination of fast cars -- he has three poles -- and consistently good starting spots will result in his first win of 2022, and he could certainly be in the mix for the All-Star win as well. He placed third in each of his last two Texas trips.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
9. Martin Truex Jr. (--)
Season-high: 4
Season-low: 9
Comment: Truex definitely has some misses this year and has only led sporadically at times compared to his dominant self of the past half-decade. There are some signs of stability starting to emerge, however, and he's positioned as a big-time player the rest of the season. He's long knocked on the door of a win at Texas and could be among the front-runners on Sunday.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
8. Ryan Blaney (-3)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 10
Comment: After a disappointing day at Kansas, Blaney has now finished outside the top 10 three races in a row for the first time since the Dover to Charlotte stretch -- last spring. He'll look to get back on the horse and pick up a cowboy hat at a track he's only finished worse than eighth at once in seven starts for Team Penske.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
7. Alex Bowman (--)
Season-high: 5
Season-low: 13
Comment: After his eighth top 10 of the season came Sunday at Kansas, Bowman is now halfway to his 2021 total -- as we hit the halfway mark of just the regular season. His methodical overall improvement continues, and he'll hope that trend makes its way to Texas, where he has just two top 10s (both were top fives, however).
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
6. William Byron (-2)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 16
Comment: Byron has certainly looked strong lately, with 24 or more laps led in five of the last seven races ... and no top 10s to show for it since his Martinsville win more than a month ago. He led 55 laps on the way to a runner-up at Texas last fall and seems likely to pace the field again at some point on Sunday.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
5. Joey Logano (-2)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: 9
Comment: Logano's time in the current limelight was a short-lived one, with Sunday making it three finishes of 17th or worse (32nd and 29th being the other two) in the last four races, only interrupted by his Darlington win. Though an engine issue saddled him with a P30 last fall, Logano has been nothing short of excellent at Texas in his Team Penske years and has a knack for big, All-Star-Race-type moments.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
4. Kyle Larson (+4)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 6
Comment: It's clear there will likely be no 10-race winners like we saw last year, but we're all feeling a Larson tear incoming, right? Apart from an engine issue that left him in 36th at Darlington -- a race where he was a favorite -- he has five top-six finishes in the other six races dating back to Richmond, leading 19 or more laps in the last five. Last year's All-Star winner could easily make it back-to-back this weekend.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
3. Kyle Busch (+3)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: 11
Comment: "Rowdy" has started to really pick up the pace and could be headed toward the No. 1 spot here in the near future. He's often lights-out at Texas and rarely not among the leaders, finding his way to the front in seven of the past eight races there.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
2. Ross Chastain (--)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: Out
Comment: After his Kansas top 10, Chastain has now matched his total of top 10s from 2021 -- and has already almost doubled his previous career total this year alone. He finished 18th in his first Texas start in 2018, but hasn't finished better than 28th since. Hard to believe he doesn't have a chance to top those on Sunday, though, albeit in an exhibition race.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
1. Chase Elliott (--)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 4
Comment: Thanks to his knack for collecting as many points as possible, Elliott is looking like he'll be hard to budge from this top spot -- he even managed to cobble together 22 points in this past Sunday's 29th-place effort. His career at Texas kicked off super well, with six straight top-11s but he has just one such finish in the last five outings there.