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Power Rankings: 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season look ahead
By Pat DeCola | Tuesday, November 9, 2021
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NASCAR.com's Pat DeCola ranks the top 25 NASCAR Cup Series drivers as we head into the sport's offseason.
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25. Cole Custer
2021 season-high: 12
2021 season-low: Out
Comment: Custer, still just 23 and in Stewart-Haas Racing equipment, still has a high ceiling. He — along with the whole organization — took a major step back in 2021, though, making the playoffs a year prior and finishing 26th in this year's standings.
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24. Daniel Suarez
2021 season-high: 19
2021 season-low: Out
Comment: After an extremely frustrating 2020 season, this one was a step in the right direction for the fifth-year driver. Suarez picked up four top 10s after being shut out in 2020 and with the gains Trackhouse is set to make in 2022, he could be a dark horse.
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23. Harrison Burton
2021 season-high: N/A (Full-time Xfinity)
2021 season-low: N/A
Comment: Burton took a slight step back from his four-win 2020 campaign, but he's still moving on to a rock-solid opportunity in Cup with the Wood Brothers. With a core at Team Penske/WBR that is all of a sudden very young and very talented, it's the perfect situation for the son of a NASCAR superstar to develop in.
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22. Erik Jones
2021 season-high: 22nd (pre-season ranking; never made top 20 in-season)
2021 season-low: Out
Comment: While it was a quiet year for Jones, his first year at Richard Petty Motorsports saw a better average finish (19.7) than any of Bubba Wallace's full-time seasons in the car, and he's still just 25. What am I saying? We're not done hearing from Erik Jones.
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21. Bubba Wallace
2021 season-high: 14
2021 season-low: Out
Comment: Wallace scored his first career Cup Series win, but on the whole his numbers with 23XI Racing compared to RPM didn't take the leap many expected them to take. In fact, he had two fewer top 10s than a year ago. Year Two should be better for the now two-car organization.
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20. Ross Chastain
2021 season-high: 16
2021 season-low: Out
Comment: As he's done throughout his career, Chastain turned a lot of heads in 2021 and outperformed his previous Cup seasons significantly. He'll head to Trackhouse in 2022 and he'll likely have his fair share of competitive races.
Bob Leverone | Getty Images
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19. Chase Briscoe
2021 season-high: 17
2021 season-low: Out
Comment: Coming off a nine-win Xfinity Series season in 2020, expectations were somewhat high for Briscoe for this year. He only finished with three top 10s, however, as SHR couldn't get it going as a team. Expect better results in 2022, as he appeared to be catching on later in the season.
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18. Chris Buescher
2021 season-high: 13
2021 season-low: 20
Comment: Buescher continues to incrementally get better each year, and there were times in 2021 where he looked like a potential playoff driver. With Brad Keselowski coming in as an owner, Buescher makes for an interesting wild card case next year.
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17. Aric Almirola
2021 season-high: 11
2021 season-low: Out
Comment: This season was statistically Almirola's worst full campaign since his 2016 RPM days, and five top 10s in SHR equipment in your 10th year in the Cup Series isn't going to get it done. Still, he showed he can win under the right circumstances, and he could be a sleeper next year if the team gets things back on track.
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16. Austin Dillon
2021 season-high: 11
2021 season-low: 17
Comment: While unable to win for just the second time in the last five years, Dillon was more consistent this year with a career-best 14.4 average finish. RCR had a significant hand in the testing and development of the Next Gen car and I could see a path to him becoming a top-10 driver next year.
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15. Austin Cindric
2021 season-high: N/A (Full-time Xfinity)
2021 season-low: N/A
Comment: Though he came up just short, literally, of his second straight Xfinity crown, he was nothing short of spectacular in what was a better season overall than his title campaign. He also got seven Cup starts under his belt this year, so expect him to come out firing in a perennial championship-contending car.
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14. Brad Keselowski
2021 season-high: 2
2021 season-low: 15
Comment: Easily the toughest driver to rank on this list, Keselowski obviously is in the upper echelon of driver talent and has been for a decade. There are just so many unknowns about how 2022 will shake out for him. It's not far-fetched to think he could bring Roush back to championship prominence, but we just aren't sure if that is seen as soon as next year or if it'll take time.
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13. Christopher Bell
2021 season-high: 8
2021 season-low: 16
Comment: At first blush it looked like Bell was set for a breakout year after he won the second race of the season, but the team struggled to find any consistency throughout. Still, the future is bright here and there's no reason to think he won't take things up a notch or two in 2022.
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12. Kurt Busch
2021 season-high: 6
2021 season-low: 19
Comment: Despite his team shutting its doors at the end of the season, Busch had a formidable 2021 year and kept his win streak alive (now eight straight). He moves to a second 23XI car, and drivers should be worried that a second Busch now essentially has access to JGR equipment and data.
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11. Tyler Reddick
2021 season-high: 10
2021 season-low: Out
Comment: This was a successful season for Reddick, who nearly doubled his top 10s from a year prior and made the playoffs for the first time. He's the driver I'm most confident will find his way into the top 10 in short order.
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10. Alex Bowman
2021 season-high: 5
2021 season-low: 17
Comment: If a couple things had gone slightly differently, Bowman's Martinsville win would have vaulted him into the Championship 4, and Sunday could have looked a lot differently. Alas, it was not meant to be, but 2021 still saw Bowman net a career-high four victories and it'll be interesting to see if he can match or top that next year.
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9. William Byron
2021 season-high: 3
2021 season-low: 18
Comment: After a dip in average finish from 2019 to 2020, Byron turned in a career year in 2021 with a whopping 20 top 10s, 11 of which came in one streak. He's a potential champion in 2022, which will somehow already be his fifth season in Cup.
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8. Kyle Busch
2021 season-high: 2
2021 season-low: 14
Comment: At no point in 2021 was Kyle Busch happy with his car, but at no point – until he was eliminated — did we think he wasn't still a title contender. The team has some issues to sort out over the offseason, but he should be back among the elite next year.
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7. Joey Logano
2021 season-high: 2
2021 season-low: 11
Comment: It's tough to say why, but Logano took a slight dip statistically in 2021 despite still making the Round of 8. No real concerns there, as he's about to enter his age 32 seasons and it's still possible that — somehow — the 13-year veteran has his best days ahead of him.
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6. Ryan Blaney
2021 season-high: 2
2021 season-low: 15
Comment: Easily his best season yet, Blaney might really just be getting started. He'll be in a lot of preseason Championship 4 picks, that's for sure.
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5. Kevin Harvick
2021 season-high: 1
2021 season-low: 12
Comment: Winless seasons and Kevin Harvick are typically diametrically opposed opposites, but it somehow happened this year after the No. 4 driver knocked off nine victories a season prior. The odds of Harvick going winless two seasons in a row? Next to impossible.
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4. Martin Truex Jr.
2021 season-high: 2
2021 season-low: 9
Comment: Truex had a worse average finish and fewer top 10s and top 5s than a season ago ... but also had three more wins (four total) and finished runner-up in the standings. Expect consistent excellence once again from the No. 19 next year.
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3. Denny Hamlin
2021 season-high: 1
2021 season-low: 6
Comment: What more does a guy have to do? This sure looked like it was finally going to be the year for Denny — and in many ways it was — but he once again fell just short of his first title. Expect the No. 11 team to be out for blood from the drop next year, and double-digit wins are on the table.
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2. Chase Elliott
2021 season-high: 1
2021 season-low: 10
Comment: While Elliott was unable to repeat as champion, he surely continued to round into form as one of the sport's unquestioned elite — and he's still just 25. Hendrick has a two-headed hydra at the top of its stable and Elliott could easily be "the guy" again next year.
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1. Kyle Larson
2021 season-high: 1
2021 season-low: 14
Comment: Of course, nobody is topping the champ any time soon. Larson had a season for the ages, proved why we'd been hearing about his talent and future for all those years, and could be setting himself up to be labeled as one of NASCAR's all-time greats over the next few years. Back-to-back titles feels like the most likely outcome for next year.
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