Power Rankings: Denny Hamlin targets ‘Tricky Triangle’ trophy yet again

NASCAR.com's Zack Albert pinch-hits for Pat DeCola this week and ranks the 20 hottest Cup Series drivers after the race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and before Sunday's race at Pocono Raceway (2:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).

20. Alex Bowman (Not ranked last week)

Season-high: 2
Season-low: Out

Comment: The driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet is still searching for his first top-10 finish after seven races since his return from injury. A quiet 14th-place day at New Hampshire kept his name at least on the fringes of the playoff conversation, and he is a former Pocono winner (2021) with four consecutive results among the top 11 there.

19. AJ Allmendinger (-1)

Season-high: 18
Season-low: Out

Comment: After a season-best run of third place at Atlanta, Allmendinger slipped back a smidge with a 19th-place outcome after a spin at New Hampshire. He's also in the midst of that postseason chatter, and two road courses in the final six regular-season races hold promise.

18. Daniel Suárez (-1)

Season-high: 9
Season-low: Out

Comment: A 16th-place day dipped the Trackhouse Racing driver below the provisional playoff cut, but that bubble remains a snug grouping. He's just one point off the elimination line, and he was third at Pocono the last time out in 2022.

17. Bubba Wallace (+2)

Season-high: 13
Season-low: Out

Comment: Plus-two in the points standings and up two in this week's rankings, Wallace jumped back to the right side of the playoff bubble after a solid eighth-place day at New Hampshire. He has two straight top-10 efforts at Pocono, where he also made his Cup Series debut back in 2017.

16. Michael McDowell (--)

Season-high: 16
Season-low: Out

Comment: The No. 34 Ford driver has kept up a measure of consistency this season, and 13th-place at Loudon helped him at least hold his ground above the postseason cut. Pocono has not traditionally been a haven for McDowell, but his sixth-place run there in 2022 marked a career-best at the 2.5-mile Pennsylvania triangle.

15. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (-1)

Season-high: 12
Season-low: Out

Comment: The Daytona 500 champ lost a lap early at New Hampshire but gained it back to salvage 18th-place by the checkered flag. That's where Stenhouse wound up his last time out at Pocono, where he's 0-for-19 over his Cup Series career in terms of top-10 finishes.

14. Tyler Reddick (+1)

Season-high: 3
Season-low: 15

Comment: Reddick started sixth and finished there but needed a solid rally from an early pit-road speeding penalty to make it happen. The result was much-needed for the No. 45 team, snapping a sour run of five consecutive finishes outside the top 25.

13. Chris Buescher (--)

Season-high: 11
Season-low: Out

Comment: Buescher ended New Hampshire in 15th, which has been a notable threshold for the RFK Racing driver. In the last 12 races, he's finished outside of the top 15 just twice. In a smaller span of the last three races, he's qualified 15th twice (Chicago, Atlanta) and also finished 15th twice (Atlanta, New Hampshire). On the flip side, he hasn't started or finished 15th at Pocono in 13 starts.

12. Brad Keselowski (--)

Season-high: 9
Season-low: Out

Comment: RFK Racing's other half of the driver roster followed his sixth-place running at Atlanta with fifth at Loudon, helping him boost his points total above the playoff cutline. He last won at Pocono in 2011, but the momentum his team has built this season has been noticeable.

11. Ryan Blaney (-2)

Season-high: 3
Season-low: 13

Comment: Running over an air hose in a late-race pit stop thwarted what seemed to be a sure top-five day at New Hampshire. He's finished outside the top 20 in four of the last five events but returns to the site of his first Cup Series victory (2017) this weekend.

10. Kevin Harvick (+1)

Season-high: 3
Season-low: 11

Comment: That familiar spark still burns for Harvick, who shook off a streak of three straight sub-20th finishes by taking the checkers fourth at New Hampshire. He is a former Pocono winner (2020), with 11 top 10s in his last 13 starts at the triangle track.

9. Chase Elliott (-1)

Season-high: 2
Season-low: Out

Comment: A New Hampshire finish of 12th didn't budge the No. 9 team relative to the playoff cutline, and the urgency to win or make massive points gains is growing with sixth races left in the regular season. He's going for his second straight Pocono victory this weekend, and converting there would make the playoff math a moot point.

8. Joey Logano (+2)

Season-high: 1
Season-low: 14

Comment: A second-place finish to a dominant Martin Truex Jr. was as close as Logano could reach at New Hampshire, which yielded his first Cup Series win back in 2009. Positive results have been tougher to come by recently at Pocono, where he hasn't cracked the top-five finishing spots since 2016.

7. Ross Chastain (-1)

Season-high: 1
Season-low: 7

Comment: Three straight finishes outside the top 20 since his Nashville Superspeedway win have brought Chastain back in check in the rankings. The Trackhouse Racing driver led 16 laps last season at Pocono before a crash derailed his hopes.

6. Christopher Bell (-1)

Season-high: 1
Season-low: 10

Comment: A promising start from the pole position made a Monday fizzle at New Hampshire, and Bell left in 29th with his third straight result outside the top 15. He is a former Craftsman Truck Series winner at Pocono, where he placed fourth on the Cup Series side last year.

5. Kyle Larson (+2)

Season-high: 1
Season-low: 11

Comment: The No. 5 driver got back on track after a crash-related DNF at Atlanta, rolling to third-place at New Hampshire. Larson has four consecutive top-10 finishes at Pocono, where he is also a two-time pole winner.

4. Denny Hamlin (--)

Season-high: 4
Season-low: 12

Comment: Hamlin clocked in with a seventh-place finish at New Hampshire, and his hopes for a midsummer heat-up are peaking. He enters this weekend's race as a six-time Pocono winner, a figure that's tied with Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon on the all-time list.

3. Kyle Busch (-1)

Season-high: 1
Season-low: 8

Comment: Busch's early exit at New Hampshire marked his worst finish of the season, breaking a string of seven consecutive top-10 results. He has four Pocono victories from his tenure with Joe Gibbs Racing, and his performance with Richard Childress Racing thus far suggests no let-up.

2. William Byron (-1)

Season-high: 1
Season-low: 14

Comment: The highs of Byron's Atlanta victory the week before were not lasting, and the No. 24 driver finished 24th at New Hampshire in his 200th Cup start. The result is likely just a blip for Byron, who still leads the Cup Series with four victories this season.

1. Martin Truex Jr. (+2)

Season-high: 1
Season-low: 14

Comment: Maybe there's some recency bias in promoting MTJ to the top spot for the first time this season, but it's difficult to ignore the dominance of the No. 19 group at New Hampshire with 254 of 301 laps led. Truex and team members shied away from questions about a "championship favorite" label post-race at Loudon, but in a season where there's been no clear-cut runaway atop the heap, Truex deserves at least that consideration.