Power Rankings: Will Charlotte mark the spot Kyle Busch gets back into title hunt?

NASCAR.com's Pat DeCola ranks the Cup Series Playoffs drivers after the Round of 12 middle race at Talladega Superspeedway and before Sunday's elimination race at Charlotte Motor Speedway's road course (2 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).

12. Kyle Busch (--)

Season-high: 1
Season-low: 12

Comment: Busch led two laps at Talladega in pursuit of the season sweep but ultimately wound up 25th on the results sheet with a meager 12 points. He's not in true must-win fashion at the Roval, but he's certainly in the roughest shape of any remaining playoff driver and needs a near-miracle to advance. Busch, however, is one of a few drivers capable of making his own miracles, and after landing in the top five for this race each of the past two years, he just might produce one.

11. Ross Chastain (-5)

Season-high: 1
Season-low: 11

Comment: The good news is Chastain scored the same number of points as the car that took the checkered flag mere inches behind winner Ryan Blaney. The bad news is it's because that car was disqualified and sent to a last-place finish, which bumped Chastain — who wrecked in Stage 1 — up to 37th, for a single point each. All things considered, the points situation could be way worse for Chastain, who sits minus-10 heading to a good track type for him. Still, a halfway decent 'Dega result and he's probably on the right side of the bubble, so it's a bit tough to swallow.

10. Bubba Wallace (-1)

Season-high: 9
Season-low: Out

Comment: Wallace has improved a ton on road courses over his career, but he's still nowhere near as good on them as he is at superspeedways — which makes Sunday's miss at Talladega all the more disappointing for the No. 23 bunch. Now onto the Roval, where he finally cracked the top 10 last year (seventh) but overall has a pretty tame 20.4 average finish. 

9. Brad Keselowski (-2)

Season-high: 4
Season-low: Out

Comment: So often it feels like when a driver is a no-brainer on paper to win ... something chaotic happens to said driver, like when Sunday's favorite saw his race ended prematurely after wrecking out. He's still on the right side of the bubble, but he's no lock to advance — in all of the 2012 champ's years racing in Cup, he's never won at a road course (42 starts).

8. Tyler Reddick (+3)

Season-high: 2
Season-low: 15

Comment: 23XI Racing's general strategy didn't seem to play out in a favorable manner at Talladega, and Reddick was unable to find the front when it mattered most at the end. He hasn't finished in the top 10 since his Kansas win, and despite his road-racing acumen, it's fair to wonder if he might get left out of the Round of 8.

7. Martin Truex Jr. (+1)

Season-high: 1
Season-low: 14

Comment: Truex's playoffs have been a comedy of errors, and the 2017 champ is still searching for his first top 10 since ... Watkins Glen. He's probably not laughing, but ready for the comedy part of it? Despite all that, he's still plus-17, sixth in the standings. The excellent road racer already has a road-course win in 2023; it's more likely than not the frequently strong Charlotte finisher moves on.

6. Chris Buescher (-1)

Season-high: 2
Season-low: Out

Comment: Talladega was a bummer for RFK as a whole as the team was legitimately looking to go 1-2 in the race and wound up with one wrecked driver and another barely finishing inside the top 20. Still plenty of hope here, though, as they're both on track to move on, and Buescher has shown over the past several years to be one of the sport's best on road courses — only a matter of time before he wins on one.

5. Kyle Larson (-2)

Season-high: 1
Season-low: 11

Comment: Larson has led in five straight races and is looking strong overall, but the race-to-race full-out dominance isn't quite there like we saw in 2021, and he's on pace for his worst average finish (15.2) since 2015. Still, he's a threat on all track types and owns four road-course wins already, so perhaps a date with the Roval is a sucessful one for him.

4. Christopher Bell (--)

Season-high: 1
Season-low: 15

Comment: While Bell definitely would've preferred to have won one of the first two races this round, he enters the weekend in a lot better shape (+22) than he did last year when he needed to win the Roval to advance — and did just that. He doesn't have as much pressure come Sunday, but it's still a volatile race that could offer a surprise ... such as Bell walking away out of the playoffs ... but overall, he's in good shape.

3. Ryan Blaney (+7)

Season-high: 3
Season-low: 15

Comment: The NASCAR Playoffs are a beautiful, chaotic masterpiece because here's Blaney in maybe the best shape of any postseason driver when I wasn't even sure he'd make it out of the Round of 16 based on a summer swoon. Things have taken quite a dramatic turn for him and it's incredibly realistic that the inaugural Roval winner makes it two in a row on Sunday. 

2. Denny Hamlin (--)

Season-high: 1
Season-low: 12

Comment: When Hamlin can recover in the way that he did at Talladega and emerge with a P3, you know ... maybe it actually might be his year. It's somewhat surprising he has just one road-course win to his credit across 50 total starts on them, but he's had a couple of decent showings at the Roval, including a near-win in 2021. No reason to think he fumbles a massive points cushion as the top driver not locked in.

1. William Byron (--)

Season-high: 1
Season-low: 14

Comment: Byron has just been a points machine the past two months, averaging 39.5 tallies per race over the last eight contests as he and the No. 24 group flex their consistent speed. Another guy that doesn't race with any pressure this weekend, he's also the most recent road-course winner after claiming Watkins Glen in August.