Power Rankings: Does Chase Briscoe have the smoke to take it all the way?

NASCAR.com's Pat DeCola ranks the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs drivers after Kyle Larson's win at Bristol Motor Speedway and before Sunday's Round of 12 opener at Kansas Speedway (3 p.m. ET, USA, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).

12. Daniel Suárez (-4)

Season-high: 8
Season-low: Out

Comment: Suárez had been riding solid finishes into the stretch run of the regular season and to open the playoffs, but the wheels fell off at Bristol, where he said he and the No. 99 team were "slow" en route to a P31 finish from a 35th-place starting spot. They did enough to advance, however, but will start this round from below the bubble. Kansas is an interesting track for Suárez -- he nailed a P7 in his first run there as a rookie in 2017 but has just one other top 10 in the 14 races since (fall, 2022).

11. Chase Briscoe (-2)

Season-high: 9
Season-low: Out

Comment: Stop us if you've heard this one before -- the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing driver squeaks into the playoffs just barely, then comes alive all of a sudden to rise to a championship. We of course saw this happen during Tony Stewart's magical run to his third and final title in 2011, but it's possible his driver could be replicating his tune nearly note-for-note almost a decade-and-a-half later. Time will tell if Briscoe can take this thing all the way to Phoenix -- and if he does, expect him to be great there -- but for now, how about we start with him aiming for his first Kansas top 10 in his eighth try. 

10. Austin Cindric (-4)

Season-high: 6
Season-low: Out

Comment: Cindric's Round of 16 was easily his best three-race stretch of the season, turning in an 11.0 average finish while picking up an average of 34.33 points in them. If he's able to repeat that, he'll be a Round of 8 driver for sure -- but, like Briscoe, he'll be looking for his first top 10 at Kansas this weekend, and the past three races there have all yielded finishes outside the top 30.

9. Alex Bowman (-5)

Season-high: 4
Season-low: 18

Comment: Bowman had a lucrative Round of 16, compiling 120 points and leading laps in all three races -- after leading in three races total during the regular season. He got seeded back to the bottom of the barrel, however, but should have a shot to keep it rolling this weekend at Kansas, where he has four straight top 10s and nine in his 17 starts.

8. Joey Logano (-6)

Season-high: 2
Season-low: 20

Comment: It's a good thing Logano won at Atlanta because Bristol clearly wouldn't have been his saving grace (or anybody else's, thanks to Kyle Larson) if he were in need of a win to move on. For No. 22 this weekend, it's entirely possible he wins the opening race of the round once again -- Logano has been stellar at Kansas, with three prior wins and top fives in 30% of his 30 starts.

7. William Byron (+4)

Season-high: 1
Season-low: 11

Comment: Byron still scored a decent 26 points at Bristol, but his Round of 16 was similar to his regular season -- the occasional hit (Atlanta) surrounded by mostly misses (Watkins Glen, Bristol). He was a clear championship contender early on this year, however, so maybe he'll rekindle momentum at Kansas, where he had a top-10 streak of five races from 2019-21.

6. Denny Hamlin (+7)

Season-high: 1
Season-low: 13

Comment: Hamlin and the No. 11 team looked very much like themselves at Bristol and perhaps could've contended for the win if the No. 5 wasn't on another planet, which gives the group a spark of momentum coming into a Round of 12 much more in its wheelhouse. It's entirely possible that after being questioned the entire Round of 16, he comes out and grabs a statement win at Kansas to be the first driver to move on -- there's arguably no better driver in the field at the Midwestern track.

5. Chase Elliott (+5)

Season-high: 2
Season-low: 17

Comment: It somehow feels like Elliott continues to fly under the radar, despite his Bristol runner-up marking the sixth time he's scored 31-plus points in the last nine races as he and the No. 9 team continue to dial it in. The Georgia native's second 2024 win feels imminent, and he's led 42 or more laps five times at Kansas in the past, including a 2018 win there.

4. Tyler Reddick (+3)

Season-high: 1
Season-low: 14

Comment: For whatever reason, it feels like the Regular Season Champion is running out of steam a bit in what was shaping up to be his best title shot yet in a blossoming career. It still is, however, and despite mediocre results recently, he and the No. 45 team enter the Round of 12 with a 20-point cushion heading into Kansas -- as the defending winners of the last year's race.

3. Ryan Blaney (--)

Season-high: 2
Season-low: 12

Comment: Last year's champ continues to fortify his title defense, turning in two plentiful performances in the Round of 16 and not getting to show what he could've done at Watkins Glen after getting in a Lap 1 wreck. He's flirted with a couple of Kansas wins, but lately it's been a middling track for him, with just three laps led and one top 10 since 2020. He might find himself playing from behind later this round.

2. Christopher Bell (+1)

Season-high: 1
Season-low: 15

Comment: Bell is a top-five machine right now, with four in the past five races. (Though, curiously, he has just one lap led during that span.) It appears his and Kyle Larson's paths will once again intertwine on the trek to a championship this year, and they could battle for the win Sunday at Kansas, where Bell has never won but has three of the past five poles while leading multiple laps in all five.

1. Kyle Larson (+4)

Season-high: 1
Season-low: 5

Comment: Aaaaand he's back on top. Nearly the entire year this championship has felt like Larson's to lose, and there's now no conceivable question about it after what just transpired at Bristol and plus-39 next to his name entering the Round of 12. As it turns out, guess what -- he's also going to be a factor this weekend at Kansas, where he not only won the spring race in incredible fashion, but he owns six straight top-eight finishes, including another win (fall, 2021).