Power Rankings: Chase Briscoe starts sophomore season with a spark

By Pat DeCola | Tuesday, February 22, 2022

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NASCAR.com's Pat DeCola ranks the top 20 NASCAR Cup Series drivers after the 2022 Daytona 500 and before Sunday's Wise Power 400 at Auto Club Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX).

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20. Chris Buescher (Not ranked last week)

Season-high: 20

Season-low: Out

Comment: Buescher looked sporty at Daytona -- as he often does at superspeedways. Perhaps RFK Racing, under the guidance of its 2012 Cup champ co-owner, can turn some heads early in the Next Gen era.

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19. Aric Almirola (Not ranked)

Season-high: 19

Season-low: 19

Comment: One race into his final full-time season, Almirola already has half as many top fives as he had in all of 2021. Don't expect him to tie it at Auto Club, however, where he's never finished that high in 13 starts.

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18. Christopher Bell (-5)

Season-high: 13

Season-low: 18

Comment: Tough break for Bell, who got caught up in a mess at Daytona and landed 34th. His lone start at Auto Club in 2020 didn't go so well, either, 38th with an engine issue.

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17. Kurt Busch (-2)

Season-high: 15

Season-low: 17

Comment: Both 23XI cars finished in the top 20 at Daytona ... just one of them a lot closer to the front, and it wasn't Busch, who landed 19th. Look for the newest Toyota driver to rebound at Auto Club, where he has six top 10s in the past nine races.

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16. Bubba Wallace ( +2)

Season-high: 16

Season-low: 18

Comment: Wallace, as alluded to on the previous slide, did finish quite well on Sunday, though he would've greatly preferred one spot higher. He'll look to ride that momentum into Auto Club, where he's yet to finish higher than 20th in three tries.

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15. Austin Dillon (-3)

Season-high: 12

Season-low: 15

Comment: No Daytona 500 triumph for the former winner, but Dillon's prospects for this season remain positive. He's also been sneaky-good at Auto Club, finishing 11th or better in four of his seven starts.

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14. Brad Keselowski (+2)

Season-high: 14

Season-low: 16

Comment: Keselowski sure looked like himself all throughout Speedweeks. It now becomes a question of if that success carries over to non-superspeedway tracks. With a win and six straight top-nine finishes from 2015-on at Auto Club, we should know pretty quickly where he stands in his new role.

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13. Austin Cindric (+4)

Season-high: 13

Season-low: 17

Comment: Well, I don't think we need to worry about how the rookie is going to handle the pressure of taking over a championship-capable ride. Cindric is the season's first winner and first entrant into the playoffs. The sky's the limit.

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12. William Byron (-2)

Season-high: 10

Season-low: 12

Comment: Byron was the unfortunate recipient of contact in an early wreck and wound up well down the finishing order. He's been incredibly consistent across his three Fontana starts, finishing exactly 15th in each of them.

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11. Chase Briscoe (+3)

Season-high: 11

Season-low: 14

Comment: Hopefully you can feel it coming, because the winds of a Briscoe breakout are blowing. While he finished a couple spots lower than his Ford friend Austin Cindric, he marks a strong contender to join him in the playoffs sooner than later.

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10. Tyler Reddick (-2)

Season-high: 8

Season-low: 10

Comment: Reddick, despite the rough Daytona 500 finish, still profiles as a major breakout candidate in 2022 and it wouldn't be surprising to see him follow up his pal Cindric in the winner's column this weekend. Auto Club fits his style well, and he placed 11th in his lone start there in 2020.

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9. Alex Bowman (+2)

Season-high: 9

Season-low: 11

Comment: Bowman looks like a driver set to potentially turn into a championship contender in 2022, and that could come into focus as soon as this weekend. The No. 48 driver enters the weekend as, technically, the defending winner of this race, leading 110 laps on his way to Victory Lane in 2020.

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8. Kevin Harvick (-1)

Season-high: 7

Season-low: 8

Comment: Daytona doesn't tend to be Harvick's friend, so no harm, no foul with that P30 to start out with. Auto Club is is his pal, however, and the 2014 champ should have a strong showing this weekend -- he has a win and three runner-ups there since 2010.

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7. Ryan Blaney (+2)

Season-high: 7

Season-low: 9

Comment: We easily could've been talking about 2022 Daytona 500 champion Ryan Blaney, but don't fret -- he'll have his time in the spotlight this season, and likely often. Auto Club matches up well for him, with three top nines in the last four races there, with 54 laps led in 2020.

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6. Martin Truex Jr. (--)

Season-high: 6

Season-low: 6

Comment: Truex Jr. remains winless on superspeedways, but he certainly already has his eyes forward to Auto Club. The 2018 winner should be one of the favorites, and he has led laps in five of the last six Fontana races.

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5. Denny Hamlin (--)

Season-high: 5

Season-low: 5

Comment: Hamlin's top-five Daytona 500 streak was snapped at a still-impressive four years. It's a surprise he hasn't won at Auto Club before, as it's a track at which it seems like he'd dominate. He does have four top-six finishes in the last five races there, so perhaps he breaks through this weekend.

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4. Joey Logano (+4)

Season-high: 3

Season-low: 4

Comment: For as good of a superspeedway racer as he is, Logano has just five top 10s at Daytona in 14 starts there since his 2015 win. Fontana should be a welcome sight, as he's been pretty exceptional there since moving to Team Penske before the 2013 season.

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3. Kyle Busch (+4)

Season-high: 3

Season-low: 4

Comment: Boy, it sure feels like "Rowdy" is set to strike big this year. He climbed his way back into contention on Sunday after an early wreck and should enter the weekend among the race favorites. He has three Auto Club wins in the past seven races and four overall there.

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2. Chase Elliott (--)

Season-high: 2

Season-low: 2

Comment: Elliott now has four straight top 10s at Daytona after nine straight finishes of 14th or worse to start his career there. Thankfully for him, he's had a strong start to his Fontana career, with an average finish of 9.4 across five starts.

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1. Kyle Larson (--)

Season-high: 1

Season-low: 1

Comment: Larson wasn't able to produce back-to-back wins coming off his championship campaign, but he shouldn't have to wait too long to pick up his next trophy. Sunday marks as good a spot as any, with Larson owning a win and a runner-up already in seven Auto Club starts.

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