Power Rankings: Chase Elliott set to sip Sonoma wine for first time?
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NASCAR.com's Pat DeCola ranks the top 20 NASCAR Cup Series drivers after Austin Cindric's win at World Wide Technology Raceway and before Sunday's race at Sonoma Raceway (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
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20. Carson Hocevar (Not ranked last week)
Season-high: 20
Season-low: Out
Comment: Hocevar has put together clean races nearly the entire season and it's no surprise to see him sail his way into the top 10 at the end of one, especially at a track the rookie already had some familiarity with. There's a lot to like about how the talented Michigander is trending and he showed plenty of promise on road courses in the Craftsman Truck Series, so he could keep it rolling at Sonoma.
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19. Daniel Suárez (--)
Season-high: 12
Season-low: Out
Comment: The good news for Suárez is that he's found a bit of consistecy. The bad news is that he's settling in around the mid-20s, having finished 23rd-27th in five of the last six races, scoring no more than 19 points in a race since Texas. Still, No. 99 is a driver more than capable of winning when the opportunity presents itself, and Sonoma -- where he won in 2022 -- offers one of his best shots to pick up some steam before the playoffs.
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18. Kyle Busch (-4)
Season-high: 3
Season-low: 18
Comment: A turnaround could come his way and there's no reason to write off his title hopes yet, but it sure doesn't feel like Rowdy's having the kind of season that leads to a championship, almost based on his luck alone. A frustrating spring could cede to a prosperous summer starting at Sonoma, however, where Busch owns two wins and was last year's runner-up.
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17. Chase Briscoe (--)
Season-high: 11
Season-low: Out
Comment: After a difficult week at Stewart-Haas Racing, Briscoe was the team's highest finisher, in 17th. All four drivers are now essentially showcasing for their next jobs, and Briscoe -- who has shown to be more than competent on road courses -- will look to earn his first career Sonoma top 10 as the team still fights for a playoff spot.
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16. Austin Cindric (+4)
Season-high: 16
Season-low: Out
Comment: Cindric was a fresh entrant to last week's Power Rankings, and it's a good thinng he made the cut because he proved Sunday that he was more than a two-trick pony by claiming career win No. 2. One of those "tricks," of course, is his road-racing prowess and he's got a legit shot to make it two in a row this weekend at Sonoma, where he turned in a top five in his first attempt in 2022.
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15. Bubba Wallace (-2)
Season-high: 10
Season-low: 19
Comment: Wallace now has just one top 10 in his last six 2024 races, as his overall numbers start to take a dip from his career year a season ago. With just two top 10s in 28 career road-course starts, the trend is unlikely to go the other way this weekend at Sonoma, where he has a 24.4 average finish.
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14. Joey Logano (+2)
Season-high: 5
Season-low: 20
Comment: Gateway didn't produce the much-needed win for Logano, but a top five and an overall momentum-builder for Team Penske as a whole are strong steps in the right direction. The past several seasons seem to go that way for the back-to-back defending champion organization and Logano's first career Sonoma victory feels very much in the cards in the weekend ahead.
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13. Chris Buescher (+2)
Season-high: 9
Season-low: 16
Comment: Given how central of a figure Buescher has felt in most races lately, it's wild that Sunday's 14th-place run at Gateway was his second-best finish since Texas, in mid-April. That should change this weekend you'd think, as the strong road racer has turned in consecutive top fives at Sonoma, with a runner-up in 2022.
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12. Alex Bowman (-3)
Season-high: 8
Season-low: 18
Comment: On the heels of five straight top 10s, Bowman had a lot of eyes on him at Gateway -- where he finished 28th and collected nine points. He's had some decent road-course runs in the past and owns a pair of top 10s at Sonoma, but it's no slam dunk he gets back on the horse this weekend. That said, he's been plenty fast for most of the year so it's quite possible he does.
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11. Ryan Blaney (+1)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: 12
Comment: Not much you can say abhout that one. Despite now being on track for his worst average finish since his rookie season, the defending champ appeared set to snag his playoff spot before fuel-tank demons gobbled up his shot at a winner's sticker on the last lap. Sonoma could be an interesting one for him; he has three finishes of 23rd or worse -- including last year's P31 -- but his other four results are all top 10s.
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10. Ross Chastain (+1)
Season-high: 5
Season-low: 14
Comment: Chastain's season is so quietly interesting. He's barely on pace for just 10 total top 10s, has just one since COTA, is outside the top 10 in points ... yet is currently turning in a career-best average finish (13.1). Makes me feel like he's just one thing clicking away from breaking through in a big way this season, and with three straight top 10s at Sonoma, it's probably this weekend.
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9. Ty Gibbs (-1)
Season-high: 4
Season-low: 11
Comment: Gibbs narrowly missed out on his third straight top 10, but Gateway was overall solid enough to keep him hovering at seventh in points. It's only a matter of time before his road-racing skills lead to Cup Series wins on such tracks, and his first career victory coming at Sonoma feels dobale.
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8. Christopher Bell (+2)
Season-high: 4
Season-low: 15
Comment: Bell appeared to have, perhaps by far, the fastest car Sunday at Gateway and nearly cruised to a second straight win before a mysterious mechanical failure forced him to limp to a still-solid P7. Still, Bell and crew chief Adam Stevens are building a head of steam at the moment and they should be able to better last year's first Sonoma top 10 for driver No. 20.
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7. Martin Truex Jr. (-3)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 10
Comment: Truex entered Gateway as one of the favorites to win and wound up with one of his most frustrating races of the season en route to a P34 and three total points. If there was ever a decent spot in the schedule for misfortune to happen, though, it was Gateway, as Sonoma follows it and Truex is the unquestioned driver to beat there. No. 19 has four total wins in Wine Country, including three of the last five.
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6. William Byron (-3)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 7
Comment: For whatever reason Byron's early-season shine seems to have dimmed a bit, but that said -- he still has four finishes of seventh or better in the seven races since his last win. Despite some less-than-stellar Sonoma stats (one top 10 in five races) it feels like a track he'll win at eventually, and I'll go out on a limb and say he has a successful weekend ahead of him out west.
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5. Brad Keselowski (+2)
Season-high: 5
Season-low: 18
Comment: Keselowski legitimately looks every bit the championship contender that he'd been in his decade-plus at Team Penske and it feels more than likely he adds another victory to the RFK trophy closet before we hit the playoffs. Don't expect it to come this weekend, though -- in 44 career road-course starts, Keselowski has never won. He also has just three top 10s in 12 Sonoma appearances, though one of those was in his first attempt with RFK there in 2022.
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4. Tyler Reddick (+1)
Season-high: 3
Season-low: 14
Comment: Reddick continues to excel on a near-weekly basis as he appears set to turn in career highs in almost all top-level statistics. With just one 2024 win so far, he's got a little work to do to top 2022's three-victory total -- but two of those were road-course wins and he's likely going to be among those to beat come Sunday at Sonoma.
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3. Chase Elliott (+3)
Season-high: 3
Season-low: 17
Comment: Elliott's P13 at Gateway wasn't anything to write home about, though he did compile as many or more points than three drivers that finished in the top 10. This weekend might be where he turns on the jets, however, as the once-undisputed road-course king of NASCAR looks to reclaim his throne at Sonoma. Amazingly, none of his seven road-course wins have come in Wine Country but with how he's running this year -- brilliantly -- it feels like he'll be the top dog to beat on Sunday.
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2. Kyle Larson (--)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 5
Comment: Larson rebounded from a frustrating couple of weeks with his first top 10 since his Kansas win, nearly a month ago, but he's led seven or more (and often lots more) laps in seven of the past eight races so things are still going quite well here. He owns three top 10s at Sonoma -- including a win -- in the past four trips to this track in his home state and there's a good chance he's sipping wine in Victory Lane on Sunday evening. He could probably use a drink, anyway.
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1. Denny Hamlin (--)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 9
Comment: And while Larson has had a rocky -- by his standards -- past month, Hamlin has strung together five straight top fives including Sunday's runner-up at Gateway. No. 11 continues to age like a fine wine in his later NASCAR years and he could finally crack Sonoma's Victory Lane after a frustrating end to a solid run from the pole in last year's race.