
Power Rankings: Ryan Blaney within striking distance of regular-season crown
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NASCAR.com's Pat DeCola ranks the top 20 Cup Series drivers before racing resumes Sunday at Richmond Raceway (6 p.m. ET, USA, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
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20. Kyle Busch (--)
Season-high: 3
Season-low: 20
Comment: On the bright side, Busch led multiple laps in a race for the first time since Gateway in his Brickyard run ... that ended in his fifth finish of 25th or worse in the last six weeks as his summer swoon continues. Richmond, a track where he has six wins and finishes outside the top 10 are a rarity for him, could be his saving grace, but there isn't a shred of confidence he'll be able to turn it around at the moment. The two-week break is coming at the perfect time for a recalibrating No. 8 team.
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19. Todd Gilliland (Not ranked last week)
Season-high: 3
Season-low: 20
Comment: Gilliland continues to shoehorn himself into the playoff picture, with another strong run last weekend at Indy (P6) slotting him within theoretical territory of clinching on points. A win is still by far his most likely path (with Daytona being his best shot), but it doesn't feel impossible in the slightest. Even if he winds up missing, the trajectory here is still quite favorable.
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18. Austin Cindric (--)
Season-high: 16
Season-low: Out
Comment: While Cindric isn't quite turning in the consistent top 10s that could propel him throughout the playoffs, he did just scrape together a seventh-place run at Indy on the heels of four straight top 20s, so he could be building some momentum. Expect all that to end at Richmond, however, where the past Daytona 500 champ has just one finish better than 20th in six career starts.
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17. Chase Briscoe (-1)
Season-high: 11
Season-low: Out
Comment: Briscoe appeared to have a brisk bout of momentum in the spotlight toward the end of June before settling back into SHR's team-wide, season-long woes after another finish outside the top 20 -- his fifth in the last seven. He's gotten close to the top 10 at Richmond a few times (three finishes of 11th or 12th in seven starts), but it's tough to see that happening when we return. That said, short tracks have seemed like the team's best shots this year, so we'll see.
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16. Daniel Suárez (+1)
Season-high: 12
Season-low: Out
Comment: Hey now, we're starting to see some signs of life here. Earlier this season -- and starting a few weeks after his Atlanta win -- No. 99 was mired in an 11-race stretch in which he collected 19 or fewer points in 10 of them, but he's netted at least 21 in five of the last seven after a strong eighth-place run at Indy. Richmond started out as a great track for him (albeit in Joe Gibbs Racing equipment), but he hasn't seen the top 10 there since 2019.
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15. Joey Logano (-2)
Season-high: 5
Season-low: 20
Comment: Three points and a P34 certainly wasn't the kind of day Logano was looking to have racing at his team owner's digs, but his on-again, off-again flirtation with the top 10 -- a streak dating all the way back to the Coca-Cola 600 -- had to continue, apparently. The spring runner-up has always had a strong handle on Richmond, however, so you'd have to think the streak will remain unbroken and he'll turn in a guaranteed top 10 at the Virginia track.
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14. Ross Chastain (+1)
Season-high: 5
Season-low: 15
Comment: A 22-point, 15th-place finish isn't going to turn any heads, but it did do enough to quell a bit of the mounting concern over Chastain's general performance and the fact that his numbers have essentially trended down the last two years. He's still in the provisional playoff field -- just barely -- but expect the pressure to grow tremendously for him over the coming weeks.
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13. Bubba Wallace (+1)
Season-high: 10
Season-low: 19
Comment: Wallace continues to churn out good points days as he feverishly claws his way nearly into the 16-driver field with four races to go. We'll see how he's able to make it work at Richmond -- where he's gotten closer lately (three top 15s in last four races) but overall has never finished in the top 10 in 12 tries.
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12. Chris Buescher (--)
Season-high: 9
Season-low: 16
Comment: There were times this season it appeared evident Buescher would be a multi-time winner -- and he still could be -- so it's surprising to see him battling for his postseason life at the moment, just 17 points to the good. We're entering prime Buescher season right now, though, and it's likely that last year's Richmond summer winner does enough over the next four races to secure his spot.
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11. Ty Gibbs (--)
Season-high: 4
Season-low: 15
Comment: Gibbs feels capable of popping off his first win at any moment, but, boy, has this team fallen on hard times with five finishes of 23rd or worse in the last seven races despite leading multiple laps in three of the last four. A nice, two-week break and a return to the track at a JGR stomping ground oughta do the trick to get the ship righted.
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10. Alex Bowman (-1)
Season-high: 8
Season-low: 18
Comment: It's wild that Bowman has eight total laps led since March and yet he officially clinched his playoff spot on Sunday, with no possibility of more than 16 winners and a winner's sticker in hand. He'd be doing fine on points, anyway, as he's been a consistent enough finisher, but failing to find the front of the field often enough is a bit of a concern while in Hendrick equipment. However, the former Richmond winner could theoretically work his way to the front when we return.
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9. Brad Keselowski (+1)
Season-high: 5
Season-low: 18
Comment: Keselowski was in position late at Indy to claim another Brickyard 400 before his fuel tank ran dry and he had to peel off a late restart and settle for a P21. One of his two Richmond wins for Roger Penske came in 2020, and RFK Racing has been strong there lately in general in his races under that banner. He could keep it rolling after the break.
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8. Martin Truex Jr. (-1)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 10
Comment: We don't need to write him off yet by any means, but it appears Truex Jr.'s days of competing for Cup wins with regularity are running on fumes, having just two top 10s since Kansas and just 24 laps led since Dover, arguably his last two "good" races. If there was ever a track to test out the old fastball as his full-time career winds down, it's Richmond -- Truex has won three races there, all from 2019 on and has just one finish outside the top 10 (11th) since 2018.
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7. William Byron (-1)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 8
Comment: While much of Byron's up-and-down past couple of months have had as much to do with luck as anything else, he isn't doing himself any favors by staying at the front of the field and avoiding trouble -- No. 24 hasn't led a lap since Charlotte after looking early on like he'd clear last year's six wins easily. He's still talented enough to do it, but he considers Richmond to be among his worst tracks (three top 10s in 12 tries), though he did lead 100-plus laps there twice in the past five races.
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6. Christopher Bell (+2)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: 15
Comment: Even after a P4 at Indy, it's stunning to look at Bell's average finish (15.6) and realize it's very close to being his worst showing for JGR (15.8 average finish in 2021 being the worst) -- despite him feeling like a surefire Championship 4 contender. He'll almost assuredly lower the 2024 figure when we return at Richmond, where he has six top 10s in eight tries for a sterling 7.5 average clip.
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5. Denny Hamlin (-1)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 9
Comment: Hamlin continues his run of finishes that don't tell the true story of his race or the speed his race car had, leading more than 20 laps for the fourth time in five weeks and having just one top 10 to show for it. As last year's Richmond summer runner-up and this year's spring race winner -- his fifth victory there -- it could be just what he needs to reestablish himself as one of the top title threats.
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4. Chase Elliott (-1)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: 17
Comment: Elliott has been a points machine for the entire season, with his P21 at Chicago recently marking his season low of 16 points. Though he's yet to win at Richmond in 16 starts, he'll likely turn in a better day than that, having finished outside the top 20 only once at the Virginia track.
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3. Ryan Blaney (+2)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: 12
Comment: Blaney didn't lead a single lap at Indy but walked away with the most points collected as he inserts himself within striking distance of a wide-open Regular Season Championship race. He has work to do to get there, though, and he'll have to do it at perhaps his worst track -- the champ has an average finish of 20.0 and just three top 10s in 16 Richmond starts. This team is on fire right now, though.
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2. Tyler Reddick (-1)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 14
Comment: He hasn't won since April, and yet Reddick might be the hottest driver in the series, turning in his second runner-up in three weeks to give him eight finishes of eighth or better over the last nine. You won't see too many drivers move down in the rankings after a run like that -- which means the driver above him must've really earned it -- but a spotty Richmond resume (one top 10 in eight starts) didn't help him much.
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1. Kyle Larson (+1)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 5
Comment: Circumstances can sometimes pull him down from this top spot on occasion, but it remains evident on a near weekly basis that there is the Kyle Larson tier and then everyone else. He's beatable, sure, but his filthy final stage run at Indy was the stuff of legend, and nobody was stopping him. He's remarkably still improving, and the 31-year-old will be the clear driver to beat when we return at Richmond (where he has two wins already).