Power Rankings: Why Ryan Blaney is in prime position to repeat

NASCAR.com's Pat DeCola ranks the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs drivers after Ross Chastain's win at Kansas Speedway and before Sunday's Round of 12 race at Talladega Superpeedway (2 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).

12. Austin Cindric (-2)

Season-high: 6
Season-low: Out

Comment: On a day several playoff contenders ran into issues, Cindric had the distinction of finishing lowest among all 12, placing 34th and scoring just seven points. Thankfully for the superspeedway and road-course ace, the two remaining tracks in this round fit those molds. His last two starts in the Talladega fall race each yielded a top-10 finish -- a top five, in last year's case -- so he could rebound nicely this weekend.

11. Chase Briscoe (--)

Season-high: 9
Season-low: Out

Comment: Briscoe had built a head of steam coming out of the Round of 16 with two strong races in the books, but it was all washed away at Kansas in a race he very much needed to capitalize on and did not. Thankfully for him, he's generally avoided the chaos at Talladega throughout his career, but we all know it's a track that carries nothing but question marks for a driver, regardless of if he's found past success there or not.

10. Daniel Suárez (+2)

Season-high: 8
Season-low: Out

Comment: Seeing his teammate win as a non-playoff driver had to sting at least a little bit, but Suárez still turned in a serviceable P13 with 24 points at Kansas as he continued to hang around in this thing. We'll see if that continues at Talladega; while driver No. 99 has three top 10s in his last four races there, he only notched one in his first 11 starts, and it was all the way back in 2018.

9. Tyler Reddick (-5)

Season-high: 1
Season-low: 14

Comment: Kansas was supposed to be Tyler Reddick's race. Instead the Regular Season Champion is on the wrong side of the bubble heading into arguably the sport's most unpredictable track; not a great place to be for the title contender. Then again, there's one thing really going in Reddick's favor -- he's the most recent winner at the track. 

8. Joey Logano (--)

Season-high: 2
Season-low: 20

Comment: Logano hasn't seen a top 10 since his playoff-opening win at Atlanta, yet remains in pretty good overall positioning after managing to compile 30-plus points in two of the last three races. It's an interesting weekend ahead for him, though. While he once had a strong handle on Talladega, winning three times from 2015-18, nine of his last 10 starts landed him outside the top 10.

7. Chase Elliott (-2)

Season-high: 2
Season-low: 17

Comment: Elliott dropped behind a pair of his teammates here, but overall walked out of Kansas with a solid, 30-point day after what could've been a much worse outing. A consistent force at Talladega, the two-time Alabama winner could emerge as the title favorite by Sunday night if a third win -- and the first Round of 8 berth for anybody -- is in the cards for him.

6. Alex Bowman (+3)

Season-high: 4
Season-low: 18

Comment: Bowman turned in three top fives in the first six races of 2024, so it's not like he's just come out of nowhere -- and yet there are still people out there surprised he's doing what he's doing. A 9.5 average finish through the first four races of an especially tumultuous playoffs is no small feat, and after turning in top fives in three of the five drafting-style races this year it feels likely he'll at least have a shot at a fourth this weekend.

5. Denny Hamlin (+1)

Season-high: 1
Season-low: 13

Comment: The final result obviously wasn't the Kansas race Hamlin and the No. 11 team were hoping to achieve given their strength at the 1.5-mile track, but considering how the past few months have gone, they'll take a P8 for back-to-back top 10s to build a little momentum. The two-time Talladega winner has been an absolute stud in the fall race at Talladega dating back to 2015, which was the last time he finished worse than seventh in it. 

4. Christopher Bell (-2)

Season-high: 1
Season-low: 15

Comment: Bell is collecting just a boatload of points each week and is on a pace that should have him in exceptional posiitoning in the Round of 8, if it continues. That part is a bit of a big "if," however -- Bell averages a finish outside the top 20 at Talladega and often seems to get caught up in some of the bigger wrecks there.

3. Kyle Larson (-2)

Season-high: 1
Season-low: 5

Comment: It's really something how quickly things can turn in this sport, because last week it looked like Larson would cakewalk into the Championship 4 before Kansas sank him to just plus-18 to the bubble. It's legitimate cause for concern for the No. 5 group, too, as Larson, despite his immense talent, has yet to really get things to click at Talladega. The 2021 champ has just three top 10s in his 18 starts there, many of which resulted in race-ending crashes.

2. William Byron (+5)

Season-high: 1
Season-low: 11

Comment: Though his three wins feel like forever ago at this point, there are some significant signs that Byron is gaining steam at the best possible time after his second runner-up finish in the last seven races. Talladega is a bit hit or miss for him -- it was a hit last fall, with another runner-up run -- but it's looking like he's a safe bet to advance even if this weekend goes awry. If he does, he might be the driver that the Round of 8 lines up for best, so another Championship 4 run for Byron could be closer than you think despite his second-half dry spell.

1. Ryan Blaney (--)

Season-high: 1
Season-low: 12

Comment: Blaney is on pace for his worst average finish during his tenure under the Team Penske banner, yet here is the defending champ in prime position to defend his title successfully despite two major hiccups in the past five races. He likely could've contended in each of those (Darlington and Watkins Glen, where he ran a combined two laps) and otherwise would probably be viewed as the title favorite had those gone the way of the other three races in that span, which were all top sixes. The three-time Talladega winner is as tough as they come on the Alabama track and it's entirely possible he pulls well ahead of the field by the end of the weekend, before a Round of 8 that also sets up quite well for him. Two-in-a-row incoming?