Power Rankings: Ryan Blaney’s title defense set to start shining?
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NASCAR.com's Pat DeCola ranks the top 20 NASCAR Cup Series drivers after William Byron's win at Martinsville Speedway and before Sunday’s race at Texas Motor Speedway (3 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
20. John Hunter Nemechek (-1)
Season-high: 15
Season-low: Out
Comment: Nemechek was a major factor at the end of the Martinsville race ... just not in the way he would've wanted, as the reason for the caution to set up NASCAR Overtime to leave him with one total point. He's been remarkably consistent at Texas, with all three of his finishes there back in 2019-20 landing him 21st or 22nd.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
19. Erik Jones (Not ranked last week)
Season-high: 18
Season-low: Out
Comment: Jones missed out on stage points and netted 15 fewer total points than the finisher ahead of him, but he nearly squeezed his way into the top 10 at the end of the race. It's quite possible he lands directly in it at Texas as he's done so in seven of his 12 career trips there for his best average finish (11.8) at any active track.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
18. Brad Keselowski (-5)
Season-high: 11
Season-low: 18
Comment: Keselowski briefly looked to be building some momentum with back-to-back top fives at Phoenix and Bristol. However, in the past few weeks, he turned in his third 33rd-place finish of the season and just posted a 13-point day at one of his better tracks in Martinsville. No. 6 is quite strong at Texas -- including five straight top 10s there heading into the weekend -- but surprisingly has yet to win there, despite 685 laps led at the track.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
17. Kyle Busch (-2)
Season-high: 3
Season-low: 17
Comment: Two total top 10s for the season so far and no top-15 finishes at three of his best tracks (Bristol, Richmond, Martinsville) over the past month -- probably not how Busch and Co. drew it up in the offseason. The good news for Rowdy is just about every track represents a bounce-back spot for him, and Texas is no exception. No. 8 has four wins at the Lone Star track, albeit all with a different team.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
16. Daniel Suárez (--)
Season-high: 12
Season-low: Out
Comment: Another race, another week further removed from Suárez's lone top 10 of the season -- his win at Atlanta, scoring just 15 points for the third straight week. He's capable of running well at Texas and has done so recently, but his past two months don't indicate a turnaround is coming any time soon.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
15. Chase Briscoe (+3)
Season-high: 15
Season-low: Out
Comment: Briscoe is nowhere close to hitting his ceiling yet, but you can tell he's sort of elevated himself up a tier this season, and the results are showing. He's been sneaky good at Texas, too, and it's not out of the question he lands his first top five of the season there this Sunday.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
14. Joey Logano (+3)
Season-high: 5
Season-low: 20
Comment: All of a sudden, the alarm bells surrounding the No. 22 team are a lot quieter (if not entirely silenced) after a 6.33 average finish over the past three races. His lone Texas win came in this race a decade ago, but Texas does tend to be a track he finds his way to the front at more often than not.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
13. Chris Buescher (-2)
Season-high: 11
Season-low: 16
Comment: Buescher's finishing position has worsened in every race since his runner-up at Phoenix, but he's still picking up a decent amount of points -- to actually better his standings position over that span. Up next is a trip to his home track, where he still somehow has yet to finish in the top 10 in 14 tries.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
12. Alex Bowman (--)
Season-high: 10
Season-low: 17
Comment: Bowman, unfortunately for him, was not part of the historic 1-2-3 finish for Hendrick at Martinsville, but he did still finish a decent eighth. Texas is a curious track for him: He's led in four of the past eight races there but has just two top 10s in 14 total starts.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
11. Bubba Wallace (+3)
Season-high: 10
Season-low: 19
Comment: Not only did Wallace secure the first short-track top-five finish of his career, he actually scored more points at Martinsville than race winner William Byron. Texas hasn't been an exceptional track for him ... but that all changed last year when he dominated and nearly won before heartbreak left him in third when all was said and done.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
10. Ross Chastain (--)
Season-high: 5
Season-low: 14
Comment: Chastain is still waiting for his big 2024 moment, but he's been quite consistent to date and is averaging a super strong 11.1 finish. Like Wallace, he hadn't really run well at Texas until last year -- but he finished one spot ahead of No. 23, in second.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
9. Ty Gibbs (-3)
Season-high: 4
Season-low: 9
Comment: Gibbs has fallen off slightly from his recent five-race top-10 streak, but for Sunday's 19th-place run to be his worst finish of the season so far ... he's in a pretty good spot. His first two starts at Texas haven't gone exceptionally, but it would be a major shocker for him to not rectify that after the way he's run this season.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
8. Tyler Reddick (+1)
Season-high: 8
Season-low: 14
Comment: Reddick has been fast all season, but now he's starting to consistently string together the finishes that iilustrate that. Texas looks like a track he's going to be a contender at for a long time, winning there two years ago and leading 36 laps last year before floundering to 25th.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
7. Christopher Bell (-2)
Season-high: 4
Season-low: 11
Comment: A frustrating day at Martinsville ended a four-race top-10 streak for Bell that started with a win. At Texas, he's only led five total laps but has finished fourth or better in three of the past four races there.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
6. Chase Elliott (+2)
Season-high: 6
Season-low: 17
Comment: Elliott led 64 laps on his way to finishing third, and it felt for a little while there he was about to end a winless streak dating back to 2022. No. 9 started (ruby) red-hot at Texas early in his career, but his finishes have been much more "miss" than "hit" lately, though he did lead 44 laps there two years ago.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
5. Ryan Blaney (+2)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: 7
Comment: Blaney kicked off his title defense with three top fives after wrecking out at Daytona but had fallen off a bit in recent weeks. His comeback drive to land fifth at Martinsville was a thing of beauty, however, and a very possible first win at Texas this weekend could jump-start his championship plans for this year.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
4. Martin Truex Jr. (-3)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 10
Comment: Truex was unable to transmute his Richmond frustrations into any kind of Martinsville success, turning in his worst finish of the season at one of his recent best tracks. He's led laps in bunches at Texas in the past, but somehow hasn't landed in Victory Lane yet despite top 10s in half of his 34 starts.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
3. Denny Hamlin (-1)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 9
Comment: Hamlin just knows how to collect points, netting 40-plus in five of the past six races despite only three top 10s in that span. He's a three-time winner at Texas -- a track he'll very likely contend at this weekend -- with two of those coming in the spring.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
2. Kyle Larson (+2)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 5
Comment: No win for Larson, but he did walk out of Martinsville with the most points on the day to score 50-plus in consecutive weeks. He's had a rough go of it at Texas in the past, but he absolutely dominated there for a win in 2021 and is obviously capable of doing that again Sunday.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
1. William Byron (+2)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 7
Comment: Alright, we may have something special going here. This dude can't stop winning, with three already in 2024 and nine in the last 44 races overall. It should not surprise you at all that one of those was the most recent race at Texas, and he's going to be the guy to beat once again on Sunday.