
Power Rankings: Tyler Reddick about to go Beast Mode on Windy City?
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NASCAR.com's Pat DeCola ranks the top 20 NASCAR Cup Series drivers after Joey Logano's win at Nashville Superspeedway and before Sunday's Chicago Street Race (4:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
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20. Kyle Busch (--)
Season-high: 3
Season-low: 20
Comment: How unlucky can one team get? Busch and the No. 8 group appear to be testing that limit after another frustrating end to what was shaping up to be a promising run. Rowdy did score a top five in last year's Chicago Street Race and is certainly capable of doing so again, but the way things are going doesn't make it feel like a likelihood at this point.
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19. Josh Berry (-1)
Season-high: 18
Season-low: Out
Comment: The finishing orders have felt topsy-turvy lately, and what appeared to be a dead-on top 10 for Berry wound up as a P26 with just 11 points after he managed to also strike out on stage points. With a spotty-at-best road-course history at the national series level, he's at risk of trending back into playoff pretender status after looking like he'd race his way in.
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18. Daniel Suárez (-1)
Season-high: 12
Season-low: Out
Comment: After briefly looking like he was starting to build momentum heading into the playoffs, Suárez has started slipping back again and has just two top 15s in the last 10 races. He's an above average road racer, and his organization won the inaugural Chicago event last year, so in theory he could make noise on Sunday.
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17. Austin Cindric (+2)
Season-high: 16
Season-low: Out
Comment: It still doesn't look like Cindric has the consistency to make it far in this year's playoffs -- he's on pace for a career-worst 21.7 average finish -- but Team Penske is putting the pieces together, and it's possible Cindric rounds into form a bit more before the postseason. Part of that could come this weekend in Chicago, where the talented road racer landed a P6 last year.
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16. Chase Briscoe (-3)
Season-high: 11
Season-low: Out
Comment: A week after a runner-up finish and with this week's big, "official" news that he'd be moving to Joe Gibbs Racing next year, it looked like in one of the overtimes that Briscoe could top it all and emerge with his first win of the season. Instead, he was filtered back to 21st for a meager 16 points ahead of what was just a mediocre race for him last year in Chicago, where he finished 20th.
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15. Bubba Wallace (+1)
Season-high: 10
Season-low: 19
Comment: The good news for Wallace is he just turned in his best race in weeks, but the bad news? He's even further away from a playoff spot now after Joey Logano leaped off the elimination line and slotted in Alex Bowman, 51 points ahead of No. 23. It's looking likely any more playoff participants will need to win, and for Wallace, that likely won't come this weekend. The 23XI Racing driver has struggled on road courses in his career and turned in a P31 in Chicago a year ago.
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14. Alex Bowman (+1)
Season-high: 8
Season-low: 18
Comment: Several of Bowman's stats are still on track to be career bests, but as previously mentioned, he's now squarely on the edge of missing the postseason for the second straight year. It's a bit of a surprise he hasn't won this year, however, and it would be a bit of a surprise if it were to happen on Sunday, too -- even though No. 48 has a respectable 15.1 average finish on road courses.
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13. Ty Gibbs (-1)
Season-high: 4
Season-low: 15
Comment: Gibbs briefly saw time at the front of the field at Nashville, but overall is still mired in a top-10-less streak that now extends to five races after finishing sixth in the Coca-Cola 600. He's got a high ceiling for his road-course talents, though, and landed a top 10 in the Chicago debut last year. It's possible he rebounds this weekend.
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12. Joey Logano (+2)
Season-high: 5
Season-low: 20
Comment: Boy, that felt like vintage Logano, didn't it? The wily veteran instantaneously (well, after a record five OTs, at least) removed all the pressure of just making the playoffs and now gets to shift that to the pressure to win a third title. As Team Penske heats up as a whole, look for Logano to reinsert himself into the title talk. A top-10 finish last year at Chicago hints he could keep it going, and it's not impossible he adds another win before the playoffs, too.
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11. Ross Chastain (-2)
Season-high: 5
Season-low: 14
Comment: Chastain expectedly did spend time out front Sunday for 45 laps at Nashville, but after wrecking late off the nose of Kyle Larson was left with just four points and a P33 at one of his best tracks. While last year was a banner day for Trackhouse teammate Shane van Gisbergen, Chicago didn't go so well for Chastain, who ran all the laps to finish 22nd.
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10. Chris Buescher (+1)
Season-high: 9
Season-low: 16
Comment: That's now back-to-back top fives and three in the last four races for Buescher, who is fully enjoying this Ford resurgence over the past two months as he jockeys for playoff positioning. No. 17 is a solid road racer and should be able to turn in another strong weekend in Chicago, where he was 10th last year.
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9. Brad Keselowski (+1)
Season-high: 5
Season-low: 18
Comment: Keselowski was strong in the two opening stages and thus still walked away with 24 points -- as many as 13th-place Justin Haley -- despite an ultimate finishing spot of 25th. Don't expect him to pick up his first-ever road-course win this weekend, though -- the 2012 champ has just 11 top 10s in 45 such starts and was P24 last year at Chicago.
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8. William Byron (-1)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 8
Comment: A new season-low ranking for Byron after what started out as a legendary campaign has fizzled a bit to an average finish more than two spots lower than last year, along with just one top 10 over the last five races. He is developing into quite the road racer, though, so despite just a P13 in last year's first running at Chicago, he could conceivably get back on the win train this weekend.
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7. Martin Truex Jr. (-2)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 10
Comment: We're not quite near "Truex-might-miss-the-playoffs" territory yet, but No. 19 has now finished outside the top 10 in six of the last seven races. He's one of the most prolific road racers in the sport, but last year's Chicago debut didn't go swimmingly for him, with a 32nd-place finish.
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6. Ryan Blaney (+2)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: 12
Comment: Another strong weekend for Blaney, who has had more of those lately than dismal ones after a rough month of May. His one-and-only road-course win came all the way back in 2018, so he's quite due. This feels like somewhat of a winnable weekend for him.
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5. Tyler Reddick (+1)
Season-high: 3
Season-low: 14
Comment: For a guy who has a win and five top-six finishes over the past 10 races, Reddick sure was fuming after Sunday's P3 at Nashville. It feels like he's about to lock in and become a serious force, potentially as soon as this weekend. He's already been massively trending up, and with three road wins already to his credit, it feels like he'll be one of the favorites on Sunday.
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4. Chase Elliott (-1)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: 17
Comment: Five overtimes or not, nothing appears to be standing in the way of Elliott and this wild top-20 streak he's on to start the season, now at 19 races. Mr. Road Course was, naturally, a threat at Chicago last year -- he finished third -- and the way things are rolling, win No. 2 of 2024 might be right around the corner.
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3. Christopher Bell (-1)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: 15
Comment: Bell once again looked every bit the title favorite at Nashville after a heck of a weekend in New Hampshire, leading 131 circuits before a crash sidelined him 227 laps into Sunday's race. The two-time road-course winner should have an easy time topping last year's P18 in the inaugural Chicago Street Race.
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2. Denny Hamlin (+2)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 9
Comment: Nashville's pole winner was very much in position to become the first four-time winner this season before running out of fuel -- but still managing to finish 12th -- as he continued to look destined for yet another Championship 4 apearance. He was last year's pole starter at Chicago as well, though he just narrowly missed out on a top 10, finishing 11th.
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1. Kyle Larson (--)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 5
Comment: "Rivalry" or not, Larson and Hamlin will be battling the rest of the way it seems ... and likely also in Phoenix for the title later on this year. Sunday marked the first time Larson didn't lead a lap for two consecutive races, but after a P4 at Chicago last year, you'd better not expect there to be a third for No. 5.