Power Rankings: Reddick climbs to No. 1 for first time — is an Indy win next?
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NASCAR.com's Pat DeCola ranks the top 20 NASCAR Cup Series drivers after Ryan Blaney's win at Pocono Raceway and before Sunday's race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, IMS Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
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20. Kyle Busch (-4)
Season-high: 3
Season-low: 20
Comment: You're well aware just how challenging Busch's season is so far, but one stat to really put that into context: The two-time champ posted a career-best 22 top-five finishes just a handful of years ago (2018) and only has two such finishes this season, with just six top 10s. But he has a great shot to turn things around this weekend. Rowdy tested at Indy earlier this season and won two of the six most recent races there on the oval.
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19. Josh Berry (Not ranked last week)
Season-high: 12
Season-low: Out
Comment: While a 20th-place finish from a fifth-place starting spot isn't ideal, Berry did lead laps -- eight in total -- for just the second time since May as he continues to battle for a playoff spot. He's never raced at Indy in NASCAR national series competition, nor has he ever picked up a Cup top 10 at a track 2 miles or bigger, so don't expect him to gain much ground this weekend.
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18. Austin Cindric (+1)
Season-high: 16
Season-low: Out
Comment: Cindric isn't lighting up the leaderboard, but he has top 20s in four straight races for the first time this year and has led more laps this year than his first two seasons combined. An Indy win might be at the top of his wishlist, and after two frustrating results there in the Xfinity Series (the last of which was in 2019), he'll be itching to make his mark Sunday.
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17. Daniel Suárez (+3)
Season-high: 12
Season-low: Out
Comment: It's not much, but Suárez has earned consecutive top 20s for just the second time since Bristol as he looks to make late-regular-season gains before the playoffs. He could keep it rolling, too — Indy clicked for Suárez early in his career, turning in a P7 in his first attempt there in 2017 and not finishing worse than 20th in his four starts.
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16. Chase Briscoe (+1)
Season-high: 11
Season-low: Out
Comment: Briscoe earned a much-needed top 15 at Pocono and could be within striking distance of a playoff spot on points, though he's got some catching up to do. The Hoosier will be licking his chops to get his first oval Cup action at Indy, where he turned in a pair of top 10s in two NXS starts in 2018-19.
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15. Ross Chastain (-2)
Season-high: 5
Season-low: 15
Comment: Even after Sunday's second-to-last-place result, Chastain is still averaging a better finish than last year but otherwise is basically down across the board, even dropping to a season low in these rankings. All three of his Indianapolis starts came with fledgling teams, but he performed reasonably well, including a 17th-place run for Spire Motorsports in 2020. He could theoretically get things going this weekend.
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14. Bubba Wallace (+1)
Season-high: 10
Season-low: 19
Comment: Still looking for a bit more here, but Wallace is clearly starting to round into form a bit with a strong three-race stretch the past few weeks as he looks to elevate himself above the elimination line. He turned in a pair of strong runs in lesser equipment than he's in now at Indy in his three starts there, even finishing third in 2019. No reason to think he won't keep building this weekend.
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13. Joey Logano (+1)
Season-high: 5
Season-low: 20
Comment: Logano proved me wrong and was able to keep up his on-again/off-again finishes in the top 10, alternating such results for literallly the last eight weeks and landing P5 at Pocono. Everything about him screams Brickyard 400 winner -- 10.8 average finish, drives for Roger Penske, wins in big moments, etc. -- and yet Logano has yet to win there on any layout. And if his finishes trend continues, he won't even break the top 10 this weekend. Feels like he will, though.
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12. Chris Buescher (--)
Season-high: 9
Season-low: 16
Comment: No stage points at Pocono for Buescher ... but still a decent P11 in a race where he led 19 laps to extend his top-20 streak to seven races. The No. 17 driver did score a top 10 at Indy in 2017 and overall hasn't been awful there (18.8 average finish) but has yet to lead a lap.
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11. Ty Gibbs (-2)
Season-high: 4
Season-low: 15
Comment: Gibbs was setting himself up for a promising Pocono weekend after winning the pole and looking sporty, but his engine gave out toward the end of the race, and he'll have to continue to wait for win No. 1. Indy will be a bit of a test for him and perhaps a tough one to pass with how his races have gone lately.
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10. Brad Keselowski (+1)
Season-high: 5
Season-low: 18
Comment: Keselowski had a several-race stretch where he looked like a title contender in late spring before rough finishes the past three weeks dropped him from that conversation a bit. He was strong at Pocono, however, with a top three in Stage 2 and settling seventh for his first 40-plus-point-effort since Gateway. As the most recent winner on the Indy oval among active drivers, No. 6 could add his second win of the season this weekend.
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9. Alex Bowman (+1)
Season-high: 8
Season-low: 18
Comment: Apart from his Daytona 500 runner-up, Bowman essentially just turned in his best two races of the season and could be building momentum at the right time. He's yet to pick up a top 10 at Indy in five attempts, but with how strong Hendrick Motorsports is there combined with his success lately, it seems likely that'll change Sunday.
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8. Christopher Bell (-3)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: 15
Comment: For a season in which he feels quite dominant and like a surefire title contender, Bell is averaging his worst finish yet in Joe Gibbs Racing equipment, having turned in three straight finishes outside the top 10. Speed hasn't been an issue, however, and there's a strong chance he snaps that streak at Indy, where he was P12 in his only attempt in 2020.
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7. Martin Truex Jr. (-1)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 10
Comment: Truex turned in his second-best points day since Kansas at Pocono, halting a two-race skid that saw him lose some points positioning. Indy feels like a track at which he'd excel, but he has just three top 10s in a series-leading 16 starts there.
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6. William Byron (+1)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 8
Comment: After some real hit-or-miss type weeks over the past two months, Byron appears to be righting the ship, putting together back-to-back top 10s for the first time since May. No. 24 should keep it rolling in Indy, where he's led in all three of his starts and turned in a P4 in 2019.
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5. Ryan Blaney (+1)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: 12
Comment: Blaney is still averaging his worst finish since joining Team Penske, yet is also well on his way to potentially topping his career high in wins for a season as he builds a strong foundation for his title defense. He led in three of the most recent four Indy oval races, but overall has just one top 10 there amid some rough, rough outings.
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4. Denny Hamlin (--)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 9
Comment: We mentioned last week Hamlin would likely turn things around at Pocono, where he's the all-time wins leader -- and he did just that. A Brickyard victory is perhaps the second-biggest thing on Hamlin's to-do list -- along with that elusive title, of course -- and he's gotten close before, with a trio of top-three finishes across his 16 starts there. This might be the weekend.
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3. Chase Elliott (--)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: 17
Comment: Elliott saw a lengthy streak broken for the second week in a row -- this time, losing his no-pit-road-speeding-penalties streak at 92 races -- but he did land in the top 10 again. No. 9 was starting to get better on the Indy oval, averaging a top 10 the last two events and leading 26 laps in the last race there.
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2. Kyle Larson (-1)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 5
Comment: Larson has started to dip a bit, having now failed to lead a lap in four straight races for the first time since mid-2022. Sunday will be an interesting one for him -- he has six starts on the oval, but all of them came with Chip Ganassi Racing, and the last three of which were not amazing.
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1. Tyler Reddick (+1)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 14
Comment: All the top drivers seem to have some sort of issue keeping them from turning in consisently strong finishes right now -- except Reddick, who has seven finishes of eighth or better over the last eight races. He's a recent brick kisser at Indy -- albeit from winning on the road-couse layout -- and it's possible he wins on the oval layout as well this weekend. Reddick's lone start on that layout came in 2020, and he was P8 as a rookie driving for RCR.