Power Rankings: Expect to see No. 9 out front at Martinsville … and perhaps win
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NASCAR.com's Pat DeCola ranks the top 20 NASCAR Cup Series drivers after Denny Hamlin's win at Richmond Raceway and before Sunday’s race at Martinsville Speedway (3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
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20. Josh Berry (Not ranked last week)
Season-high: 20
Season-low: Out
Comment: Berry's first in-season Power Rankings appearance comes after arguably his best overall race as a Cup driver, despite the eventual 11th-place result. His 37 points collected were the most he's scored in any race to date -- and more than fifth-place finisher Chase Elliott's 36. It's looking like the rookie is going to just be a non-stop threat on short tracks his entire career, and with Martinsville -- the site of his first national series win in 2021 -- on deck, look for him to race in the top 10 again this weekend.
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19. John Hunter Nemechek (-2)
Season-high: 15
Season-low: Out
Comment: Nemechek has looked great at times this season (and has a pair of nice top 10s at Daytona and Bristol) but is starting to settle in as more of a top-25 driver, with all of his other finishes ranging from 21st to 25th. He's still outpacing expectations, and there's a lot to like here over the long term, but with finishes of 25th and 26th in his two Martinsville starts, he's in danger of dropping out of the rankings after this weekend.
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18. Chase Briscoe (-2)
Season-high: 16
Season-low: Out
Comment: Briscoe has a pretty respectable 13.25 average finish over the last four races, but he still has just one other top 10 since starting the season with one at Daytona in February. Here's where he could actually turn the jets on, though -- the No. 14 always seems to do well at Martinsville, and Briscoe himself has four straight top 10s there, including two straight top fives.
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17. Joey Logano (+2)
Season-high: 5
Season-low: 20
Comment: It sure felt normal to see the No. 22 Ford in the mix with the leaders at the end of a race on Sunday night, didn't it? That's probably going to be more the norm the rest of the way compared to what we saw from Logano and Co. in the early races, and he actually should contend for the victory once again this weekend at Martinsville. The former winner at the Virginia short track was the runner-up in each of the past two spring races there, as well.
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16. Daniel Suárez (-1)
Season-high: 12
Season-low: Out
Comment: Suárez is very much headed in the wrong direction in the standings at the moment, and if it weren't for the win at Atlanta, there would probably be mild panic in the No. 99 stable with, still, just one top 10 on the board and another rough track ahead. Suárez put together back-to-back top 10s at Martinsville in 2018-19 but otherwise has yet to manage the feat in 12 other starts there.
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15. Kyle Busch (-2)
Season-high: 3
Season-low: 17
Comment: The frustrations continue for Busch, who has now finished 20th or worse in four of the past five races. At this point last year, Rowdy already had a win and a runner-up in his first handful of races with Richard Childress Racing. He's had plenty of success at Martinsville (two wins; 1,429 laps led), but his last three races there have netted a best finish of 21st. There's some concern percolating here.
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14. Bubba Wallace (+4)
Season-high: 10
Season-low: 19
Comment: Wallace was in position for a much better finish than where he ended up, but the final pit stop went sour, and he lost spots (though still scored a strong 36 points). Still, it was arguably his best overall run of the season and now heads to a track at which he's averaged a 9.33 finish over the past three races.
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13. Brad Keselowski (+1)
Season-high: 11
Season-low: 17
Comment: It looked for a bit that RFK Racing "missed it" with their Richmond setups, in a race which the team very much had circled on its calendar. In the end, however, there were both cars, in the top 10 on the results sheet. Martinsville was one of his better tracks in the Team Penske days, but Keselowski has yet to get a handle on the half-mile track since making the move to RFK. This might be the year he does, though.
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12. Alex Bowman (-2)
Season-high: 10
Season-low: 17
Comment: Sunday was still a productive points day, and he's moving in the right direction in the standings. But oddly enough, all three of Bowman's top 10s are actually top fives, and he has a best finish of 17th in his four other starts. To me, that feels like he has speed more often than not, and his bad results are often circumstantial, so it wouldn't be a shock to see him battle for a second career Martinsville win this weekend on a big weekend for Hendrick Motorsports.
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11. Chris Buescher (+1)
Season-high: 11
Season-low: 16
Comment: Buescher wasn't able to add a second Richmond win to his resume, but he was able to add a fourth straight top 10 overall after hitting a low point at Las Vegas with just one point scored. His overall Martinsville stats aren't promising, but -- like his numbers as a whole -- the past few seasons have seen a noticeable uptick and No. 17 earned his two top 10s there from 2021-on.
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10. Ross Chastain (-2)
Season-high: 5
Season-low: 14
Comment: Chastain has been good this season but hasn't really been finding the front of the field a whole lot (26 total laps led) despite being on pace for by far his best average finish (10.7) to date. The sense is this team is right there, though, and it could all click at Martinsville, where the No. 1 obviously has some fond, recent memories.
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9. Tyler Reddick (--)
Season-high: 8
Season-low: 14
Comment: Apart from a hiccup at Bristol, Reddick has essentially been a weekly top-10 driver, and it's only a matter of time the chips fall his way and he lands in Victory Lane for the first time this year. You might want to look elsewhere other than Martinsville for it to happen, though. Reddick has never led a lap there and averages a finish outside the top 20.
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8. Chase Elliott (+3)
Season-high: 8
Season-low: 17
Comment: Elliott has yet to have a "bad" race in 2024 and just turned in his best points day since Daytona. He now gets to compete at one of his better tracks in an ultra-important weekend for his team owner. The No. 9 car seemingly almost always leads at some point at Martinsville with Elliott behind the wheel, and there's no reason to think Sunday will be an exception. This might be the weekend.
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7. Ryan Blaney (--)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: 7
Comment: Blaney's 19th-place result at Richmond -- a track he's struggled with at times -- isn't awful, but it was his second-worst points day of the season. Quite unlikely he's still dwelling on it, however, with perhaps his best track right around the corner. The defending champ is also the most recent Martinsville winner.
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6. Ty Gibbs (-2)
Season-high: 4
Season-low: 8
Comment: Gibbs' blistering start hit a minor speed bump at Richmond, a track his team dominated but he wound up finishing just 16th. This weekend will be his fourth career start at Martinsville despite his sophomore status, and while he doesn't have a top 10 there yet, he hasn't finished outside the top 20, either.
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5. Christopher Bell (+1)
Season-high: 4
Season-low: 11
Comment: That's now four straight strong top 10s for Bell and a whole lot of points to go along with them, and he and the No. 20 team look like championship material already. They've also been among the best at Martinsville lately, and it feels near impossible that Bell won't be a contender once again on Sunday.
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4. Kyle Larson (-1)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 5
Comment: Larson went from very nearly competing for the win to very nearly being wrecked out to somehow finishing third, perhaps to even his own surprise, in a very short amount of time at Richmond -- but that's why he's one of the best out there. He's routinely a contender at Martinsville since he's shifted over to Hendrick, and he'll almost definitely be among the leaders once again Sunday afternoon.
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3. William Byron (-2)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 7
Comment: You know it's going to be a tremendous season for a driver when they can not even feel like a big factor the whole race, but somehow, they wind up in a spot like seventh when the checkered flag falls like Byron did at Richmond. A place where you can count on him to be a major factor, however, is Martinsville, and it's one he and crew chief Rudy Fugle have had circled as one to find big gains at this year, despite winning this race in 2022 handily.
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2. Denny Hamlin (+3)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 9
Comment: Hey, he'll take it. A driver doesn't get to 53 career Cup Series wins without luck mixed with aggression along the way, and Hamlin is now the second two-time 2024 winner. This is the part of the schedule where he really shines, and the Virginia native could easily make it two wins in a row and three in the last four weeks with a potential sixth Martinsville victory.
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1. Martin Truex Jr. (+1)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 10
Comment: Perhaps a consolation prize, but Truex is finally back on top in these rankings for the first time since he was crowed Regular Season Champion after Daytona's summer race last year -- and what a wild ride for him it's been since then. Richmond was just the latest entry in an extremely interesting last seven months for him, and this season's most consistent driver so far just might start a new chapter of success this weekend at Martinsville, where he won three races from 2019-21.