Power Rankings: Ross Chastain set to farm first win of 2024 at Iowa Speedway?
1 of 21
NASCAR.com's Pat DeCola ranks the top 20 NASCAR Cup Series drivers after Kyle Larson's win at Sonoma Raceway and before Sunday's race at Iowa Speedway (7 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
2 of 21
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
20. Michael McDowell (Not ranked last week)
Season-high: 16
Season-low: Out
Comment: At Sonoma, McDowell not only accomplished something he'd never done before -- finish second -- but No. 34 continues to steady the ship after some significantly choppy springtime waters, with now three top 10s in the last five races. There's a great chance he keeps it rolling at Iowa, where McDowell has six straight NASCAR Xfinity Series top 10s, culminating in a runner-up in 2014.
3 of 21
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
19. Daniel Suárez (--)
Season-high: 12
Season-low: Out
Comment: Suárez ran a better race than his finishing result (14th), collecting stage points and routinely running in the top 10 at a favorable track for him. He started on the front row in each of his four Iowa NXS starts, so he clearly knows how to get around the place, and he could definitely use a good run after just two total top 10s in 2024 so far.
4 of 21
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
18. Austin Cindric (-2)
Season-high: 16
Season-low: Out
Comment: Sonoma felt like a better spot to win than Gateway for Cindric, so naturally he finished 22nd in wine country and won in St. Louis. Though he led 58 laps from the pole in his first Iowa Xfinity action in 2018, he has just one top 10 there in four starts for a very mediocre 19.0 average finish. Tough to expect him to do much in the weekend ahead, but he did just surprise us, so you never know.
5 of 21
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
17. Chase Briscoe (--)
Season-high: 11
Season-low: Out
Comment: Sunday was the low point in a rough past several weeks for Briscoe and SHR as a whole, with No. 14 turning in his worst showing (34th) among a seven-race stretch with just one top 10 in that span. Hope could be on the horizon, however -- Briscoe's last trip to Iowa netted an impressive late victory over a dominant Christopher Bell, who led 94% of the race's laps, in the July 2019 NXS race.
6 of 21
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
16. Kyle Busch (+2)
Season-high: 3
Season-low: 18
Comment: It's hard to decide what to make of Busch's season so far -- he clearly still has the talent and speed yet is also clearly grinding it out right now and can't seem to stick out a solid finishing result, generally through no fault of his own. It could go smoothly for him this weekend, though -- as I'm sure you'l be shocked to learn, Rowdy was lights out in his two NXS starts at Iowa, winning one and finishing second in the other.
7 of 21
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
15. Joey Logano (-1)
Season-high: 5
Season-low: 20
Comment: It was really starting to look like Logano was going to be a threat to win once again as he looked sporty from the pole at Sonoma before things went haywire and finished outside the top 20 for the third time in five races. If it's any consolation, Logano is the King of "The New" -- and the Cup Series will be taking on Iowa for the first time. That alone lends credence to his potential this weekend. (Two championships don't hurt his credentials, either.)
8 of 21
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
14. Bubba Wallace (+1)
Season-high: 10
Season-low: 19
Comment: Wallace had a pair of really strong races at Darlington and Charlotte, collecting 72 total points, but has struggled to break the top 20 the last two weekends. He's had above average runs at Iowa in Xfinity and Truck Series action but nothing too dominant. He's also never scored a Cup top 10 at Iowa's closest comparison track -- Richmond -- so I wouldn't bet on him making much noise this weekend.
9 of 21
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
13. Alex Bowman (-1)
Season-high: 8
Season-low: 18
Comment: Bowman has now finished outside the top 10 in back-to-back races for the first time since Vegas and Phoenix, but he's already just one top 10 shy of his entire 2023 total. No. 48 made limited starts in the JR Motorsports No. 88 in 2016, but one of them was at Iowa and netted one of his best finishes that season, a top five. He could be worth keeping an eye on.
10 of 21
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
12. Chris Buescher (+1)
Season-high: 9
Season-low: 16
Comment: Buescher led the second-most laps at Sonoma en route to a third-place finish in what probably feels like yet another missed winning opportunity this season. He's a former Iowa NXS winner, so he could certainly get it done, but it's curious that the win stands as his lone top 10 there in four tries.
11 of 21
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
11. Ryan Blaney (--)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: 12
Comment: Blaney's long month of frustration is over, bookended with seventh-place finishes at Dover and Sonoma, with a 27.75 average finish in the four races separating them. Count on him to show speed at Iowa, too -- Team Penske had a handle on the track back in the day, and Blaney himself never finished outside the top 10 in five starts there, with perhaps his most dominant overall win in NASCAR coming in his last one (252 of 260 laps led).
12 of 21
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
10. Ty Gibbs (-1)
Season-high: 4
Season-low: 11
Comment: Gibbs seems to have lost, to a degree, the consistent weekly speed that made his first win feel so imminent for the first third of the season. Still no major concerns here, but he's one of just a handful of drivers entered in Sunday's race with no national series experience at Iowa, which obviously doesn't help him.
13 of 21
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
9. Ross Chastain (+1)
Season-high: 5
Season-low: 14
Comment: If there's a driver itching to get to Iowa, it's Chastain (and no, not just because its a farming haven out there). Coming off his first top five since Vegas, No. 1 -- an incredibly experienced driver at Iowa, with 14 national series starts -- will be looking for retribution after his last time at the track, when he was disqualified after winning a Truck Series race in 2019. You can bet he's got this one circled as a place he can break through.
14 of 21
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
8. Christopher Bell (--)
Season-high: 4
Season-low: 15
Comment: Bell has now turned in three consecutive top 10s (including a win), and everything is rolling as he eyes a third straight Championship 4 appearance. He's another one itching to get to Iowa as there's perhaps no better driver in the field at the Midwest track. No. 20 has two Xfinity wins there -- and probably should have three -- with two other runner-ups in five total starts.
15 of 21
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
7. William Byron (-1)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 7
Comment: Sonoma was an uncharacteristically rough outing for Byron and the No. 24 group, but because it was an outlier, you can expect it to not turn into any kind of trend. He's won two of his three Iowa national series starts, and Sunday marks a great spot for him to instantly rebound in a big way.
16 of 21
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
6. Martin Truex Jr. (+1)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 10
Comment: Another frustraing end to an otherwise promising race for Truex Jr., who has to be having about the least fun one can possibly have with a car as consistently fast as he has. For as long of a career as he's had, Truex has zero Iowa starts in any series, but he does excel at Richmond and should have a strong shot this weekend regardless.
17 of 21
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
5. Brad Keselowski (--)
Season-high: 5
Season-low: 18
Comment: Sonoma snapped a three-race streak of finishes inside the top three for Keselowski, but he still scored 25 or more points for the fifth straight race. Iowa was Keselowski's stomping ground in the 2010s, compiling a ridiculous 3.0 average finish and three wins across seven Xfinity starts there, so you have to think he's a threat for win No. 2 of 2024 this weekend.
18 of 21
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
4. Denny Hamlin (-3)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 9
Comment: Hamlin got nary a chance to pick up his first Sonoma win with a soured engine almost immediately, but more notably it ended a super strong five-race stretch of top fives for him overall. He's also one of the veterans that has no Iowa experience, though -- like his teammate Truex -- is exceptional at Richmond, and the short-track skills should translate pretty well this weekend.
19 of 21
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
3. Tyler Reddick (+1)
Season-high: 3
Season-low: 14
Comment: It feels like Reddick has been, somehow, quietly elite for the past two months and is due for win No. 2 any time now. He's had a handful of strong runs at Iowa in his national series starts, but overall hasn't been as dominant as you'd think with laps led in just one race. Still, it feels like he should have an excellent shot on Sunday given his equipment and the overall growth as a driver he's shown the past five years since his last start there.
20 of 21
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
2. Chase Elliott (+1)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: 17
Comment: While Elliott didn't pick up his first Sonoma win, he did turn in one of his best points days of the season en route to a strong P4. Look for him to keep the momentum going at Iowa, where he's also looking for his first national series win but came close in 2015 in the Xfinity Series, leading 114 laps in an eventual runner-up.
21 of 21
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
1. Kyle Larson (+1)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 5
Comment: Larson's long, brutal stretch of being knocked off the top peg here is finally over after ... two weeks. Nothing appears to be able to get in the way of No. 5 at the moment as he just continues to look to be the overall driver to beat week in and week out for this year's title. He finished fifth in each of his two previous tries at Iowa in the Xfinity Series, and it feels like a much better chance than not that he improves upon that already strong fact come Sunday night.