
Power Rankings: Is Brad Keselowski the next champ to snap winless streak?
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NASCAR.com's Pat DeCola ranks the top 20 NASCAR Cup Series drivers after Chase Elliott's win at Texas Motor Speedway and before Sunday's race at Talladega Superspeedway (3 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
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20. Carson Hocevar (Not ranked last week)
Season-high: 20
Season-low: Out
Comment: This might be the fastest a rookie has ever notched their first Power Rankings appearance, but Hocevar earned it after turning in his first top 10 in 18 career starts this past weekend. He's done a great job finishing races in one piece, something that's been a knock on him during his comeup through the ranks ... and something he wasn't able to do in his first Talladega start last fall. Stay tuned.
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19. Erik Jones (--)
Season-high: 18
Season-low: Out
Comment: Jones finished 19th at Texas, is 19th in these rankings for the second week in a row, is averaging a finish of 19.4 and ranks 19th in the standings. I don't know what any of this means, but he's significantly better than that at Talladega, where he's finished sixth or higher in five of the last eight races.
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18. Alex Bowman (-6)
Season-high: 10
Season-low: 18
Comment: Texas was an unfortunate race for Bowman, who was collected in an early multi-car crash and netted just one total point, hence the big dip here. This weekend could be a tough spot to rebound, though, to compound his issues. The No. 48 does have a Talladega runner-up to his credit (spring 2019, when he was in the No. 88), but overall has just four top 10s in 16 starts for a 23.9 average finish.
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17. Kyle Busch (--)
Season-high: 3
Season-low: 17
Comment: A dual top-10 finish for Richard Childress Racing's drivers at Texas was great -- but was it enough to stop the bleeding? That's still just four total between he and teammate Austin Dillon, nine races into the schedule. They're both capable of winning Talladega outright -- which Busch did last year -- so maybe this could spark some things. This is the right direction, but there's a ways to go.
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16. Daniel Suárez (--)
Season-high: 12
Season-low: Out
Comment: Finally, I can stop pointing out that Suárez's Atlanta win was his only top 10 of the season -- because he added another one, a top five, at Texas. Everything is in place for Suárez to succeed at a high level consistently; it just comes down to execution. He's executed quite well at Talladega recently, picking up three of his four total top 10s there in the past three races.
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15. Joey Logano (-1)
Season-high: 5
Season-low: 20
Comment: Though he has just two top 10s to show for it, Logano has averaged a 7.5 finish and 35.75 points per race over the past four contests to get right back in the thick of things. Logano can win anywhere, any weekend and has three Talladega trophies ... but just one top 10 there in the last nine races despite leading laps in all but one of them.
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14. Chris Buescher (-2)
Season-high: 11
Season-low: 16
Comment: Fifteen races at his home track, 15 races outside the top 10. Buescher's Texas drought is still quite surprising, but it won't be a surprise if he winds up winning his first 2024 race this weekend. Despite just three total top 10s at Talladega, he's come to be one of the more respected superspeedway racers and should be among the leaders of the Ford contingent. He was third in this race last year.
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13. Brad Keselowski (+5)
Season-high: 11
Season-low: 18
Comment: Closer and closer and closer. The 2012 champ is eventually going to break back through for his first win since 2021, and he nearly did so at Texas before saddling up second. Keselowski has an excellent shot to make it back-to-back weekends of champions ending winless droughts as there quite literally is not a better driver in the field at Talladega (six wins) than him.
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12. Ross Chastain (-2)
Season-high: 5
Season-low: 14
Comment: Chastain understandably was not thrilled with the result of how Texas played out on Sunday as it was looking like one of his best runs of the season ... until it wasn't. The 2022 spring Talladega winner will likely be in the mix once again this weekend, though, and No. 1 will be looking to capitalize after an opportunity was lost in Fort Worth.
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11. Chase Briscoe (+4)
Season-high: 11
Season-low: Out
Comment: Kevin Harvick's departure left a massive hole in Stewart-Haas Racing's driver lineup, but Briscoe has done a great job carrying the water for the organization as it moves on from a surefire Hall of Famer. Briscoe is knocking on the door of the top 10 in points and has averaged a 9.0 finish the past three Talladega races. There's a lot to like about the direction this team is headed.
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10. Bubba Wallace (+1)
Season-high: 10
Season-low: 19
Comment: While Sunday probably didn't sting as badly as last fall at Texas, the seventh-place finish is a bit of a missed opportunity for the No. 23 team. Still, Wallace has been showing more consistent speed weekly and always tends to be a factor on superspeedways, so another shot at Victory Lane is right around the corner this weekend in Alabama.
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9. Ty Gibbs (--)
Season-high: 4
Season-low: 9
Comment: Gibbs appeared to have one of the fastest cars entering the race, but it never fully materialized (just five laps led) en route to a P13 for his third straight finish outside the top 10. And now for his next challenge -- finishing inside the top 30 at Talladega, which he's never done in three starts.
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8. Christopher Bell (-1)
Season-high: 4
Season-low: 11
Comment: Bell managed a 29-point effort at Texas after his day nearly ended early, but it does feel like the shine has worn off here a bit after a strong three-race stretch from Phoenix to COTA. Bell is talented enough to win anywhere, but the threat of a third straight non-top 10 is a real possibility as he has had just two top 10s in eight Talladega starts.
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7. Ryan Blaney (-2)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: 7
Comment: Blaney's 17 laps led at Texas were his second-most in any race (and most on a non-drafting track) this season ... so, naturally, it wound up resulting in his worst finish of the year after a late mishap. He's rarely down long, though, and it's hard to ask for more recent success at a track than he's had at Talladega, with a pair of runner-ups and a win in the past three trips there.
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6. Tyler Reddick (+2)
Season-high: 6
Season-low: 14
Comment: Reddick was wicked fast once again at Texas and was in contention for the win before settling in fourth after NASCAR Overtime. He continues to be among the fastest drivers out there, and while raw speed doesn't count quite as much at Talladega, he'll take it -- he hasn't landed a top 10 there since 2021.
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5. Martin Truex Jr. (-1)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 10
Comment: Two of Truex's worst races of the season have come in the past two weeks, but, good news for him, they were still both finishes inside the top 18. Unfortunately, there's bad news for him ahead, and it's that Talladega is next -- where he's finished inside the top 18 just four times since 2016.
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4. Chase Elliott (+2)
Season-high: 4
Season-low: 17
Comment: Now that's more like it. It's been a heck of a season already, but Elliott being a part of the championship picture feels like the last missing piece to get the ball rolling here -- and now we're really going to see some action. He's obviously extremely capable at Talladega as well, and what a thrill it would be for the NASCAR world if he was able to string two together after losing the address to Victory Lane for nearly two years.
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3. Denny Hamlin (--)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 9
Comment: Hamlin has seen his fair share of good luck this season, so it was only a matter of time before the tables turned -- and they did at Texas, leaving him with a late P30 after contending for the win. Perhaps the most seasoned superspeedway racer in the field, Hamlin hasn't finished in the top 10 in the Talladega spring race since 2020, but he should be able to change that Sunday.
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2. Kyle Larson (--)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 5
Comment: Everybody knows Larson is a wheelman -- but even the best perform better with, you know, all the wheels. Larson's finish outside the top 20 was not of his doing, and he'd dominated earlier in the day before losing a wheel. The problem now is -- with just three top 10s in 18 Talladega starts -- he runs the risk of being 10 races into the season after Sunday and having top 10s in fewer than half of them. He has Championship 4 written all over him, but that's not a championship recipe.
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1. William Byron (--)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 7
Comment: Even when his teammate had a big day, Byron methodically turned in yet another top five and is now tied for the series lead with four of them. He's been knocking on the door of his first Talladega win as well (with two runner-ups in the last seven races). Would you be at all surprised to see the 2024 Daytona 500 winner claim win No. 4 of the season on Sunday? Me neither.