Power Rankings: Carson Hocevar bursts into ranks, but what’s next at COTA?

Analysis: No. 1 in points, No. 1 in ranks. Blaney has been an absolute force to start the season, proving it again Sunday at Atlanta by charging to a fourth-place finish despite a late spin off the front bumper of Carson Hocevar. Results of seventh at Daytona and fourth at Atlanta have Blaney atop the standings, in part thanks to netting stage points in three of the opening four stages in 2025. COTA hasn’t been the best track for Blaney, but there’s no doubt he could stretch his early lead further over his charging competition.

Analysis: The back-to-back Daytona 500 champ nearly went back-to-back to kick off 2025. Instead, as Byron was running third with three laps to go, Kyle Larson walled Austin Cindric, who bounced directly across Byron’s nose and sent both spinning into the inside wall. His 75 points through two races, though, is enough for second in the standings and, for now, second in the rankings — all while returning to Circuit of The Americas, where he won in 2024.

Analysis: And just like that, this guy figures out superspeedways too, huh? Larson was on the losing end of a three-way battle for the win when the caution flag waved on the final lap, with winner Bell and runner-up Hocevar just to Larson’s outside as the No. 5 Chevy finished third. In a surprise to no one, Larson is good everywhere. His results at COTA, however, were middling by his standards with three finishes of 14th or worse in four starts. New layout, new Larson?

Analysis: OK, Christopher. We are officially on notice. Bell has been a proven commodity for years, winning at road courses, flat 1-mile ovals, intermediates and short tracks. The one question mark remained superspeedways or drafting tracks … until he led a single lap — the final one — Sunday at Atlanta. His late wreck from the lead at Daytona left him with a finish outside the top 30, but if there was ever a way to bounce back, Bell showed it Sunday.

Analysis: Logano was also caught in the last-lap fracas at Atlanta, leaving him 12th on the final rundown. No one led more laps in Georgia than Logano’s 83 — and no one has led more this season, period. The No. 22 Ford has paced the field for 126 of 467 laps, or 27% of the 2025 season. But so far, his results don’t back the dominance after a Daytona DNF and another finish outside the top 10 Sunday.

Analysis: The Daytona 500 runner-up was caught up in the final-lap melee at Atlanta and ultimately sank to a 19th-place finish despite an average running position of 10.4 at Atlanta. Reddick and his 23XI Racing team are doing just fine, though, trailing points leader Blaney by just 15 points for the top spot in the standings. Reddick has also enjoyed great success on the Austin road course’s previous layout with a win, three top fives and four top 10s in four starts.

Analysis: A dismal qualifying run at Atlanta set Hamlin to start 37th. Turns out that was the right play. Joe Gibbs Racing built Hamlin’s Toyota to handle well, and it did just that as he maneuvered to a sixth-place finish Sunday. Hamlin has been consistent in four COTA starts, placing 14th (2021), 18th (2022), 16th (2023) and 14th (2024) on the old layout. But surely, he’d like to bump that final result into the top 10 this time around.

Analysis: Best average running position in the NASCAR Cup Series? All Cindric at 5.4. What a start to the year for the Penske No. 2 crew, which has led 106 of the 467 laps run so far in 2025 — second-most this season. The previous Circuit of The Americas configuration was a mixed bag results-wise for Cindric, with two top 10s and two finishes of 18th or worse. Cindric welcomes a good right turn though, so it’s fair to say leaving the draft in the past won’t cause concern for Cindric.

Analysis: Well, that wasn’t quite the hometown visit Elliott was anticipating. The 2020 Cup champ was riding just outside the top 10 when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Chase Briscoe got together, sending Elliott into the wall, and breaking a toe link. Though all of that triggered a crash, Elliott did bounce back nicely to a 20th-place finish. His 17.5 average finish isn’t great, but road courses have been quite good to Elliott, including COTA, where he won in 2021.

Analysis: Heck of a start for Wallace and new crew chief Charles Denike, who together have earned 64 points through the opening two races of 2025. Their 10-point collection from winning the first Duel at Daytona certainly did them a favor at Daytona after finishing the 500 in 29th, but his fifth-place standing in points is no fluke. Wallace’s 10.4 average running position through two races is fourth-best in the series, behind only Cindric, Blaney and Byron.

Analysis: Bowman is probably bummed to see the old COTA gone since he never finished worse than eighth (and holds a three-race streak of top fives there). But he is probably psyched to get away from these two drafting-style tracks to start the season. A steady sixth-place result at Daytona was met with a frustrating 26th-place run at Atlanta after his damage from crashing with Buescher. But hey, he’s ninth in points, so things could be worse.

Analysis: Though he was optimistic in his iRacing demonstration of the new COTA course, Chastain has to be sad to see the old 3.41-mile layout disappear from the schedule. Chastain scored his first career Cup win on that configuration and never finished worse than seventh in four starts, adding two more top fives to accompany his 2022 victory. He returns to Austin after a solid rebound at Atlanta, where he finished eighth on the heels of a 40th-place finish in the Daytona 500.

Analysis: Yes, you read that right: Briscoe is currently 45th in points after he and his team incurred a 100-point penalty post-Daytona for spoiler modifications. A 21st-place finish at Atlanta didn’t do much to cut into that deficit, netting just 16 points out of the event. Briscoe’s COTA past has been decent, with top 15s in three of his four starts there.

Analysis: Buescher was a victim of circumstance at Atlanta when a slowing Briscoe forced him to evade, sending him spinning off Turn 4 and in front of Alex Bowman. The incident plummeted Buescher to a 30th-place finish, 26 laps down. Yet, provisionally — and again, just two races in — Buescher maintains a spot in the postseason picture. Last year’s Watkins Glen winner, Buescher is a near guarantee for top-10 finishes on road courses. Expect that trend to set him back in the right direction at COTA.

Analysis: Suárez’s return to the Peach State didn’t go nearly as well as his last spring visit to the 1.54-mile Atlanta oval. Instead of burning down tires in celebration, Suárez’s car was left a smoking heap of carbon fiber and steel after a hefty crash on the Atlanta frontstretch. Perhaps the new COTA layout will play to Suárez’s hand better than the previous one. In four COTA starts, Suárez hasn’t finished better than 24th.

Analysis: An A-Town rebound has Busch in decent positioning after two drafting-style race tracks. His involvement in a late Daytona crash left him 34th with a DNF, but Atlanta allowed Busch to lead 13 laps en route to a seventh-place result. Now, 23rd isn’t exactly where Busch wants to sit in the points standings, but the two-time Cup champ has done well on the previous layout of COTA with top 10s in three of his four starts. Will that continue on the new configuration?

Analysis: ‘Scuse him, pardon him. Hocevar bumped, pushed and shoved his way into this week’s rankings with a career-best second-place finish on Sunday … while making a couple of competitors mad and a few enemies madder. His aggression paid off in a big way — and nearly paid off more if the event finished under the green flag instead of a necessary yellow. Hocevar could find himself in jeopardy of some payback at COTA given the nature of its heavy braking zones. But he could also find himself leaving with another solid finish after placing third in last year’s Watkins Glen event.

Analysis: In NASCAR’s latest edition of, ‘how did they do that?!’ McDowell miraculously made up a six-lap deficit at Atlanta after going to the garage, getting his power steering fixed and receiving a record-tying six free passes under caution to finish 13th in the Ambetter Health 400. The outstanding effort from the Spire Motorsports group nets McDowell 14th in the way-too-early standings, but another test is next at COTA as McDowell has proven to be a top road-course racing threat in the Cup Series.

Analysis: Hyak Motorsports’ Stenhouse is making noise early in 2025. At Daytona, that noise was muted when he and Joey Logano triggered a crash with 15 laps to go in the “Great American Race” while running inside the top five. He rebounded at Atlanta, though, capitalizing on his good track position to net a fifth-place finish. COTA will produce a new challenge as the track’s layout has changed, but he did score a seventh-place finish there in 2023.

Analysis: Only two drivers have finished inside the top 10 in both races this season: Blaney and — you guessed it — Nemechek. The year is young, but finishes of fifth (Daytona 500) and 10th (Atlanta) have the No. 42 Legacy Motor Club driver seventh in NASCAR Cup Series points. With a road course ahead and drafting in the rearview mirror, the question remains whether Nemechek or his Legacy M.C. team will maintain their high standing. But there’s no question he’s off to a good start.