NASCAR.com’s Zach Sturniolo ranks the top 20 Cup Series drivers competing for the 2026 championship after Tyler Reddick’s win at Kansas Speedway and before Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway (3 p.m. ET, FOX, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Austin Cindric enters as the defending winner.
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Analysis: Another week, another historic victory for Reddick. The No. 45 team keeps on rolling with its fifth win in nine races, continuing a simply staggering start for Reddick. Surely, the magic will run out at some point, right? Maybe, but maybe not. Reddick is 2-for-2 on drafting tracks in 2026 after winning the Daytona 500 and at EchoPark Speedway, plus he won Talladega in the spring of 2024.
Analysis: So close to another Kansas win for Hamlin, and yet still so far. For the second Kansas race in a row, Hamlin battled a 23XI Racing car for a victory, and for the second time, came up short. This time, Hamlin had to settle for fourth place after leading a race-high 131 of 274 laps. Hamlin may be frustrated he didn’t earn career win No. 62, but there are plenty of positives to take away: He’s up to second in the standings after winning a stage on Sunday and has led 130 or more laps in three of the last five Cup races.
Analysis: Larson was one lap away from snapping that 32-race winless drought … until Reddick did what Reddick does. But Larson walks away with his first runner-up finish of 2026 instead, with a second consecutive week earning 54 points. He’s still looking for his first Talladega Superspeedway win, but he did finish second in last spring’s race to the checkers.
Analysis: Blaney was a distant 24th-place finisher in Sunday’s race at Kansas, marking his first truly miserable day of the season and earning a season-low 13 points. His day appeared to be on the right track until contact on pit road with AJ Allmendinger damaged his right-front fender, and Blaney never recovered. Now he turns toward ‘Dega, where he’s a three-time winner, most recently in the fall of 2023.
Analysis: That’s more like it. Elliott returned to form at Kansas, where he was in contention late for a top-five finish but ultimately finished eighth, squarely where he averaged all day, per NASCAR loop data. That was a needed rebound for Elliott, who slid to a 22nd-place finish at Bristol after a spin in overtime. Building momentum is a tall task at Talladega, but perhaps that’s what the No. 9 team can do after a season full of peaks and valleys early on.
Analysis: Gibbs keeps riding this wave of top 10s since COTA, now extending his streak to seven races after a ninth-place showing at Kansas. His one Achilles’ heel this year, though, has been superspeedways, finishing 23rd at Daytona and 37th at EchoPark after crashing out. His resume at Talladega isn’t stellar, but a third-place finish there last fall should be encouraging to the No. 54 camp.
Analysis: And just like that, Wallace looks like he’s back on track. That two-race skid at Darlington and Martinsville certainly tanked some momentum, but a strong fifth-place run at Kansas has Wallace back in his groove. Those two anomalies are Wallace’s only races with fewer than 30 points scored this season. Now he returns to the site of his first career win back in 2021, and has top 10s in each of his last three Talladega trips.
Analysis: It’s been a weird start to the year for Byron, who averaged a 13.54 running position Sunday at Kansas, but he capitalized on an overtime restart to walk away seventh and put his Bristol nightmare in the past. Talladega may not have given him a victory yet, but his recent finishes are notable, racking up five top 10s in his last six visits.
Analysis: What could have been, huh? Bell lined up behind Reddick on the final restart in Sunday’s race and rocketed to the outside with hopes of fighting Larson for the win. Instead, contact from Reddick put Bell into the wall and broke a toe link on the No. 20 Toyota, dropping Bell out of contention and into a 20th-place finish, one lap down after leading 47 laps. After finishing inside the top five in three straight races, Bell has one top 10 in the four races since. Talladega hasn’t quite been his friend either, with two DNFs in the past four races – both in the spring.
Analysis: What a finish for Briscoe, who earned his second straight top-five finish after an insane restart on four fresh tires launched him from 11th to third in two laps. Briscoe has finally entered The Chase territory, fittingly, and returns to the site of his most recent victory at Talladega. These are the kinds of finishes expected from Briscoe and the No. 19 team. The question is whether they’ve truly found some steady ground.
Analysis: Keselowski capitalized on the late-race restart to score a sixth-place finish at Kansas, earning his third top 10 in the last five races. Now he heads to Talladega, where his six wins are the most among active drivers and tied with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon for the second-most all-time. Keselowski has led in 26 of his 34 Talladega starts, so expect the No. 6 Ford up front again Sunday as the 2012 champ seeks his first ‘Dega win since 2021.
Analysis: A steady showing for Buescher at Kansas produced his fourth top-10 finish of the season, snapping a two-race stretch in the teens. The RFK Racing Fords are always fast on superspeedways, as evidenced by laps led in 10 of his last 13 Talladega trips. But so far, Buescher has just one top-five finish to show for it after finishing third in the 2023 spring race. After two DNFs there in 2025, Buescher may just be glad to see the checkered flag Sunday.
Analysis: Preece has been the model of consistency lately. His 11th-place showing at Kansas continued a six-race span of finishes between eighth and 13th, planting him 13th both in our rankings and the Cup Series standings. Talladega hasn’t given him much to write home about with one top five and three top 10s in 12 starts, but only one DNF here in his last five starts is encouraging, considering the calamity that abounds.
Analysis: Well, that was an ugly run. Logano finished 30th at Kansas, two laps down and earning just seven points, marking his second run of 30th or worse in the past four weeks after a dismal Darlington day in March. It’s been feast or famine lately for the No. 22 team, which earned finishes of third (Martinsville) and seventh (Bristol) in between these recent gut punches. If it’s any consolation, Logano is a three-time Talladega winner with 19 or more laps led in each of his last five races there. His last top five at Talladega came in 2021, though.
Analysis: For as poorly as Kansas went for his teammates, Cindric had a fine day, taking home a 12th-place finish for his third top 15 in four races. Cindric returns to Talladega as the defending winner of the spring race, but he’s another driver that has seen checkers or wreckers here: He has one win, two top fives and three finishes of 23rd or worse in his last five ‘Dega appearances.
Analysis: A strong day for Hocevar was thwarted by a crummy day on pit road. NASCAR Insights ranked the No. 77 crew 31st of 37 entrants in Sunday’s race, dropping Hocevar from an average running position of 9.87 to a 13th-place finish. Talladega treated the Spire driver well last year with dual sixth-place finishes. He was also fighting for the lead late at Daytona and EchoPark earlier this year, so don’t be surprised if Hocevar is in the mix for his first win Sunday afternoon.
Analysis: Kansas was pretty average for Suárez, who finished 19th on Sunday and averaged an 18.56 running position. Suárez isn’t a spectacular superspeedway racer, but he sure isn’t bad. The No. 7 driver has four top 10s in his last seven Talladega starts, including a ninth-place showing last spring. He does, however, have a drafting-track victory at EchoPark Speedway in 2024.
Analysis: For the first time since 2024, welcome back to the Power Rankings, Todd. This has been a decent stretch for Gilliland, netting a strong sixth-place finish at Bristol before earning a respectable 17th-place result at Kansas. It’s a good time to have some positive momentum, too: he finished second at Talladega last fall and has an average finish of 13.1 in eight starts here – his best at any track with three or more starts.
Analysis: A season that started so well has gone so sour. Van Gisbergen’s 36th-place finish at Kansas is his third showing of 34th or worse in the last five races, earning a combined five points in those three events. He’s been perfectly respectable at Talladega in four starts, though, finishing 11th last fall and 15th in the 2024 fall race.
Analysis: Hard to find a bright spot for Trackhouse Racing as a whole when its premier driver, Chastain, is 26th, two laps down at Kansas – a track he won at a year and a half ago. Nonetheless, there should be far fewer concerns heading to Talladega, another track he won at back in 2022.