NASCAR.com’s Pat DeCola ranks the 16 NASCAR Cup Series drivers in The Chase presented by Mobil 1 after Christopher Bell’s win at Darlington Raceway and before Sunday’s race at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Cup Series Chase schedule | Cup Series standings

Analysis: Darlington somehow managed to be both a rough night for Hamlin — and a validation of his title case. The No. 11 led 68 laps and looked like one of the cars to beat before a slow pit stop shoved him backward, and contact with Michael McDowell sent him into the wall and left him scrambling simply to salvage 18th. He did enough to keep the championship lead, though Bell has carved the advantage down to 12 points after just one race. Fortunately for Hamlin, the next stop could hardly fit better: He won from the pole last September at World Wide Technology Raceway, leading 75 laps. A Chase that began with a 25-point built-in cushion suddenly has almost none, but the driver still holding the trophy line in the standings is also still better positioned than anybody else.

Analysis: So much for “almost.” After seven runner-up finishes — a NASCAR-record number before a first win in a season — Bell finally broke through … in the Southern 500, no less, and immediately transformed the championship picture. He erased 38 points of his deficit to Hamlin in one night and leaves Darlington just 12 back, with the No. 20 now looking every bit like the title contender its underlying speed suggested all summer. Bell finished seventh last year at Gateway and has yet to finish worse than 11th there in Cup competition. One race into The Chase, the championship that felt tantalizingly close without a victory suddenly feels very real.

Analysis: Blaney’s ranking drops a spot because Bell demanded one, not because No. 12 did anything wrong. Starting 24th at Darlington, the 2023 champ climbed all the way to fourth and left only 16 points behind Hamlin, continuing to look like perhaps the most dependable championship threat outside the JGR camp. The recent Gateway history helps, too; Blaney finished fourth there last season and was poised to win in 2024 before running out of fuel coming to the white flag. The Chase has barely started, and he’s already close enough to the top that there is no need to manufacture urgency. Just keep doing his thing, and he’ll have a shot.

Analysis: The early-season version of Reddick appears to be back in the building. He won Stage 1, led 74 laps and finished third at Darlington, giving him consecutive top-five finishes after managing only two across the previous 13 races. That resurgence has him fourth in The Chase, 24 points behind Hamlin, which is a much healthier championship position than the summer swoon suggested was coming. Gateway is less accommodating on paper — Reddick finished just 16th there last season — but the larger story has moved beyond one track anyway. The No. 45 has rediscovered its ability to spend entire races near the front, and with nine left, that matters much more.

Analysis: Briscoe’s bid for a third consecutive Southern 500 came up short, but the defending two-time crown-jewel winner hardly surrendered his championship credentials in the process. He led, battled Bell door-to-door late and still finished sixth despite running out of fuel at the end of Stage 2 and having to pit while pit road was closed. That leaves Briscoe fifth in points, 37 behind Hamlin and still firmly attached to the leading championship cluster. He was runner-up at Gateway last year after winning Stage 1, too, so the schedule isn’t exactly indicating he’ll cool off as autumn beckons. Darlington didn’t produce another trophy, but the larger title argument survived just fine. The championship, if you haven’t realized by now, runs through JGR/Toyota.

Analysis: If there was still any temptation to frame Gibbs as the young interloper hanging around a championship fight, Darlington should continue to end that chatter. He started 28th and finished second in the Southern 500, matching his best Darlington result and moving within 39 points of The Chase lead. Gibbs has now paired his breakthrough Bristol win, Iowa victory and a crown-jewel runner-up (along with double-digit laps led at Charlotte and Indy, too) with the kind of consistency that makes the whole package increasingly hard to dismiss. Gateway offers another interesting piece of his history: He won ARCA races there in 2019 and 2020, then finished 10th in last year’s Cup event. At some point, “future champion” conversations become “possible champion this year” conversations. We appear to be there.

Analysis: For most of the summer, Larson’s season required looking past the finishes themselves to see the championship-caliber speed that was clearly underneath. Darlington finally gave us both. The No. 5 charged from 25th, led a race-high 99 laps and held on for fifth after staying out on older tires during the final pit sequence, ending a three-race Darlington stretch without a top five. He remains 49 points behind Hamlin, but The Chase is nine races long, and Larson suddenly looks much more capable of making that number disappear than he did a few weeks ago. He also led 52 laps at Gateway last year before finishing 12th. The 51-race winless streak remains bizarrely intact — but the title prospects look to be increasing considerably.

Analysis: Logano’s ninth place at Darlington was fine, but “fine” is a little less useful when somebody like Bell is banking 73-point nights, and The Chase leader Hamlin walks out 72 points up the road. A slow stop cost the No. 22 six spots early, yet Logano recovered to another top 10 and remains the guy in this half of the rankings with the most convincing evidence that a middling-looking season can abruptly become a championship workhorse. Gateway certainly helps the argument; he won the inaugural Cup race there in 2022 and finished fifth last season. Plus, it’s a style of track that has been Penske’s power point of late. Nine races remain, which is plenty of runway for a three-time champion. It is not, however, an invitation to spend many more weeks merely keeping pace.

Analysis: Wallace deserves more credit for Darlington than his eighth-place finish conveys. Starting 17th, he drove into contention, led 38 laps and scored second- and fifth-place stage finishes, looking for stretches like a legitimate Southern 500 threat. The problem is that he left Darlington still far enough behind that even a strong opener has him 81 points back of Hamlin, so good nights will need to start becoming great ones, and soon. Gateway presents a legitimate opportunity: Wallace led 73 laps and won Stage 2 there last year before finishing eighth, a massive improvement over his prior Cup history at the track. The title still feels like an uphill climb, but one that’s attainable, and the No. 23 is at least beginning it with its best foot forward.

Analysis: Cindric leaves Darlington in an awkward place: 13th was hardly disastrous, but he is already 102 points behind Hamlin after starting The Chase 95 back. In a straight 10-race championship with no rounds to reset the damage, that makes each merely decent afternoon increasingly expensive. The good news is that Gateway might be the best possible place to make a move. Cindric won there in 2024 — his most recent Cup victory — and the flat, 1.25-mile track has historically been one of his strongest venues, even if last year’s 19th interrupted that trend. The Chase isn’t slipping away yet, but this feels like exactly the type of weekend where the No. 2 needs to put some meat on the bone.

Analysis: Elliott and Logano are tied at 72 points behind Hamlin, but their trajectories feel a little different entering Gateway. The No. 9 was never much of a factor at Darlington, finishing 14th after a late pit-road sequence cost additional track position, and Hendrick still has not produced the sustained summer surge that, on paper, seemed inevitable months ago. There is a real chance to change the tone Sunday: Elliott finished third at Gateway last year after starting 19th, easily his best Cup result there. With the gap to the lead already significant and how dominant the Toyotas continue to be, The Chase can’t become nine separate exercises in minimizing damage. Elliott needs weekends that actually pull him toward the front of this thing. It’s just concerning that it’s becoming a question of “if,” not “when.”

Analysis: Daytona may have delivered the miracle, but Darlington supplied something almost as useful: proof Preece could immediately back it up at a driver’s track. An extra pit stop for a loose wheel dropped him to 28th earlier in the race, and he later went a lap down and still rallied all the way to 10th. That is a legitimately impressive Chase opener even if the reset math means he remains 104 points behind Hamlin. Preece finished 13th at Gateway last year, so another respectable result is realistic. He has already shown he can produce the extraordinary when absolutely necessary, but the championship format will demand much more sustained excellence.

Analysis: Hocevar’s 11th at Darlington was a quietly decent result wrapped inside another noisy afternoon. Contact with Brad Keselowski spun the No. 6 to end Stage 1, and Hocevar then needed his own right-rear wheel retightened during the ensuing stop, yet the No. 77 still emerged just outside the top 10. That steadies things after the ugly close to his regular season, but he remains 89 points behind Hamlin and can’t afford many more races where the story is as much about the incidents he’s involved in as it is his speed. Gateway hasn’t yet been a breakthrough Cup venue for him — he finished 15th there last year — though he was among the fastest cars in practice that weekend. There is enough raw pace here to make the title chase interesting. There are enough raw feelings throughout the field, too, that could also play a factor.

Analysis: Buescher entered The Chase needing to prove “solid” could turn into something more, and Darlington did not advance the argument in his favor. He hit the wall during a green-flag cycle, bent a toe link and eventually finished 20th, losing 18 points to Hamlin and falling 88 behind the championship lead. Gateway offers at least a decent rebound lane after a ninth-place finish there last season, but Buescher is reaching the part of the standings where he really needs to find a path to his first win since 2024.

Analysis: The Daytona runner-up proved to be a bridge into The Chase, not immediate momentum once it started. Suárez briefly led from the front row at Darlington before tumbling through the field, scoring no stage points and finishing 21st. That leaves him 94 points behind Hamlin, and Gateway offers little recent comfort after an early crash left him 35th there last season. None of this makes a title run impossible with nine races remaining, but there is now precious little evidence pointing toward one. The season has surprised us before. For Suárez, it needs to do so again. Quickly.

Analysis: There is no soft way to frame Byron’s Chase opener. He was running ninth when the No. 24 spun late at Darlington, then suffered an engine failure under caution and wound up 37th, dropping to last in the championship standings at 114 points behind Hamlin. That said, this is still William Byron, a driver who has reached the Championship 4 three consecutive seasons, and nine races leave plenty of time for the year to take another turn. But unlike the old elimination format, there is no next-round reset waiting to erase a crater this deep. Byron finished 11th at Gateway last year, and this weekend needs to look much more like the beginning of a resurgence than another exercise in explaining what went wrong.