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Power Rankings: Hendrick Motorsports returning to powerhouse ways
By Pat DeCola | Published: May 24, 2021 21
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NASCAR.com's Pat DeCola ranks the top 20 NASCAR Cup Series drivers after the race at Circuit of The Americas and before Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (6 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
20. Ross Chastain (Not ranked last week)
Season-high: 20th
Season-low: Out
Comment: Removing a Bristol wreck from the equation, Chastain has averaged a 14.33 finish in the other nine races dating back to Phoenix and made a statement at COTA with his first top five. He nabbed a decent 21st-place finish in lesser equipment in last year's Coca-Cola 600, so another top 15 this weekend seems like a fair bet.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
19. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (Not ranked last week)
Season-high: 12th
Season-low: Out
Comment: Stenhouse is back to his consistent ways again, following up a pair of weeks in the 30s with three straight finishes of 20th-22nd. He's still got a ways to go to get back to his early-season success but the pieces are coming together.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
18. Kurt Busch (+1)
Season-high: 6th
Season-low: Out
Comment: We saw what Busch can do behind the wheel Sunday — there's no denying the former champ's talent. It resulted in his 11th straight finish of 13th or worse, however (27th). The 2010 Coca-Cola 600 winner has had a strong record at Charlotte recently as well, with eight top 10s in the last 10 races there.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
17. Matt DiBenedetto (--)
Season-high: 14
Season-low: Out
Comment: DiBenedetto has almost matched last year's total of three top fives, but his average finish (17.7) is nearly three positions worse than 2020 (14.8). With no finishes better than 15th and an overall average finish of 28.8 in 10 Charlotte starts, don't expect his season to spark on Sunday.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
16. Christopher Bell (-3)
Season-high: 8
Season-low: 16
Comment: One of the season's early surprises, Bell has hit a rough patch with five races of 14th or worse and a 38th-place result at COTA. He had one of his best runs of the year in the 2020 Coca-Cola 600 (ninth), so perhaps the slump ends this weekend.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
15. Michael McDowell (+1)
Season-high: 10
Season-low: Out
Comment: With his seventh-place run at COTA, McDowell notched his third day of 39 points or more in the season's 14 races. The last time prior to 2021 he did that in a race was the 2018 Daytona 500. He's looking for his first top 10 at Charlotte in 21 tries this weekend.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
14. Tyler Reddick (--)
Season-high: 14
Season-low: Out
Comment: While he was unable to add his first career win on top of his first career pole, Reddick continued a strong five-race stretch that has now seen four top 10s and a worst finish of 12th. His first start at Charlotte was last year's Coca-Cola 600, where he finished eighth.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
13. Chris Buescher (+2)
Season-high: 13
Season-low: Out
Comment: Ryan Newman must really be wearing off on his teammate, because it sure looks like Buescher is going to top-15 his way right into the playoffs on points for consistency — literally. He's been decent at Charlotte the past three races, too, with two top 10s and an average finish of 12.67.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
12. Austin Dillon (--)
Season-high: 11
Season-low: 16
Comment: Dillon is quietly having the best season of his career and it might take a win for people to realize it. It might as well come this weekend at the North Carolina native's home track in the race he claimed his first win in back in 2017.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
11. Alex Bowman (--)
Season-high: 8
Season-low: 17
Comment: Hendrick Motorports is on fire right now and Bowman just put together his first back-to-back top 10s since Daytona's road course and Miami. Charlotte was rough on him a year ago (19th, 31st) but he had a pair of top 10s in the two races there prior.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
10. Brad Keselowski (-1)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: 11
Comment: There are rumors Keselowski and Team Penske could split after the season, and the No. 2 car being on pace for its worst average finish (13.5) since the 2012 champ missed the playoffs in his title defense the next year probably isn't helping to quiet things down any. Winning cures all, however, and perhaps the defending Coca-Cola 600 winner can add another trophy case to The Captain's cabinet yet.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
9. Kyle Busch (+1)
Season-high: 6
Season-low: 14
Comment: Busch put a quick stop to any hint of a streak outside the top 10, picking up his third such result in the past four races while adding an Xfinity Series win on Saturday. He did his best Martin Truex Jr. impression in the 600 a few years ago en route to his first Charlotte win and he could certainly do that again on Sunday.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
8. Kevin Harvick (-4)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 9
Comment: Harvick's 37th-place COTA result was his worst finish since the 2019 Bristol Night Race, so it's unlikely to develop into any kind of slump. Especially not at Charlotte, where he has three wins and top 10s in exactly half of his 38 starts.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
7. Ryan Blaney (--)
Season-high: 5
Season-low: 15
Comment: Blaney has now only led 11 laps since Martinsville and has three finishes of 12th or worse in his last four races after looking stout early in the season. He placed third in both races at Charlotte in 2020, so he should have a great shot at rebounding this weekend.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
6. Joey Logano (--)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: 8
Comment: Logano was certainly in the mix to win Sunday and might've had a shot if they finished under green. Instead, he'll have to settle for a still-strong third and head to a track he last won at in 2015. Logano was also the 2019 Coca-Cola 600 runner-up.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
5. Chase Elliott (+3)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 10
Comment: Hendrick now has all four of its cars provisionally locked into the playoffs with wins and we're barely halfway through the regular season. Elliott has looked much more like himself in the past four races and he could just be getting heated up.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
4. William Byron (-1)
Season-high: 3
Season-low: 18
Comment: Byron's impressive streak of top 10s just barely ended on Sunday (finished 11th) but that had more to do with the race being called early than him. The Queen City native has one top 10 in four Charlotte starts but he'll likely be in contention for another on Sunday, if not the win.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
3. Denny Hamlin (-1)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 4
Comment: Hamlin owns a 14.0 average finish over the last five races, which unfortunately isn't quite No. 1 material with no wins on the season to back it up. He's by no means in trouble, and he's a threat to win this weekend at Charlotte despite no trips to Victory Lane there in the past.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
2. Martin Truex Jr. (-1)
Season-high: 2
Season-low: 7
Comment: Through no fault of his own, Truex's 35th-place finish at COTA is now his second in a row of 19th or worse. Don't expect that to stretch into Charlotte, where he's arguably the driver to beat.
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Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
1. Kyle Larson (+4)
Season-high: 1
Season-low: 14
Comment: While it's easy to rib Larson for seemingly always finishing second — that's now three in a row — he's been excellent this season. He leads the series in laps led with 778, in essentially one fewer race than everyone (engine expired on Lap 1 at Talladega). In 2017, he strung together three straight second-place finishes early in the season, followed by a win. Just saying.