Boy, what a difference one race can make, huh? After everyone was seemingly ready to crown Kyle Larson as the champion due to his 49-point lead heading into last Sunday's race at Phoenix Raceway, the driver suffered through arguably his least competitive weekend of the season.
Now, seven drivers all find themselves with a realistic path to the NASCAR Cup Series title, including race winner Tyler Reddick. And coming up is the ever-treacherous Talladega Superspeedway. It may be time to grab the Tums if you're Larson, as he has not been the best at superspeedway racing throughout his career.
His 34th-place run at Phoenix, while it was barely enough for the driver to keep the point lead, wasn't enough to keep him atop the weekly Power Rankings.
Here are the Racing America On SI Power Rankings following last weekend's Freeway Insurance 500 at Phoenix, and heading into this weekend's YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway:
1. Chase Briscoe (Last Week: 2)
With an eighth-place finish, Chase Briscoe had his worst finish of a magical four-race run that has put him firmly back in championship contention. But with Kyle Larson's rough outing, it was more than enough to put Briscoe atop the Power Rankings this week. Briscoe now has an average finish of 3.5 over his last four starts. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver is on it right now.
2. Kyle Larson (1)
All last week we heard about the historic start that Larson was having in the Chase. However, that narrative was blown apart by a rough weekend at Phoenix Raceway. Larson got loose during his qualifying run, and started mid-field in the 22nd position. And during the race, he really never was a factor. Late in the race, Larson blew a tire, pounded the wall, and retired early with a 34th-place finish. His massive point lead was reduced to five points, now, he heads into Talladega playing defense.
3. Christopher Bell (5)
Depending on how this weekend's race at Talladega goes, there's a realistic shot that Bell is leading the championship standings, and the power rankings next week. But, it's Talladega, and anything can happen. Still, the eight-time runner-up finisher this season has a lot of momentum on his side and it continued with a 4th-place run at Phoenix.
4. Ryan Blaney (6)
After a runner-up finish at Phoenix pulled Blaney to within 40 points of the championship lead, the Team Penske driver now looks like a very attractive pick to take the Cup Series title. Blaney has a solid stretch of races coming up, including Talladega and Martinsville, where he has multiple wins. Blaney is surging at the right time, it seems.
5. Tyler Reddick (8)
Through the summer stretch and opening six races of the Chase, Tyler Reddick's fans likely looked like the meme of the guy poking a stick saying, "Do something." After a miserable stretch, Reddick finally did something Sunday at Phoenix Raceway as he collected his sixth win of the season, and first since the ninth race of the year. Now, he's magically back in title contention.
6. Joey Logano (4)
Joey Logano turned in another solid effort Sunday at Phoenix, as he won Stages 1 and 2, but would fade to a 6th-place finish. While he's still in striking distance of the point lead, Logano will have to get back to closing out races where he has race-winning pace if he wants to nab his fourth career championship.
7. Chase Elliott (9)
Where did he come from? I am not sure if I ever saw Chase Elliott on the broadcast of Sunday's race at Phoenix Raceway, but when the checkered flag was shown, he crossed the finish line with a third-place result. Not bad, especially for a driver and team that have not shown a great ability at closing out races with better than expected finishes lately.
8. Denny Hamlin (3)
It's incredible. Denny Hamlin had another forgettable finish Sunday at Phoenix Raceway, but somehow, he is still alive in the Chase for a championship. But this needs to be the wakeup call for the driver of the No. 11 car. He can't afford any more finishes like Sunday's 28th-place result.
9. Daniel Suarez (15)
Daniel Suarez's resurgent season continued with another top-10 finish Sunday at Phoenix. Suarez came home in seventh, driving the Freeway Insurance colors in the Freeway Insurance 500.
10. Austin Cindric (7)
After a very consistent start to the Chase, Cindric has come back down to Earth the last couple of races. Sunday at Phoenix, Cindric finished 19th, following up a 17th-place result in Charlotte. He's in danger of dropping out of the top-10 of the weekly Power Rankings.
Best of the Rest
11. Bubba Wallace (10)
12. Carson Hocevar (12)
13. William Byron (11)
14. Josh Berry (16)
15. Ty Gibbs (17)
16. Ryan Preece (13)
17. Chris Buescher (14)
18. Ross Chastain (22)
19. AJ Allmendinger (19)
20. Shane van Gisbergen (18)
21. Todd Gilliland (24)
22. Noah Gragson (26)
23. Brad Keselowski (27)
24. Alex Bowman (20)
25. Michael McDowell (21)
26. Zane Smith (31)
27. Connor Zilisch (30)
28. Riley Herbst (23)
29. Erik Jones (28)
30. Cole Custer (29)
31. Austin Dillon (25)
32. Austin Hill (33)
33. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. (32)
34. Ty Dillon (34)
35. John Hunter Nemechek (36)
36. Cody Ware (35)
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