NASCAR Power Rankings: Chase Elliott moves into top three after big win in Texas

1 William Byron — I’m inclined to believe William Byron when he says he didn’t mean to turn Ross Chastain on the final lap, but it’s interesting there’s a history of him being involved in disputed accidents at Texas. If you remember two years ago, he’s the one who sent Denny Hamlin for a slide through the infield in a retaliatory spin after a caution had come out. 2 Denny Hamlin — I was surprised and a little disappointed that the Fox Sports broadcast didn’t juice the crowd mic a little bit when Denny Hamlin spun racing Chase Elliott for the win. You could see the reaction of the crowd and I imagine it was probably just as loud as the reception for a victorious Elliott was. 3 Chase Elliott A quick history lesson: Alan Kulwicki opened the 1991 season without a sponsor, then won the pole for Atlanta while Mark Stahl had failed to qualify in a Hooters-sponsored car. Wanting to be on a car for the race, Hooters worked out a deal to sponsor Kulwicki’s car. The rest is history, and funnily enough it all began at the home track for the Elliott family. 4 Kyle Larson Losing a wheel mid-race and everything that goes with it isn’t necessarily anything new for Kyle Larson and his team. They had the same issue happen at Sonoma in 2022, which at that time was also a four-race suspension for crew chief Cliff Daniels. Thankfully, the penalty for losing a wheel is now considerably less long and less draconian (two-race suspension for two crew members). 5 Joey Logano — Maybe the best hope for Ford is that Joey Logano brings the kind of bullet he had in Daytona to Talladega next week. With Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing having a stronghold on Victory Lane, Ford has still yet to win a Cup race in 2024. 6 Bubba Wallace Bubba Wallace ended up being very fortunate despite being one of several drivers to get loose and spin in Turns 3 and 4 at Texas, as he incurred little damage and eventually drove back to an eighth-place finish. That gives him four top-10 finishes on the year entering Talladega, where Wallace led at the white flag a year ago. 7 Tyler Reddick Tyler Reddick led 37 laps at Texas on his way to finishing fourth, but it wasn’t without a lot of drama. In the later stages of the race alone, Reddick dealt with both a slow green flag pit stop and getting up out of the groove and making contact with the outside wall. 8 Martin Truex Jr. It was a sloppy day for Martin Truex Jr.’s team at Texas, as they ended up leaving a wheel loose on the No. 19 not once but twice. Truex battled back to salvage his day and finish 14th despite those issues. 9 Chase Briscoe I can say the exact same thing about Bubba Wallace as I can about Chase Briscoe, as those two both spun out while they were battling for the lead on a mid-race restart. Briscoe recovered to earn a season-best sixth-place finish, best of any driver who was pointed the wrong way at any point Sunday. 10 Ross Chastain I think part of Ross Chastain’s frustration with William Byron likely lies in something he said during the Xfinity Series broadcast on Saturday. Chastain mentioned how Ryan Blaney had blocked him in the Championship Race in 2022, and then made a tongue-in-cheek comment about how it was suddenly an issue when he did the same thing to Blaney the next year. I wonder if Ross feels like his competitors are telling him to do as they say and not as they do? 11 Christopher Bell When’s the last time you saw a car as beat up as Christopher Bell’s was finish as well as he ended up doing on a 1.5-mile track? Despite heavy rear end damage and a patched up right front, Bell was able to get back on the lead lap and earned a 17th-place finish that was very respectable given the circumstances. 12 Chris Buescher Chris Buescher is from Prosper, Texas, where the Fox Sports broadcast shared Dallas Cowboys QB Dak Prescott owns property. That’s about the only thing they have in common as Chris Buescher actually made it more than one round in the playoffs a year ago. 13 Brad Keselowski He was close to breaking it in Texas, but Brad Keselowski’s winless streak has now reached 107 races entering the place where it all began three years ago. Next week at Talladega, Keselowski heads to the site of his most recent victory in April 2021. 14 Kyle Busch I actually laughed to myself at certain points late in the Truck Series race on Friday, because you could tell Kyle Busch was playing chess while the rest of his much younger competition was playing checkers. Hopefully RCR can figure something out with the No. 8 team, because NASCAR is just better and more entertaining when Busch is doing things with a racecar that no one else is capable of. 15 Ty Gibbs — Unusual pit road issues were Ty Gibbs’ bugaboo in Texas. First he had to run extra laps under green while a fire that ran through his pit stall was extinguished, and then he had to make an unscheduled stop under yellow after the socket off his crew’s air gun came off and got lodged in his wheel. 16 Ryan Blaney Another week where Ryan Blaney either finishes in the top five or finishes way back in the field. Blaney led 17 laps at Texas, but his race effectively ended after he got spun by Ryan Preece and sent into the Turn 2 wall. 17 Alex Bowman Alex Bowman got the worst of a three-car accident off Turn 4, ending his day early with heavy crash damage. Texas marked Bowman’s first DNF this season and his first since a crash at Las Vegas last fall. 18 Ryan Preece Another solid finish for Ryan Preece, this time as he used some late-race fortune to earn track position and a 12th-place finish at Texas. Keep an eye on him as a potential upset winner at Talladega, where Preece finished a career-best third as a rookie in 2019. 19 Daniel Suarez I was actually floored when I noticed on one of the final few restarts that Daniel Suarez was running fifth despite the day he had. Suarez had spent a lot of Sunday running deep in the field with a car that wasn’t handling right, but he ended up earning his first top five since his win at Atlanta. 20 Carson Hocevar Texas Motor Speedway has become a track of firsts for Carson Hocevar. One year after earning his very first Craftsman Truck Series win there, Hocevar came back to Texas and earned his very first top-10 finish in Cup. 21 Todd Gilliland Todd Gilliland spent quite a bit of the day in Texas up front on strategy, but ended up a disappointing 31st. Pencil him in as a driver to watch next week, as Gilliland led the Daytona 500 and then led the most laps at Atlanta the next week. 22 Erik Jones Erik Jones’ team tried to play the track position game at Texas, and it paid off for awhile with Jones earning a fourth-place finish in Stage 2. But Jones couldn’t get to the front when it mattered, as he ended up finishing only 19th. 23 Noah Gragson — Another driver to watch next weekend at Talladega is Noah Gragson. He was in a position to win on a late restart a year ago, but he ended up getting turned instead after Ross Chastain tried to go for a gap he thought was open under Gragson. 24 Josh Berry — It was a rough day in Texas for Josh Berry, as he spun and hit the wall once in Turns 1 and 2 before spinning and hitting it again, damaging his car for good. Berry’s DNF was the second of his rookie season. 25 Austin Cindric — I thought Austin Cindric looked like he had a fast car for Texas in qualifying on Saturday, as he earned a solid starting spot in eighth. I’m not sure what happened once the car got in race trim, because he was never really heard from again and ended up 25th at the finish. 26 Michael McDowell I guess a DNF is a little easier to swallow when you crash out while racing for the lead. That’s what happened to Michael McDowell at Texas, as he was fighting for the top spot with Ross Chastain when the bumps in Turn 4 went up and got the No. 34 Ford. 27 Corey LaJoie After two terrible short track races for Corey LaJoie and his team, a 22nd-place finish at Texas at least offered them a positive direction. Now comes Talladega, which is significant given that LaJoie has finished fourth in the last two Cup races on major superspeedways. 28 Austin Dillon There isn’t a single driver in NASCAR who needed a good finish more than Austin Dillon, and that’s what he got at Texas. A seventh-place run for Dillon was by far his best of the entire 2024 season and his first overall since Homestead last fall. 29 Zane Smith Zane Smith makes his way into this week’s Power Rankings thanks to what was one of the best runs of his Cup career so far. Smith ran in the top five for a portion of Sunday’s race at Texas, offering an encouraging sign in what’s been a tough rookie season so far. 30 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Texas saw one of Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s better runs of the year, as he drove up into the top 15 on raw speed at one point and also ran eighth in Stage 2. However, a late-race spin forced Stenhouse to have to settle for 23rd.