This weekend, NASCAR Cup and Xfinity racing will return to NBC and USA Network, starting with Sunday night’s Cup race at Iowa Speedway airing on USA Network. After winning at Sonoma for his third victory of the season, Kyle Larson has taken the top spot in the points standings and the NASCAR Cup Power Rankings.
In this week’s rankings, Larson is joined by a new driver who had a strong performance at Sonoma. Denny Hamlin, who previously held the top position, finished last due to engine trouble. Chase Elliott secured a fourth-place finish, marking his sixth top-five finish in the last 10 races.
Brad Keselowski finished 13th at Sonoma but still maintained a strong performance overall. Tyler Reddick won a stage and finished eighth, continuing his streak of top-10 finishes. Christopher Bell secured a ninth-place finish, his fourth top-10 in the last five races.
William Byron finished 30th due to tire issues and getting caught in an incident but managed to maintain his position in the rankings despite not finishing in the top 10 for four consecutive races. Ross Chastain finished fifth, earning his second top-10 finish in the past three races after struggling with consistency earlier in the season. Alex Bowman finished 15th but managed to maintain his position in the rankings despite falling out of the top 10 after two consecutive races outside of it. Ty Gibbs hit the Turn 11 wall at Sonoma but managed to recover and finish 37th after placing 1st or better in each of his previous three starts on NBCSN before this week’s race on USA Network.
Martin Truex Jr., who was previously ranked highly in previous weeks’ rankings dropped out of this week’s Power Rankings due to poor performance at Sonoma.
Overall, this week’s Power Rankings show that NASCAR continues to be an exciting sport with many drivers having strong performances despite some struggles here and there.
