Throwback weekend has come and gone from the NASCAR Cup Series schedule. The series is now a third of the way through the season (and halfway through the regular season). As the weeks have ticked by, the championship contenders, pretenders, and participants have become clearer. As you have seen in the power rankings, there has been a bit of strangle hold over the top-10 spots. Occasionally, there is some exchange over the final spots. However, it has remained pretty consistent one through eight. While there have been nine different winners this, the overall parity of the series has been stagnant. The same ten drivers usually run up front on a weekly basis.
Post-Darlington, the power rankings hit Week 10. Everything from this season so far has led to these drivers being ranked the ten best of 2023 so far. How can that evolve and change as the season goes on? Who knows, but it will be interesting to see it play out. Now, time to discuss how Darlington has shifted the power rankings from Week 9.
#10 – Kyle Busch
Previous Ranking: Honorable Mention
Kyle Busch returns to the power rankings after a strong running at Darlington. Recently, Busch has been the victim of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. On top of his bad luck, Busch’s inconsistency has been a big hinderance to his position in the power rankings. Some weeks, he looks strong (like this past weekend). Other weeks, he is mid-pack at best. On Sunday, he averaged a fifth place running position. If not for trying to rough up Ross Chastain, he might have been in a position for a result better than seventh.
#9 – Ryan Blaney
Previous Ranking: 8
Despite dropping down a spot, Ryan Blaney had a solid Sunday. Over 90% of his laps were run inside the Top-15. He was consistently inside the Top-10, usually the second best Ford in the field. Since the Bristol Dirt race, Blaney has been on a bit of hot streak. Although that winless streak has extended, Blaney has four Top-10s in the past five races.
#8 – Kevin Harvick
Previous Ranking: 6
Kevin Harvick finished second on Sunday. However, he dropped two spots in the power rankings. While his second place finish is great, he mostly ran behind the drivers who leapfrogged ahead of him this week. Plus, his recent finishes have been poor. While his speed has been better than where he has finished, consistent poor finishes hurt a driver’s ranking. This week was the opposite where his so-so run turned into a great finish. Plus, his throwback was ugly.
#7 – Brad Keselowski
Previous Ranking: 9
The best Ford on Sunday was easily Brad Keselowski. He was the only driver in the field who ran the entire length of the race within the Top-15. With that said, it seemed that Keselowski’s ceiling was sixth. During longer green flag runs, Keselowski would be 2-3 seconds behind the fifth place car, who would only trail the leader by about 3 seconds. Since Keselowski was the best running Ford, that should be an alarming sign for the manufacturer.
#6 – Denny Hamlin
Previous Ranking: 4
All of the hype around Denny Hamlin’s hot streak seemed to jinx him on Sunday. Despite a strong qualifying run, Hamlin’s race speed was severely lacking. From the start of the race, Hamlin only got progressively worse as it dragged on. At one point, Hamlin fell outside the Top-20 based on his lack of speed. Also, his throwback scheme is a repeat from 2020.
#5 – Martin Truex Jr
Previous Ranking: 7
Nobody in NASCAR has been hotter than Martin Truex Jr (according to these power rankings at least). For the past three races, Truex has led 292 laps, the most out of any driver. His cars have been the best for large chunks of each of the past three races. Darlington was no different. If not for aggressively going for the Stage 2 win, Truex might have had a better chance for a win. Instead, he was stuck in traffic for most of Stage 3 and he wrecked himself out later by pulling the same move a certain other driver did. Truex simply did not receive the same attention for it.
#4 – Christopher Bell
Previous Ranking: 2
A bit of mediocre run for Christopher Bell on Sunday. While not a bad drive from Bell, it was disappointing compared to what he has produced so far this season. His average running position was outside the Top-20, he did not log a lap led, and the number placement on his car ruined the throwback to Matt Kenseth.
#3 – Ross Chastain
Previous Ranking: 4
Welcome back to the highlight of every power rankings:Â Can You Blame Ross? This week, yes you can. Despite having the best car of the second half of the race, no one is paying attention to Chastain’s speed. Instead, Chastain was involved in another incident with Kyle Larson. On the second-to-last restart, Chastain took the inside line, proceeded to get tight in turn one, and run into Larson (and then the wall) to wreck both drivers. This action upset Rick Hendrick enough where he contacted Chevy, Justin Marks, and (probably) Pitbull to get the Melon Man’s aggression under control.
Outside of that, Ross Chastain had a great 287 laps at Darlington. Great throwback too.
#2 – William Byron
Previous Ranking: 2
William Byron must have found a lucky horseshoe before the start of the season. Once again, Byron won a race where he did not have the best car in the field. Also once again, Byron lucks out and wins a race that Kyle Larson probably deserved to win more. However, a win is still a win. Byron stays at number two though. Maybe if he won in the Dupont flame paint scheme from last year then he would have taken number one.
#1 – Kyle Larson
Previous Ranking: 1
Retaining his top spot atop the power rankings is Kyle Larson. As mentioned earlier, Larson was positioned to collect his third win of the season before Ryan Newman got the full Rick Ware Racing experience. Taken out (again) by Chastain, Larson was able to limp his car to the finish of the race. He ran up front all day and was always a contender for the win. That is why Larson remains number one. How long will he remain there? Well, it depends on how successful his attempt(s) of revenge at Chastain goes.
Honorable Mentions
Tyler Reddick – Tyler Reddick drops out of the power rankings simply because Kyle Busch had the better run between the two. Their seasons are similar to each other, so this week was a battle for tenth.
Chris Buescher – Chris Buescher remains on the outside looking in. Despite his fifth Top-10 of 2023, Darlington was a struggle for the 17 team. Less than 10% of the race saw Buescher run inside the Top-15.
Bubba Wallace – Since the Bristol Dirt race, Bubba Wallace has been running much better. In the five races since running on dirt, Wallace has three Top-10s with back-to-back Top-5s. If not for his late block at Talladega, Wallace would likely have three Top-5s in this stretch.
