The Daytona 500 marks the beginning of the 2025 season for the Cup Series. This year, the 500 lacked the spectacle that is fitting for the Great American Race. Fuel savings galore led to a crash-heavy finish where William Byron snuck through to win on the final lap. With the Daytona 500 completed, this brings back the weekly Power Rankings series on Pit Pass Network. For the third season, the Power Rankings are here to sort out the best from the rest. Every week, Pit Pass Network will give you the FitStop Performance Power Rankings for the Top-10 drivers in NASCAR’s Cup Series. The Daytona 500 is the kickoff point for the 2025 Week 1 Power Rankings.
Quick Power Ranking Admin
For those who are new to the Power Rankings, a quick rundown on how this all works. Each week, the Cup Series drivers are evaluated on their performance throughout the entire race weekend. Not only are the results factored, but how well the drivers ran throughout the race along with qualifying and practice. In these rankings, consistency is rewarded more than a strong finish. A driver who wins after putt-putting around in 20th will normally not be as valued as the driver who dominated the race but finished 30th due to an issue on the last lap. Obviously, there are exceptions to this but that is the general grading format.
Also, these rankings will not be a place of chaotic swings up or down. A driver is not going to be #3 one week then fall out of the rankings completely the next. With the start of the season, more drastic movements will occur naturally since there is less to base the rankings on. As a starting point, last year’s finale rankings are factored into this week’s ranking. Here is how the 2024 Power Rankings end:
- Kyle Larson
- Denny Hamlin
- William Byron
- Christopher Bell
- Chase Elliott
- Tyler Reddick
- Ryan Blaney
- Chris Buescher
- Brad Keselowski
- Martin Truex Jr
Now, time to kick off 2025 with the Week 1 Power Rankings.
#10 – Austin Cindric
Previous Ranking: Not Ranked
Honestly, doing the Power Rankings this week turned out to be a challenging task. Between the wrecks and stagnation from fuel saving, it was difficult to pinpoint who were the best cars. However, Austin Cindric certainly demonstrated that he was a driver to beat. Qualifying on the front row then following it up with a Duel win merely previewed his Daytona 500 performance. Leading the most laps, Cindric entered the backstretch on the final lap with a great chance to win. Despite the chaos and being wrecked out of the lead, the 2 car still found a way to collect a Top-10.
#9 – Alex Bowman
Previous Ranking: Honorable Mention
Alex Bowman is becoming a Daytona 500 savant. Sure, he has yet to win the race. However, he is the only driver with 3 consecutive Top-10s in the Great American Race after this past weekend. Leading 11 laps, Bowman picked up points in both stages and managed to avoid the carnage to finish 6th for the second straight season.
#8 – Christopher Bell
Previous Ranking: 4
Although Christopher Bell did pick up points in Stage 1, this year’s Speedweeks turned out to be a quiet one for the 20 driver. Little to note from his Duel race mixed with a bland running in the Daytona 500 see Bell start 2025 down a bit on the leaderboard. However, this will likely be a short lived trip to the bottom half of the rankings.
#7 – Chase Elliott
Previous Ranking: 5
Similar to Christopher Bell, there is little to note about Chase Elliott’s Daytona Speedweeks. A middling qualifying run did little to propel him to a flashy Duel performance. Granted, he led 15 laps before being shuffled back by the end. As for the Daytona 500, Elliott only managed 2 laps led and a 15th place finish after getting caught up in multiple incidents.
#6 – Chris Buescher
Previous Ranking: 8
Out of the 45 drivers to participate in Cup Series action, only 4 managed to avoid getting involved in any incident. One of those drivers was Chris Buescher. Buescher (and RFK Racing as a whole) lacked the usual dominance that fans have seen in recent years at Daytona. Still, Buescher maintained second in line on the bottom row during Stage 2. After the late race accidents, Buescher picked up his first Top-10 of the season.
#5 – Ryan Blaney
Previous Ranking: 7
When it comes to Daytona, Ryan Blaney must have angered the Florida gods. Blaney demonstrated great speed and ability to work the draft on Sunday. In Stage 1, Blaney worked with Brad Keselowski to knife their way to the front. He won Stage 2 after a nifty move to pass his teammate. As the race whittled down, Blaney sat exactly where he wanted to be for the closing laps. Instead though, the 12 car got collected in the Lap 187 accident. Despite the damage, Blaney still brought it home in 7th.
#4 – Kyle Larson
Previous Ranking: 1
A year after thoroughly dominating the Power Rankings, Kyle Larson starts 2025 lower than he sat at any point in 2024. Superspeedway racing has never been Larson’s forte, much to Jeff Gordon’s chagrin. This year’s 500 was no different. Although he managed to be the only Hendrick Motorsports car to advance to Round 2 of qualifying, Larson’s week was relatively forgettable. With Atlanta upcoming, look for COTA to be the first signal of Larson’s return to the top.
#3 – Tyler Reddick
Previous Ranking: 6
The main highlights for Tyler Reddick this past week largely come from the Duel. Pushing his teammate for the stretch run, his draft helped bring 23XI Racing their second Duel win in as many seasons. As for the Daytona 500, Reddick picked up 3 points in Stage 1 and then remained under the radar until crossing the finish line second.
#2 – Denny Hamlin
Previous Ranking: 2
Denny Hamlin almost pulled off the perfect execution of old-school superspeedway racing. For the majority of the race, Hamlin rode around at the tail-end of the pack, avoiding any potential harm. Granted, he almost was the harm when he made a save on Lap 63 in Turn 2. Once the Daytona 500 was about to wind down, there was the 11 car somehow near the front. During the final few laps, Hamlin sat in the prime spot to pull out the win. Unfortunately, Cole Custer had other ideas.
#1 – William Byron
Previous Ranking: 3
Starting the season off right for the second straight season. Same as last year, William Byron’s Daytona 500 win sees him atop the Week 1 Power Rankings. Although last year’s win felt a bit underwhelming, this year might have it topped. Restarting 9th for overtime, Byron sat there while everyone else wrecked around him. Barely avoiding getting clipped in the rear, Byron sailed through and picked up his second Daytona 500 win. Now, Byron looks to keep that momentum going for the 2025 season and his spot in the rankings.
Honorable Mentions
Joey Logano – Outside of being a human wrecking ball, Joey Logano spent most of the Daytona 500 with the car to beat. If he could practice more patience around Ricky Stenhouse Jr, maybe he could have wrecked on the final lap instead of with 13 to go.
Erik Jones – Erik Jones has his second straight strong start to the season, as he finished second in his Duel and managed a 12th place finish in the Daytona 500,
Chase Briscoe – Starting things off right with his new team, Chase Briscoe nabbed Toyota’s first pole for the Daytona 500 and collected a Top-10.
The brainchild of Hunter Smith, FitStop Performance is dedicated to training the toughest around – from motorsports athletes to multi-tasking soccer moms. He desires to help everyone who walks through the doors of his gym to perform optimally throughout life. FitStop Performance is in its second season sponsoring the weekly FitStop Performance Power Rankings which tracks the highest-performing NASCAR Cup Seires drivers throughout the season. Give them a follow (Facebook, Instagram, X) and thank them for their sponsorship!
