NASCAR Power Rankings After Chase Briscoe’s Win At Pocono

The NASCAR Cup Series took its annual pilgrimage to the Tricky Triangle of Pocono Raceway on Sunday and walked away with a reshaped playoff picture thanks to Chase Briscoe picking up his first victory with Joe Gibbs Racing. We’re power ranking our top 10 drivers in the series heading into next weekend’s race at Atlanta Motorspeedway, featuring a jump up the rankings for this weekend’s winner.

Chase Briscoe’s win at Pocono made him the 11th winner in the NASCAR Cup Series this season through 17 races and all but assured his spot in the series playoffs.

Briscoe finding victory lane shouldn’t be a big surprise, as he’d shown speed in recent weeks, cracking our power rankings for the first time last week.

We’ll see how far he climbed and how far others fell in this week’s edition, which begins to feature some clearly established tiers.

10) Chris Buescher

Buescher is still searching for that elusive win this season to lock up a spot in the playoffs. But likely Briscoe before him, it feels as if it could come soon, thanks to improving speed each week.

He walked away with a fifth-place finish in Pocono in addition to a pair of top-five finishes in the first and second stages. It marks the third top-10 finish for Buescher in the last three races, which include a pair of top fives.

Last Week: UR NASCAR Playoff Standings: 14th

9) Tyler Reddick

Tyler Reddick entered the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season as a potential title favorite after making the championship race a year ago.

But as we hit the halfway point of the season, he has yet to find victory lane in 2025.

Yes, Reddick still sits seventh in the drivers’ point standings. But he’s nearing three months without a top-five finish and was largely anonymous on Sunday at Pocono, coming home in 32nd after a brake problem that plagued all of 23XI Racing.

Last Week: 8th NASCAR Playoff Standings: 13th

8) Ross Chastain

Chastain takes a drop in the rankings for the second consecutive week, and this week was far more glaring than the last. He and his Trackhouse Racing teammates were out to lunch for much of the day at Pocono.

He finished 26th and didn’t pick up points in either of the first two stages. Chastain now heads to next week’s race in Atlanta looking to improve upon a strong performance there in February when he led 25 laps and finished in eighth.

Last Week: 7th NASCAR Playoff Standings: 11th

7) Chase Briscoe

Welcome to Joe Gibbs Racing, Chase Briscoe! The 30-year-old had shown plenty of speeding in recent weeks, sitting on the pole on three separate occasions and notching four top-10 finishes in six races.

That was enough to move him into our power rankings last week. This week, he solidified that spot with an impressive job of fuel saving to hold off superstars Denny Hamlin and Ryan Blaney for his first win since joining JGR from the now-defunct Stewart-Haas Racing this season.

Last Week: 10th NASCAR Playoff Standings 8th

6) Chase Elliott

Chase Elliott stays put in this week’s rankings, but that doesn’t exactly represent how strong of a weekend he had. Elliott and the rest of his Hendrick Motorsports teammates struggled in qualifying, but the 2020 series champion quickly made his way through the field.

After finishing second in the opening stage and fifth in stage two, Elliott claimed a strong fourth-place finish, leading the way for his team and showing potential race-winning pace for the second week in a row. If he keeps showing that speed, a race win feels almost like a certainty in the near future.

Last Week: 6th NASCAR Playoff Standings: 12th

5) Ryan Blaney

After a pre-race penalty for an unapproved adjustment to his car, Blaney had to start in the back of the pack on Sunday. He drove all the way up into the top 10 only to be sent to the back again for speeding on pit road.

All he did from there is drive back up through the pack for a third-place finish. While it looked at one point as if he’d win the race, Blaney and his No. 12 team have to be happy with the finish and the continued speed they show week after week.

Last Week: 5th NASCAR Playoff Standings: 5th

4) Wiliam Byron

Upon first glance, this may appear too low for Byron. After all, he holds a substantial lead in the regular-season points and finished in the top 10 in both stages on Sunday.

But a late-race strategy call trapped Byron deep in the pack, and he never recovered, finishing in 27th. Despite his fantastic speed each week, Byron still only has one win this season, and he and his team are beginning to make a habit of not getting the best result out of their equipment.

Last Week: 2nd NASCAR Playoff Standings: 4th

3) Christopher Bell

While Bell’s teammates finished in first and second at Pocono, he was nowhere to be found. Bell did not score points in either of the stages on Sunday and ultimately brought home a lackluster 17th-place finish.

Bell started the season red hot and appeared to be finding that form again after a win at the All-Star Race and runner-up finish in Mexico City. But Sunday’s race at Pocono was unquestionably a setback in the progress that he had made. He stays in third ahead of Byron only on the strength of those three early wins.

Last Week: 3rd NASCAR Playoff Standings: 3rd

2) Kyle Larson

Larson didn’t have a fantastic day at Pocono. He failed to score in the opening stage and finished ninth in the second stage. But he ultimately brought home a solid seventh-place finish to keep the momentum rolling.

You’d typically expect a bit more speed from the man with more wins than anyone in the last five years, but unlike Bell and Byron behind him, he did not falter, and that, paired with his lead in the playoff standings, is enough to move him up a couple spots this week.

Last Week: 4th NASCAR Playoff Standings: 1st

1) Denny Hamlin

After missing a week of racing while caring for his fiancée Jordan and their newborn child, Hamlin didn’t miss a beat on Sunday.

The seven-time winner at Pocono qualified on the pole, won the first stage and then brought home a second-place finish that very easily could have been a win had the cards fallen a different way.

Hamlin now has a win, a second-place finish, and a third-place finish in his last three Cup Series races and he and new crew chief Chris Gayle are firing on all cylinders as he hunts down an elusive first championship.

Last Week: 1st NASCAR Playoff Standings: 2nd