NASCAR Power Rankings After Chase Briscoe Goes Back-To-Back With Win At Charlotte

With spooky season officially upon us, it appears that Joe Gibbs Racing driver Chase Briscoe has officially risen from the dead to give himself a second chance at claiming the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series championship.

After a brutally unlucky start to the 10-race chase for a championship, Briscoe has now put together back-to-back victories at Las Vegas and Charlotte, added to a second-place finish the week prior in Kansas, and is undeniably the hottest driver in the series.

Now, with four races left in the season, Briscoe is unquestionably within touching distance of points leader Kyle Larson, and he’s rapidly shooting his way up our NASCAR Power Rankings.

2026 NASCAR Cup Series Power Rankings: Week 32

After Briscoe let a late lead in Kansas slip, handing the victory to Kyle Larson, crew chief James Small made it clearn, in no uncertain terms, that his driver needed to be better.

Well, Briscoe answered the call.

Last week in Vegas, Briscoe did all he could to hold off a hard-charging Larson and Tyler Reddick. This week, he crossed the finish line side-by-side with teammate Christopher Bell, who made up over a second in the final two laps of the race but couldn’t quite do enough to steal the victory.

Briscoe’s second consecutive win now puts him firmly in an ever-shrinking group of drivers who can still say they have a legitimate chance to be crowned the series champion next month in Miami.

10) Bubba Wallace

Wallace was once again the victim of somebody else’s misfortune on Sunday, which has been a theme for him of late.

The 23XI Racing star drove his way into the top five and even led laps during the first stage of the race before being caught up in a wreck when Alex Bowman spun, and Wallace had nowhere to go.

Unfortunately, that meant a 37th-place finish. But Wallace showed speed across all three intermediate tracks the series raced at these past few weeks, which is clearly worth something.

Last Week: 10th NASCAR Point Standings: 11th (-185)

9) Ty Gibbs

Gibbs’ difficult Chase experience continued on Sunday when he, like Wallace, found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The 24-year-old was running in the top 10 in the opening stage when Tyler Reddick lost control of his car in front of him on a restart. Gibbs had nowhere to go. He attempted to slow down, but was hit by Joey Logano, sending him into the wall and breaking a right-rear toe link.

He went on to finish the race in 34th, several laps down, continuing a rough run throughout the last several races.

Last Week: 9th NASCAR Point Standings: 9th (-156)

8) Austin Cindric

Once again, Cindric showed unbelievable speed early in the race on Sunday, challenging Kyle Larson for the lead before the competition caution fell early in the opening stage.

That speed resulted in a fourth-place finish in stage one and a sixth-place finish in stage two. Unfortunately, it seems something happened to his car at some point in the final stage, and he faded back through the pack to a 17th-place finish.

Even so, Cindric remains eighth in the series point standings and continues on one of the best stretches of his Cup Series career.

Last Week: 8th NASCAR Point Standings: 8th (-145)

7) Tyler Reddick

Better, but not good enough. That has been the theme of Tyler Reddick’s Chase so far.

Reddick dominated the early portion of the season, winning five of the first 11 races. However, over the summer, he and his team appeared to fall off a cliff, resulting in everything that could possibly go wrong seemingly doing so.

He and his team have rebounded somewhat of late. They finished in both stages and eighth at the end of the day. However, it’s just not enough to go out and compete for a championship.

Last Week: 7th NASCAR Point Standings: 7th (-114)

6) Joey Logano

Entering the Chase, the biggest detriment to Logano’s ability to contend for a championship was his team’s lack of speed on intermediate tracks.

Unfortunately for the three-time series champion, that issue has reared its head in recent weeks, particularly on Sunday when, despite starting inside the top 10, he failed to score points in either stage and finished in ninth position.

On the one hand, Logano if probably still alive for a championship. But his hopes are on life support; a dominant day that results in a win next week in Phoenix is absolutely critical.

Last Week: 6th NASCAR Point Standings: 6th (-92)

5) Ryan Blaney

At the end of the season, Blaney may well look back at the blown brake rotor he suffered in St. Louis and the crash he had with Carson Hocevar at Bristol as the moments that killed his title hopes.

Unlike Logano, Blaney has had speed at the three intermediate tracks of late. He finished in the top five at all three of them, including a third-place finish on Sunday in Charlotte.

However, he still lost ground to points leader Kyle Larson. Had it not been for the two incidents above, Blaney could well be in second place in the points and within touching distance of Larson entering a more favorable portion of the schedule.

Instead, he, like Logano, is in do-or-die mode headed to Phoenix.

Last Week: 4th NASCAR Point Standings: 5th (-85)

4) Denny Hamlin

We said last week that Charlotte felt like a must-win situation for Denny Hamlin and company. Not only did Hamlin not win, but he also had to overcome another mistake that meant he didn’t score points in the opening stage while Larson added 10 more with a stage victory.

Hamlin fought his way back to a third-place finish in stage two and finished fifth at the end of the day. But when it was all said and done, he lost nine more points to Larson.

Somehow, he still sits in second in the standings, but things continue to trend in the wrong direction.

Last Week: 3rd NASCAR Point Standings: 2nd (-49)

3) Christopher Bell

Bell told anyone who would listen that Sunday’s race at Charlotte was a must-win for him and his team. Unfortunately, he came up about three feet short of making good on that proclamation, finishing side-by-side with his teammate as the checkered flag flew.

Ultimately, it was a productive day for Bell, as he was just one of two drivers to actually gain ground on Larson in the standings.

The problem, however, is that he didn’t gain enough ground. And without picking up race victories, it’s hard to see him doing so between now and the final race of the season at Homestead.

Last Week: 2nd NASCAR Point Standings: 3rd (-65)

2) Chase Briscoe

It may well be that Chase Briscoe simply dug himself too big of a hole to climb out of when it’s all said and done. But the hot streak that he’s currently on at least gives you some sort of confidence that he could come from nowhere and chase down Larson for the championship.

Briscoe has an average finish of 1.33 over the past three races, including victories in the last two. He led the most laps last week in Las Vegas, and then the second-most on Sunday in Charlotte.

He now heads to Phoenix, a place where he picked up the first Cup Series win of his career, full of confidence and with a clear and obvious goal: keep winning races.

Last Week: 5th NASCAR Point Standings: 4th (-65)

1) Kyle Larson

Larson’s performance on Sunday showed exactly why he’s going to be so difficult for anyone to run down over the last four weeks of the season.

He started on the pole after qualifying was rained out and turned that into a stage one victory, snagging the 10 points that came with it. While his car didn’t quite have race-winning speed from that point on, Larson and crew chief Cliff Daniels still maximized their day, running inside the top five for the majority of the day and scoring 49 points, third-most behind only Briscoe and Bell.

There’s always the possibility that something outside of the team’s control comes back to bite Larson and cost him a large chunk of points. But it’ll likely be necessary if anyone wants to prise the championship out of his hands.

Last Week: 1st NASCAR Point Standings: 1st