NASCAR Power Rankings After Corey Heim’s Stunning Win At Naval Base Coronado

With the laps ticking down in Sunday’s historic NASCAR Cup Series race at Naval Base Coronado outside of San Diego, it appeared as if points leader Tyler Reddick would win his sixth race of the season and regain his spot atop our NASCAR Power Rankings.

Then, with three laps remaining, Reddick made a mistake. He braked too late entering a corner, allowing part-time teammate Corey Heim to draw up to his back bumper. Reddick then made another mistake after Heim drew alongside him, running into the 23-year-old before backing out of the gas to cede the lead.

Reddick tapping the breaks here is unreal amount of respect. Teammate or not you never see that these days. pic.twitter.com/EY4WUkBuBb

— Alex Kerner (@psychedalex68) June 22, 2026

Ultimately, the second mistake caused a cut tire that saw Reddick go from a potential race win to a 25th-place finish. Meanwhile, Heim, who is set to join 23XI Racing full-time starting next season as a teammate of Reddick and Bubba Wallace, picked up an improbable first victory of his Cup Series career.

But what does that mean for our rankings?

2026 NASCAR Cup Series Power Rankings: Week 17

Heim, who is running 12 Cup Series races across the 2026 season, is both ineligible for our power rankings because he is not a full-time driver, and also does not have enough strong results to enter the rankings even if he were eligible.

However, that doesn’t mean that the race didn’t see some significant shakeups to the rankings.

For one, Reddick looked like a lock to regain the top spot just one week after losing it for the first time all season to Denny Hamlin.

Additionally, Shane van Gisbergen, the heavy favorite to win the race, will have to wait at least one more week to re-enter our rankings after crashing out in the second stage of the race and finishing in 38th.

In fact, there was a good bit of movement in this week’s rankings after a chaotic first race in San Diego.

10) Bubba Wallace

At one point in his career, Bubba Wallace was an admittedly poor road course racer. That’s no longer the case, and there’s no better example of his growth than Sunday’s performance in San Diego.

Wallace started in 12th position and quickly picked his way through the field all the way up into second. However, a loose wheel on a pit stop that later came off on the track not only sent him to the back of the pack, but it also put him two laps down.

Wallace remained patient, got his laps back via timely cautions, and then drove all the way back up through the field to finish third. On a day when several other drivers in and around the back end of our rankings struggled, Wallace persevered to turn a potentially terrible day into an exemplary one.

Last Week: UR NASCAR Point Standings: 11th (-287)

9) Daniel Suarez

Sunday’s race wasn’t anything overly flashy from Daniel Suarez. He started the day in sixth position and ran around the back end of the top-10 for much of it, grabbing a seventh-place finish in stage two before finishing the race in 13th.

But what it was for Suarez, however, was consistent.

The 34-year-old, who is on his fourth Cup Series team, is having the best season of his career by a wide margin, and he seems to have found a home with Spire Motorsports.

While Suarez might not be a title contender, he’s having one of the most consistent seasons of anyone in the garage and likely earning himself a contract extension in the process.

Last Week: 9th NASCAR Point Standings: 8th (-238)

8) Carson Hocevar

Suarez’s teammate, Carson Hocevar, showed great speed all weekend, qualifying in second and then finishing in the top 10 in both stage one and stage two.

He may have also been in contention for the win had it not been for a late-race incident with Heim that caused Hocevar to spin out and ultimately cost him a likely top-10 finish.

Hocevar ultimately slipped to 19th, turning a potential great day into a merely solid one. But he continues to show the type of speed that leads people to believe he’s not done winning this season.

Last Week: 8th NASCAR Point Standings: 9th (-240)

7) Chris Buescher

Chris Buescher has proven time and time again that he’s not only one of the best road course racers in the series today, but one of the best all-time.

He reaffirmed that with another strong showing on Sunday. Buescher qualified in 16th, but he quickly drove up through the field and, after flipping the opening stage, took third place in stage two.

He then found himself leading late in the race before an untimely caution. Ultimately, Buescher opted to pit from the lead for tires, and in the remaining laps of the race, he drove back up for a strong seventh-place finish.

Last Week: 7th NASCAR Point Standings: 7th (-216)

6) Chase Elliott

Chase Elliott just never seemed to get comfortable around the circuit at Naval Base Coronado.

He qualified terribly, starting all the way down in 30th position, and then stalled the car getting out of his pit box on an early stop.

That took Elliott out of the running for points in both the first and second stages. He eventually avoided enough trouble and found enough speed to finish in 12th, which isn’t the worst. But for a driver who once dominated on road courses, it seems like Elliott has lost his way a bit with the new generation of car.

Elliott has now failed to record a top-10 finish in any of the three races this month.

Last Week: 4th NASCAR Point Standings: 6th (-182)

5) Ty Gibbs

Like Elliott, Gibbs is one of the series’ better road racers according to the results. However, like Elliott, he also struggled a bit on Sunday and seems to find himself in a small rut.

After starting in 11th, Gibbs drove forward for a fourth-place finish in the opening stage. However, he got caught up in the stage two accident that took out van Gisbergen, Connor Zilisch, and Austin Hill, putting him behind the eight ball.

Even with a damaged car, Gibbs managed to drive back up into the top 10 before ultimately slipping back to 15th at the end of the day.

Last Week: 5th NASCAR Point Standings: 5th (-181)

4) Kyle Larson

Sooner or later, Kyle Larson’s over-year-long winless streak is going to end, and with the way he’s been running of late, you have to believe that the answer falls in the “sooner” category.

Larson was by far the best of the Hendrick Motorsports drivers all weekend, qualifying in 14th and driving through the field for a third-place finish in the opening stage.

He led twice for a total of 11 laps, which was the second-highest total in the field, and then brought his car home with a solid third-place finish. Larson’s season at the this point is almost becoming underrated because the lack of a victory. But he’s keeping himself alive in the point standings and the reigning champ might just have a say before it’s all said and done.

Last Week: 4th NASCAR Point Standings: 4th (-180)

3) Ryan Blaney

Ryan Blaney has quietly turned himself into a solid road course racer, and it showed all weekend in San Diego.

After qualifying in third position and then quickly taking the lead away from Shane Van Gisbegen. Blaney controlled the early parts of the race and went on to win the opening stage.

He then battled back from unfortunately timed cautions that put him behind the eight ball to finish fifth in stage two, and drove through the field from the last teens all the way up to ninth in the final 10 laps of the race.

Ultimately, Blaney put distance between he and his closest challengers for third in the regular-season points, making Sunday and extemely productive day at the office.

Last Week: 3rd NASCAR Point Standings: 3rd (-133)

2) Tyler Reddick

Tyler Reddick could almost reach out and touch his sixth win of the season on Sunday. And then, in the blink of an eye, it was gone, and even more of his points lead over Denny Hamlin was gone with it.

Reddick was far from perfect all weekend, spinning in qualifying, which led to him starting 17th and failing to score points in either of the first two stages.

However, when the chips were down, Reddick had both the speed to compete for a victory and the track. Two mistakes later, though, and competing for a victory turned into a 25th-place finish and a chance to regain the top spot in the rankings went slipping through is fingers.

Last Week: 2nd NASCAR Point Standings: 1st

1) Denny Hamlin

Denny Hamlin didn’t exactly do anything extraordinary to maintain his spot atop our rankings. In fact, by the future Hall of Famer’s standards, his weekend was merely medicore.

Hamlin qualified back in 26th. He didn’t score points in either of the first two stages, and then he finished in 14th, which is nothing to write home about for a championship contender coming off three consecutive wins and four straight finishes in the top three (not even accounting for his win in the All-Star Race).

However, Reddick’s loss was Hamlin’s gain, as even with a 14th-place finish he still shaved another 11 points off of Reddick’s rapidly shrinking points lead.

Last Week: 1st NASCAR Point Standings: 2nd (-8)