NASCAR Power Rankings After Denny Hamlin’s Dominant Victory At Pocono

In his 21 seasons in the NASCAR Cup Series, Joe Gibbs Racing star Denny Hamlin has won just about everything there is to win.

Hamlin has 64 career victories, ninth-best all-time, three Daytona 500 wins, three Southern 500 wins, a Coke 600 win, and a Rookie of the Year award on his sure-to-be Hall of Fame resume.

The one glaring thing that he somehow does not have is a championship, although he has come agonizingly close on multiple occasions, including last season, when he finished as the runner-up to Kyle Larson in heartbreaking fashion.

Hamlin has already stated his intent to retire from the sport following the 2027 season. Could this be the year he finally wins it all? Well, after a dominating victory on Sunday at Pocono, which gives him three straight wins in the Cup Series, you’d be hard-pressed to bet against him.

2026 NASCAR Cup Series Power Rankings: Week 16

Hamlin became the first driver not named Tyler Reddick to take the top spot in our power rankings after last week’s win at Michigan. In the process, he took a huge chunk out of Reddick’s lead in the Cup Series point standings, which once looked insurmountable

On Sunday, he took another big bite out of Reddick’s cushion, despite the fact that Reddick, who runs for Hamlin and Michael Jordan’s 23XI race team, finished as the runner-up.

But while there’s a fight building for the top spot in the standings, there’s no question who holds the top spot in this week’s edition of our rankings. Although there was plenty of movement behind him.

10) Christopher Bell

Christopher’s Bell roller coaster 2026 season continued on Sunday at Pocono. He began the weekend behind the eight ball after last week’s terrifying crash at Michigan, which resulted a 63G impact with the wall and Bell suffering a broken wrist.

The impacts of the crash and an early qualifying slot showed throughout the weekend as Bell regularly ran well behind his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates.

At the end of the race, it briefly appeared as if he and crew chief Adam Stevens pulled off the perfect fuel strategy to steal a top-10 finish. However, Bell ran out of fuel with one lap remaining and ultimately finished in a disappointing 26th position.

Last Week: 8th NASCAR Point Standings: 10th (-283)

9) Daniel Suarez

Daniel Suarez just continues to turn in steady performance after steady performance in his debut season with Spire Motorsports.

Suarez again started inside the top 10 after a third-place qualifying performance, the best of any Spire driver, and then picked up points in both the first and second stages. He later slipped just outside the top 10 for a 13th-place finish. But with the addition of the points gained in the stages, Suarez just continues to rack them up and is now extremely solidly positioned in the standings as the chase nears.

Last Week: 9th NASCAR Point Standings: 8th (-254)

8) Carson Hocevar

Suarez’s teammate, Carson Hocevar, had an uncharacteristically rough weekend at Pocono. Normally, when Hocevar has a poor finish, it’s because he got caught up in an accident (often of his own doing) or dealt with issues on pit road.

But that wasn’t the case this week. Hocevar qualified all the way down in 26th after a mistake coming off the final turn, and he never really moved up much from there.

He and his team used some clever strategy to claim a seventh-place finish in the second stage, but ultimately, he cycled back down through the field and had to settle for a 20th-place finish.

Last Week: 7th NASCAR Point Standings: 9th (-255)

7) Chris Buescher

Chris Buescher is the big winner in this week’s power rankings, in part because he avoided stumbling like both Hocevar and Bell.

In fact, on a week where Ford drivers yet again lacked for speed all weekend, Buescher was the lone exception. He qualified in sixth position at the track where he picked up his first-ever Cup Series win and turned that into a fifth-place finish in the opening stage.

Buescher then hung around the back end of the top 10 for much of the race before bringing home a perfectly solid seventh-place finish, which saw him move up both in the rankings and the point standings.

Last Week: 10th NASCAR Point Standings: 7th (-243)

6) Kyle Larson

For the second week in a row, Kyle Larson was the fastest Chevrolet and Hendrick Motorsports driver in the field for much of the race. After qualifying on the outside of the front row, Larson actually took the lead from Hamlin and held it for the opening 24 laps of the race before finishing the opening stage in fifth.

He got cycled back a bit in the second stage, but worked his way back up through the last pit cycle to take home a perfectly solid fifth-place finish.

Right now, Larson and Hendrick Motorsports just don’t seem to have the speed to compete with the Toyotas of Joe Gibbs Racing and 23XI most weeks. But the reigning champion is doing a great job of maximizing what he does have week in and week out.

Last Week: 6th NASCAR Point Standings: 6th (-210)

5) Ty Gibbs

After qualifying in fourth, Ty Gibbs was remarkably strong during the early portion of Sunday’s race, remaining in the top five and grabbing a third-place finish in the opening stage.

However, a poor pit stop following the first caution of the day cost him a ton of track position, and while he was able to work his way back through most of the field, he never fully regained the spots that he lost.

Ultimately, it was a mature drive from the ever-maturing 23-year-old, who brought his car home in ninth and turned what could’ve been a disappointing day into a perfectly solid one.

Last Week: 5th NASCAR Point Standings: 5th (-198)

4) Chase Elliott

After getting involved in the late-racing wreck with Bell a week ago, Chase Elliott was forced to go out early in qualifying on Saturday, which resulted in a 23rd starting spot.

From there, he never really showed the speed of teammates Kyle Larson and William Byron. He drove up toward the top 10 by the end of the opening stage and even picked up a point by finishing second in stage two. However, in the final stage, Elliott was one of the first cars to make their final stop of the day, which cost him spots late in the race as he struggled to maintain speed on old tires, eventually finishing in 11th.

Last Week: 4th NASCAR Point Standings: 4th (-195)

3) Ryan Blaney

Last week, we talked about Ryan Blaney maximizing the speed that his Ford Mustang gave him for a top-10 finish. This week was much of the same.

Ultimately, it seems difficult to see Blaney holding onto his third-place position in both the power rankings and the point standings, only because the Ford teams simply don’t have the speed of the Chevys, and certainly not the Toyotas, on a week-to-week basis.

But for the time being, Blaney is making chicken salad out of, well, you know…

After qualifying in 10th position, he ran around the back end of the top 10 for much of the day before ultimately finishing in 10th, limiting the damage to those around him in the standings.

Last Week: 3rd NASCAR Point Standings: 3rd (-165)

2) Tyler Reddick

It seems ridiculous that Tyler Reddick could lead twice for 24 laps, finish second, and still lose 32 points out of his lead over Denny Hamlin in the standings, and yet here we are. That’s just how good Hamlin has been in recent weeks.

After qualifying in 16th due to an early qualifying draw, Reddick failed to score points in either of the opening two stages, which cost him 12 points to Hamlin. He then used a mix of strategy and fantastic long-run speed late in the race to drive from the back end of the top 10 up to second place.

Ultimately, it was an extremely productive day for Reddick at a track where he’s traditionally struggled, and he did about as well as you could ask for at limiting his losses.

Last Week: 2nd NASCAR Point Standings: 1st

1) Denny Hamlin

Denny Hamlin led only four times for 28 laps after sitting on the pole for Sunday’s race at Pocono, and yet it never felt like there was much doubt as to who was going to walk away with the checkered flag.

Hamlin showed the best long-run speed of any car out there throughout the day, and ultimately that’s what earned him his record eighth victory at the track, and his third-straight this season.

Perhaps a pair of trips out west to road courses in San Diego and Sonoma will cool Hamlin off. But with the way he’s running right now, he wouldn’t bet against him pulling a rabbit out of his hat at one of those tracks either.

Last Week: 1st NASCAR Point Standings: 2nd (-19)