NASCAR Power Rankings Following Ty Gibbs’ Second Victory Of The Season At Iowa

Ty Gibbs picked up his second NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season Sunday at Iowa Speedway thanks to a clever call by crew chief Tyler Allen and some impressive defensive driving to hold off teammate Christopher Bell.

In doing so, Gibbs vaulted from fourth to second in the Cup Series point standings and also made a notable jump in our latest power rankings.

Meanwhile, a difficult day for drivers such as Tyler Reddick and Kyle Larson sees them drop down the standings and, in the case of one, take a tumble in the rankings.

2026 NASCAR Cup Series Power Rankings: Week 23

With just three races remaining in the regular season, the tiers that had already begun to form both in the standings and power rankings are continuing to solidify.

However, Sunday’s race presented movement within those tiers as some drivers made up significant ground, while others are leaving Iowa disappointed.

Gibbs continues to establish himself as a genuine championship threat in his fourth season in the series, while others such as defending champion Kyle Larson are looking more and more like they’ll have to think about turning their focus to 2027.

10) Kyle Larson

The aforementioned Larson just can’t seem to catch a break these days, whether it’s a mistake of his own doing or he’s the victim of someone else’s misfortune.

At one point in the middle of the season, Larson was pushing to enter the top tier of our power rankings and looked like a title contender for Hendrick Motorsports.

That’s no longer the case after yet another difficult day that saw Larson qualify on the front row and finish third in the opening stage before getting swept up in a wreck that ultimately caused him to finish in 33rd, 18 laps down.

The only saving grace for Larson is that he remains in the power rankings thanks to none of the drivers directly behind him doing enough to warrant a bump up.

Last Week: 10th NASCAR Point Standings: 10th (-294)

9) Chris Buescher

While Ford has run strongly in three races at Iowa Speedway, the track hasn’t been a happy hunting ground for Buescher, who ran 18th in 2024 and 22nd last season.

Sunday was much of the same.

After qualifying 27th, Buescher did work his way through the field, aided by some strategy, but failed to run in the top 10 for the majority of the day.

Ultimately, he came home with a 13th-place finish, which has been about where he’s been running on average of late. But the lack of speed from RFK Racing as a whole will be a concern the rest of the season.

Last Week: 9th NASCAR Point Standings: 9th (-286)

8) Chase Elliott

Like his teammate Larson, it’s been tough sledding for Chase Elliott of late, and that continued on Sunday.

Elliott had a terrible qualifying performance on Saturday, which led to him starting in 32nd position. And while crew chief Alan Gustafson tried an alternate track position to gain his driver some track position. It simply didn’t matter.

After a stage two restart that saw him in the lead of the race, Elliott quickly dropped back through the pack and ultimately finished in 15th position, avoiding a disaster, but failing to make any inroads into the drivers ahead of him in points or the power rankings.

Last Week: 8th NASCAR Point Standings: 7th (-266)

6) Carson Hocevar

Last season, Carson Hocevar qualified in eighth position at Iowa and ran in the top 10 for the majority of the day before bringing home a top-10 finish.

But a year can make a notable difference, and while Hocevar has been fast almost everywhere he’s gone this season, that wasn’t the case this weekend.

Hocevar qualified in 18th, spun to bring out the first caution of the race, and then battled engine issues the rest of the day, ultimately finishing three laps down in 32nd.

He took a big slide in the point standings, but falls just one spot in our power rankings.

Last Week: 6th NASCAR Point Standings: 8th (-279)

6) Chase Briscoe

Chase Briscoe drops one spot in this week’s power rankings, but it’s little to do with anything he did wrong.

After qualifying in 20th position, Briscoe drove his way through the field to pick up points in stage one, and then continued to work through the pack in stage two, where he finished fifth.

Ultimately, he’d finish the race in sixth position, but it was a largely productive day for Briscoe and his team at a track where he’s now run well two years in a row.

Last Week: 5th NASCAR Point Standings: 5th (-260)

5) Christopher Bell

Not for the first time this season, Christopher Bell will feel like he let a victory slip away. In fact, Bell now has seven second-place finishes this season without a victory.

On Sunday, he was the dominant car for the second-half of the race and led 108 laps, second only to Ryan Blaney.

However, on the final round of green-flag pit stops, Bell’s crew chief, Adam Stevens, opted for four tires rather than two, which took him from the lead to trailing Gibbs, a deficit that he could never quite overcome.

Still, Bell is knocking down the door, and it would be nothing short of stunning if he didn’t win in the final 13 races of the season and perhaps even challenge for a championship.

Last Week: 6th NASCAR Point Standings: 6th (-264)

4) Tyler Reddick

At one point this season, Tyler Reddick had a greater than 100-point lead in the standings after winning five of the first 11 races of the season.

Since then, seemingly everything has fallen apart.

Even when Reddick has speed, as he appeared to on Sunday, misfortune seems to find him. The 23XI Racing star qualified in fifth position, but completed just three laps of the race before his car snapped loose entering turn one and he slid up into Erik Jones before slamming the wall.

Reddick finished last, marking his fifth finish of 30th or worse in the last nine races, which doesn’t account for a 25th-place finish in San Diego.

Last Week: 2nd NASCAR Point Standings: 4th (-120)

3) Ryan Blaney

Like Bell, Blaney may look back at Sunday’s race as a missed opportunity.

Sure, he led every lap of the opening stage and eventually finished in third, making for an extremely strong day. But Blaney also qualified on the pole after leading every possible timing category in practice.

However, on the long runs, Blaney just didn’t have the same type of speed that both Bell and Gibbs had, and it came back to bite him in the final stage, which ran entirely green to the finish.

Still, Blaney holds steady both in the points and power rankings after jumping Reddick but falling behind the next driver on our list.

Last Week: 3rd NASCAR Point Standings: 3rd (-110)

2) Ty Gibbs

Entering the season, the narrative surrounding Ty Gibbs was simple: He has plenty of talent, but he can’t put a full race together and often gets in his own way.

That’s why Gibbs, one of the top prospects in the sport’s history, had yet to win through his first three seasons in the Cup Series.

Now, Gibbs has flipped that narrative on its head. He just picked up his second win of the season and moved up to second in the point standings, proving to the world that he hasn’t just arrived in the Cup Series; he’s a genuine title contender.

Last Week: 4th NASCAR Point Standings: 2nd (-103)

1) Denny Hamlin

Denny Hamlin is not a fan of Iowa Speedway. The points leader made that abundantly clear prior to the weekend, and you can understand why when you see his pair of 24th-place finishes at the track in the last two seasons.

Sunday was a different story.

Hamlin qualified back in 29th, which suggested another difficult day was on the cards. However, he slowly and methodically worked his way up through the pack, and a two-tire call by crew chief Chris Gabehart got him some badly needed track position in the second stage.

Hamlin dropped a few spots toward the end of the stage, finishing sixth. But he still picked up valuable bonus points and then maintained that track position for the rest of the race, coming home in that same sixth spot.

With the Chase just weeks away, Hamlin is the clear favorite to win an elusive first championship. Now, we all sit back and see whether he can finish the job.

Last Week: 1st NASCAR Point Standings: 1st