NASCAR Power Rankings After Tyler Reddick’s Last-Lap Victory At Kansas

For much of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway, it appeared as if Denny Hamlin would cruise to his second victory of the season in dominant fashion.

Hamlin led six-times for 131 laps, both race highs, and retook the lead from Tyler Reddick with just a handful of laps remaining after an intense back-and-forth battle.

However, a late caution through a curveball to everyone, and despite Kyle Larson shooting to the lead on the final restart, Reddick was able to gather himself and make a last-lap pass to claim his fifth win of the season and establish himself not only as the points leader, but also as the man atop our last NASCAR Power Rankings.

2026 NASCAR  Cup Series Power Rankings: Week 9

Reddick has led both the point standings and the power rankings since his victory to open the season in the Daytona 500.

However, in recent weeks both Hamlin and Ryan Blaney had begun to slowly, but steadily, eat into his lead his points lead and make their own, separate, appeals for the top spot in the power rankings.

While both could certainly get there at some point, and others are starting to come on strong, Sunday’s victory proved that Reddick isn’t just going to go away.

Meanwhile, in the back half of our power rankings, some new names are beginning to surge while others, like three-time series champion Joey Logano, went tumbling out of the rankings altogether after a horrific weekend.

10) Brad Keselowski

Keselowski popped into the power rankings at No. 10 after a strong showing last month at Darlington. But he was quickly bumped back out of the rankings.

After a strong sixth-place finish at Kansas, which made him the top runner of any of the Ford drivers in the field, he re-enters the rankings. Keselowski and both of his teammates, Chris Buescher and Ryan Preece, have shown long-run speed throughout the season, but they continue to struggle in qualifying.

If the Roush Fenway Keselowski team can find a way to unload with just a little more speed one of these weekends, they’ll be fighting be fighting for victories, not just top-10 finishes.

Last Week: UR NASCAR Point Standings: 9th (-193)

9) Christopher Bell

What difference a matter of two laps can make.

After a difficult run last week in Bristol, Bell had to go out early in qualifying on Saturday and started Sunday’s race in 11th. He steadily climbed through the field, finishing fifth at the end of both of the first two stages.

He then took the lead in the third stage and appeared he could be the driver to be before the final round of green flag pit stops, when both Hamlin and Reddick jumped him by pitting sooner.

Bell then scraped the wall and fell back to fifth. On the final restart of the race, Bell was outside of Reddick and looking to potentially take the lead before the two made contact, sending the Joe Gibbs Racing star into the wall. He’d later spin out and finish 20th, putting a sour ending on an otherwise strong day.

Last Week: 7th NASCAR Point Standings: 10th (-196)

8) William Byron

Byron didn’t quite have the speed of teammates Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott throughout the race. He qualified back in 14th and failed to score points in either stage on Sunday.

But the caution fell at the right time for him to utilize strategy, taking four tires ahead of the final restart and working his way all the way up to seventh when the checkered flag flew, one spot ahead of Elliott.

On one hand, the lack of the speed throughout the race is a concern. But he and his team have to be happy with the way they maximized their finish.

Last Week: 8th NASCAR Point Standings: 7th (-182)

7) Bubba Wallace

After back-t0-back horror shows at Darlington and Martinsville, Wallace steadied the ship a week ago at Bristol. Now, it appears he’s back moving in the right direction entirely after Sunday’s race at Kansas.

Wallace put in a solid performance in qualifying to start the race in 10th and then spent more or less the entire day inside the top 10, finishing the first stage in ninth and the second stage in sixth.

By the final stage, he told his team he felt he had a car capable of winning. While he never quite got that high up in the running order, Wallace finished with a strong fifth-place finish and now heads to Talladega, a track he’s won at and has three straight top-10 finishes, with a good bit of momentum

Last Week: 9th NASCAR Point Standings: 8th (-182)

6) Chase Elliott

All in all, Chase Elliott did what Chase Elliott tends to do on Sunday: he maximized what he brought to the race track.

Last time out at Kansas, Elliott took advantage of mayhem on a green-white-checkered finished to “steal” a victory. This time, he showed up with decent speed, qualifying in 13th, and then drove his car to a sixth-place finish in the opening stage and fourth-place finish in stage two.

He didn’t quite have the speed or good fortune to contend for the victory. But ultimately, Elliott brought home an eighth-place finish and an extremely solid points day.

Last Week: 6th NASCAR Point Standings: 6th (-152)

5) Kyle Larson

For a brief while, Larson looked as if he’d be the biggest contender to Hamlin for the victory at Kansas. He led three times for 78 laps and ran inside the top five for the entire day, finishing second in stage one and winning stage two.

That victory looked even more of a possibility when Larson took the lead on the final restart, passing both Reddick and Hamlin in the opening turn.

However, in his postrace interview, Larson said his car was extremely tight over the final laps of the race and he had to watch as Reddick went flying by him, extending his winless streak to nearly one full year.

Last Week: 5th NASCAR Point Standings: 5th (-143)

4) Ty Gibbs

After picking up the first win of his career last week at Bristol, and with the way he’s been running of late, Gibbs will be disappointed not to have contended for a victory on Sunday.

But the young star showed both growth and maturity in his willingness to take what he had under him and maximize it. Gibbs started in third and finished the opening stage in fourth, before dropping back and finishing eighth in stage two.

At one point during the race he complained that his car was simply far too tight to run up front. But he still managed to bring home a ninth-place finish and continue his extremely impressive run of results dating back two months.

Last Week: 4th NASCAR Point Standings: 4th (-138)

3) Ryan Blaney

Sunday’s race at Kansas marked the first time this season that Blaney and his team were just plain slow.

The difficulties shouldn’t have come as a huge surprise, as both Team Penske and Ford as a whole have struggled at Kansas with the NextGen car. But it was still startling to see how far off Blaney and co. were given the way they’ve run all season.

After starting in ninth, Blaney failed to score points in the opening stage, and more importantly, made contact with AJ Allmendinger exiting the pits after his first stop. While Blaney said the car felt fine and no obvious damage presented itself after the incident, Blaney went from a 10th-15th placed car to one that finished 25th, one lap down.

One bad race won’t kill his championship hopes. But Blaney and his team will have to figure out high-speed 1.5-mile tracks at some point this season or he’ll have a tough time in the long run.

Last Week: 2nd NASCAR Point Standings: 3rd (-120)

2) Denny Hamlin

Add yet another race to the “would’ve, could’ve, should’ve” pile for Denny Hamlin.

Hamlin dominated on Sunday, leading the most laps and taking control of the race, seemingly for good, with under five laps remaining before a Cody Ware spin brought out the caution just before Hamlin was set to take the white flag.

On the ensuing restart, Hamlin let Larson get to his inside, putting he and Reddick three-wide and making his odds of victory significantly lower. After the race, Hamlin stated that he made a mistake choosing the inside lane the on final restart, and giving the outcome, it’s hard to claim otherwise.

He had an extremely strong car, and that should be encouraging moving forward. But at some point the should-be wins need to become actual wins if he hopes to claim that elusive championship.

Last Week: 3rd NASCAR Point Standings: 2nd (-105)

1) Tyler Reddick

Make that five wins in nine races for Tyler Reddick, and this one may have been the most impressive.

Sure, Reddick didn’t dominate. In fact, he led just 10 laps in total, fewer than Hamlin, Larson, and Bell. But he was fastest when it mattered, running down Hamlin on the final long run of the race before a fuel issue cost him the lead, and then regrouping to running down Larson on the final restart despite a difficult opening set of terms.

Reddick’s raw speed has never been in doubt. But there have been questions in the past about how he handles high-pressure scenarios. This year, he appears to be putting those questions to bed, and he’s doing so in historic fashion.

Last Week: 1st NASCAR Point Standings: 1st.