2025 NASCAR Power Rankings, Week 9: Bristol

Coming out of throwback weekend at Darlington, Denny Hamlin made his mark on this season by earning his second win in as many weeks.

To get there, Hamlin’s pit crew delivered the 44-year-old veteran a lightning fast pit stop to give him the lead for the Overtime restart.

It was business as usual for Hamlin after that, getting a great launch on the final restart to defeat the likes of Tyler Reddick, William Byron, Christopher Bell, and Ryan Blaney.

As such, our power rankings have changed, but the person at the top hasn’t. Let’s take a look!

1. Christopher Bell (Last Week: 1)

Last Three Races: 29th, 2nd, 3rd

Tanner: From nearly going a lap down to William Byron in stage 1 to leap-frogging Byron’s Camaro on the final round of pit stops, Christopher Bell endured a trying day before taking the shortest step on the podium.

The third-place finish gave Bell his first great finish on an intermediate after pit troubles in Vegas and damage from a spin at Homestead last month.

Bell clings on to the top spot this week due to his bounce back as well as his impressive record to this point. His three wins remain tops in the series, and he earned top-5 finishes at Martinsville and Darlington in completely different ways.

Crew chief Adam Stevens hits on setups this season more often than not, so it’s impossible to think they’ll have some sort of sudden fall from grace. That said, the No. 1 spot on this list could be up for grabs soon if his teammate continues his most recent tear.

2. Denny Hamlin (Last Week: 3)

Last Three Races: 5th, 1st, 1st

Jey: Denny Hamlin “stole one back” this weekend as his pit crew was able to get him out first on a late-race yellow due to a second Kyle Larson spin.

Hamlin would take full advantage and pilot his Carl Edwards-inspired SportsClips Camry to victory lane in what makes the second consecutive win for the No. 11 team.

This — combined with Hamlin’s ascension in the last few weeks — lands him at the No. 2 spot on our list.

With Bristol this week, expectations will be high for Hamlin to keep up this streak of great finishes into one of his best tracks where he happens to be the defending winner of the spring race at the “Last Great Colosseum”.

3. Tyler Reddick (Last Week: 5)

Last Three Races: 8th, 14th, 4th

Jey: Tyler Reddick was looking for redemption from last spring’s Darlington race this weekend and came very close to achieving it when Reddick and his crew made the decision to pit early in the last stage.

The tire advantage of pitting early would see him exit the pit cycle with a nearly six-second gap.

However, as his tires would fade, Ryan Blaney would make a hard charge on fresher rubber, passing him just before the last caution of the day would fly.

Regardless of the end result it was the first true top-5 pace this team has shown in a few weeks. They’ll be looking to carry this momentum forward, which will be a tough task heading into Bristol this weekend.

4. William Byron (Last Week: 6)

Last Three Races: 12th, 22nd, 2nd

Jey: William Byron lead the first 243 laps of this past weekend’s 297-lap race at Darlington Raceway.

Byron and the Axalta team would have the fortune of clean air in an age where it’s as prominent as ever and got some lucky breaks with timely cautions that helped them maintain that advantage.

This effort cannot be understated for how impressive it was. That said, once Byron lost the lead late on a green flag pit stop, he did not seem to have the same level of performance in traffic and would only climb back up to second on the green-white-checkered attempt but no further.

It was a great turnaround week for a team that needed a great week even if they left Darlington with a sour taste in their mouths. They’ll at least have the sweet benefit of landing at fourth on our rankings this week.

5. Ryan Blaney (Last Week: 7)

Last Three Races: 36th, 11th, 5th

Tanner: What we saw Sunday was one of the single greatest performances by a driver in the NextGen era.

Unfortunately for Ryan Blaney, an overreaction by one of his competitors forced an impromptu pit stop before NASCAR Overtime where he pit crew lost the lead, dropping Blaney down to fourth.

For those that have kept up over the last month, you’ll notice we have beaten the drum heavily for Blaney even if the results aren’t there, and I hope that his performance at Darlington helps you understand why.

In a race where passing was difficult, Blaney rose from the midpack a number of times before tracking Reddick down from 17 seconds back over 40 laps. If his equipment and the No. 12 team can keep up with the driver, they will win a lot of races in a hurry.

6. Kyle Larson (Last Week: 2)

Last Three Races: 1st, 5th, 37th

Tanner: In Homestead, Kyle Larson put his cartoonish talent on full display when he charged through the field over the final few laps to score the victory. He followed that up with a great effort at Martinsville that netted him a top-5.

Larson stepped foot in Darlington, S.C., and a storm cloud followed him and the No. 5 team all weekend.

An 18th-place qualifying spot put Larson in the midfield. His race lasted just three laps prior to his accident off of turn 2. As if that unforced error wasn’t enough, the 2021 series champion returned to the track over 150 laps off the pace and brought out another caution with four laps to go, nearly replicating his early crash.

It was a cartoonishly awful weekend for Larson where he made some punishing mistakes for his team and his competitors, but I don’t suspect Larson will be held down for too long, considering his record at Bristol.

7. Bubba Wallace (Last Week: 4)

Last Three Races: 3rd, 3rd, 21st

Jey: Bubba Wallace came into this week riding the high of two-straight third-place finishes, and early on, he looked poised for a threepeat as he ran near the front in stage one and collected some valuable stage points. 

Things would unravel as the No. 23 team were caught a lap down from Brad Keselowski’s wheel nut laying on the track for two laps, forcing NASCAR to throw a caution.

This bad break would mire the team around 20th place. Like Byron, Wallace just didn’t have quite the same pace in the pack and was unable to make up any ground before the checkered flag flew.

Bubba and the team will have a very good chance to rebound this week at Bristol, a track that has been quietly one of Wallace’s best tracks. In fact, he would up with a top-5 there in the fall.

8. Joey Logano (Last Week: 8)

Last Three Races: 14th, 8th, 13th

Tanner: Joey Logano remains in eighth place because his 13th-place finish fails to tell the whole story of Logano’s race at Darlington.

Mired in the midpack, Logano dodged Larson’s lap 4 accident and methodically moved his way into the top-15 by the end of the first stage. In a classic Paul Wolfe maneuver, the clever crew chief kept his driver out long in stage 2 in hopes of getting a caution.

Sure enough, Brad Keselowski gave Logano’s race a second life. Logano held onto to second for major stage points and remained firmly in the top-5 for much of the final stage. Wolfe brought Logano down rather early in hopes of getting a caution after green-flag stops cycled.

That caution came too late for Logano, and it prevented them from chaining together top-10 finishes. Even so, Logano and Wolfe show speed at a variety of facilities, and they still sit ninth in the standings.

9. Chris Buescher (Last Week: Not Ranked)

Last Three Races: 6th, 24th, 6th

Tanner: Sometimes, a driver’s great results start getting impossible to ignore.

While Buescher hasn’t led laps at any race this season, the 32-year-old Texan keeps doing what he does best: working through issues with the car and silently moving into the top-10 before the race ends.

One aspect that Buescher and Scott Graves cannot afford to overlook again is stage points. Until Darlington, Buescher hadn’t scored stage points since Daytona, even though he notched three top-10s in that span.

If Buescher and Graves intend to contend, they need to start getting to the front and leading laps. Otherwise, they’re a fringe Playoff team because they struggle to get that elusive win sticker.

10. Chase Elliott (Last Week: Not Ranked)

Last Three Races: 18th, 4th, 8th

Jey: One of our new additions this week, Chase Elliott had a day that could be seen as typical for how their season has mostly gone to this point.

Chase and the No. 9 team made steady progress through the field before issues on pit road once again plunged them down the running order.

Despite that, the UniFirst team put their heads down and grinded out a very respectable top-10 finish.

This resilience should carry this team forward, but if they are capable of putting some full races together, they should only continue to rise in the power rankings.

(Top Photo Credit: NASCAR Digital Media)