1. Denny Hamlin (Previous Peak: 1)
Last Five Races: 2nd, 31st, 4th, 20th, 1st
Jey: Denny Hamlin continues to be a cut above any previous iteration of himself. This weekend shines as a perfect example, winning on 50-lap old tires after a rain delay with 14 to go in Dover.
Hamlin now holds 24 playoff points, and with the way he’s been running (sitting one spot out of third in the points), Hamlin could be looking at a 40-point cushion come playoff time. For this week, he gets to enjoy his first victory as a new dad and will turn his attention to finally capturing a Brickyard 400 this weekend.
2. Kyle Larson (Previous Peak: 1)
Last Five Races: 7th, 17th, 13th, 35th, 4th
Jey: Kyle Larson seems to have finally dug out of the slump he’s been in since the end of May with a top-5 run this weekend at Dover. Perfect timing as well as we head back to the track that he failed to conquer in an IndyCar this spring. On the other side of the coin, he won last year’s first race on the oval since 2020.
Larson currently sits just 38 points out of the regular season points lead. A great day or a win will help propel him closer to his teammates as the regular season draws to a close.
3. Christopher Bell (Previous Peak: 1)
Last Five Races: 17th, 30th, 24th, 5th, 18th
Jey: Christopher Bell managed to lose the same race twice this weekend. He lost it from the lead after leading 67 laps in the latter stages of the race. After catching a lucky caution to put him back into contention, Bell lost the race again after the rain delay, spinning himself off the side of teammate Denny Hamlin racing for the lead.
Bell looks ahead to Indianapolis to rebound this weekend as the team tries to build momentum for the playoffs. It’s a place that should hold many fond memories for crew chief Adam Stevens after he won the Brickyard 400 with Kyle Busch in 2015 and 2016.
4. Chase Elliott (Previous Peak: 5)
Last Five Races: 5th, 1st, 16th, 3rd, 6th
Jey: Chase Elliott just had his best race of the year and the field should be on watch. He led 238 laps and looked poised to contend for the win late before pitting for tires late in the running. Though I feel this was the right call, it just didn’t play out for them due to those who stayed out and the leader’s advantage in the NextGen.
Chase took the regular season points lead away after teammate William Byron’s late-race wreck, and this team appears to be peaking at just the right time and will be a force in the postseason if their steady momentum continues to build.
5. Ryan Blaney (Previous Peak: 4)
Last Five Races: 3rd, 40th, 12th, 36th, 8th
Jey: Ryan Blaney dug himself out of a massive hole in Dover Sunday, starting 31st after qualifying was rained out and grinding all day to bring home an eighth-place finish. This result displayed just how strong he and the team is at every single track type this year.
Blaney and the 12 team aim for redemption this week at the Brickyard 400 victory after the win was snatched away from him at the end of last year’s event when Larson inherited a front-row spot on the first overtime restart from Brad Keselowski running out of fuel.
6. Ross Chastain (Previous Peak: 6)
Last Five Races: 26th, 33rd, 10th, 24th, 33rd
Tanner: The 1 team headed to Dover with hopes of a solid result after quietly putting together three straight top-12 finishes in the NextGen era at the Monster Mile. Unfortunately, Miles the Monster chewed Chastain up and spit him into the wall, ending his day less than 20 laps away from the finish.
While Chastain’s results have failed to impress, he manages to flash his pace when he’s given the opportunity, just like he did at Charlotte and later Chicago. The brew crew will look to get their season back on track at Indianapolis, which is mostly a toss-up given how fresh the Brickyard is to the schedule.
7. Chase Briscoe (Previous Peak: 9)
Last Five Races: 1st, 35th, 23rd, 2nd, 2nd
Tanner: Since his win at the Tricky Triangle last month, Chase Briscoe and the 19 team remain up at the front in a majority of races, particularly the last two weeks where he started second and finished second.
The Bass Pro Shops squad continue to impress in their first season together and nearly snagged several victories this season had one or two more things broken their way. At Indianapolis, Briscoe looks to take the big-track speed he had at Pocono and parlay it into hometown success.
8. Shane van Gisbergen (Previous Peak: 8)
Last Five Races: 31st, 24th, 1st, 1st, 30th
Tanner: Due to qualifying getting rained out on Saturday, Shane van Gisbergen had the opportunity to start sixth on Sunday, and while he attempted to keep up for the first few circuits at Dover, the Monster Mile stomped on his tire and made him lose four laps before the race reached lap 10. Race over.
While it would have been nice to see how the Kiwi handled track position on an oval where passing is hard to come by, our confidence in SVG’s road course prowess hasn’t been frayed at all. In last year’s Xfinity race at Indy, van Gisbergen made a stab at a victory late in the event, so who’s to say he can’t contend in Cup?
9. William Byron (Previous Peak: 3)
Last Five Races: 27th, 37th, 40th, 8th, 31st
Tanner: While Byron just lost the point lead for the first time in over a month, this most recent skid reminds me of the 24 team of old that sputters in the summer. Even in races like Sonoma and Dover where they remained in the top-5 for much of the day, they failed to capitalize, or worse, crashed.
Something that continues to circulate on social media is the idea that Byron was a clipped fender away from being winless this season, and as the season winds on with the 24 fading further from true contention, one must wonder if Indy even gives them confidence after last year’s stage 2 exit.
10. Alex Bowman (Previous Peak: 6)
Last Five Races: 11th, 3rd, 8th, 19th, 3rd
Tanner: Since Bowman’s back-to-back 36th-place finishes at Nashville and Michigan, “the Showman” bounced back in a big way, finishing worse than 11th just once in the last six weeks. A strong third-place run at Dover helped him keep up the momentum and push himself further away from the cutline.
The 48 team finds themselves in hot and cold streaks that break the other way at the weirdest possible times, and heading into the Brickyard 400, I suspect Bowman capitalizes on other drivers pitting prior to the stage ending to maximize his chances of making the playoffs on points as the regular season winds down.
Honorable Mentions: Brad Keselowski, Chris Buescher
(Top Photo Credit: NASCAR/Getty Images)
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