The 2024 NASCAR Cup Series regular season is a wrap after Chase Briscoe’s exciting win at Darlington Raceway earned him a spot in the playoffs at the last possible minute. Now the field will head to Atlanta Motor Speedway for Sunday’s Quaker State 400, the first of three events in the Round of 16.
However, just because it’s now playoff season doesn’t mean the 16 drivers included in the power rankings will necessarily all be playoff drivers. Some of these drivers do not have momentum on their side while those who have been eliminated from title contention still deserve shout-outs.
And so with that in mind, here’s how the field stands with 10 races to go:
1. Tyler Reddick (Last week: 1)
Whoever earned the top spot in this week’s rankings was going to be determined by who won the regular-season title between Reddick and Kyle Larson. Despite battling a bad stomach bug all race, Reddick finished 10th in the Southern 500 and edged Larson by one point. That earned him 15 bonus points for the playoffs, which could be a big help as he seeks his first championship race appearance — or perhaps even his first championship.
2. Kyle Larson (Last week: 3)
Larson can point to many factors for why he missed out on the regular-season title. The most obvious will be the Coca-Cola 600 when he was unable to race due to travel complications with the weather-delayed Indianapolis 500. He also had poor finishes because of accidents that he can trace to his own mistakes or bad luck. Larson led 263 of 367 laps in Darlington and only finished fourth. Oh, what could have been.
3. Denny Hamlin (Last week: 5)
After a roller-coaster of a past month on and off the track, Hamlin ended his regular season with a solid seventh-place result. He finished seventh in the regular-season standings after his No. 11 team’s massive penalty several weeks ago cost him valuable points entering the playoffs. On the plus side, he certainly has the speed to compete for a championship and may be flying under the radar to be a threat.
4. Ryan Blaney (Last week: 2)
Blaney’s night was over barely after it began in Darlington when he became an innocent victim swept up a wreck in the opening laps as Martin Truex Jr. got sideways in front of him. It’s not fair to dock Blaney too much for his finish when he had nowhere to go, so he remains in the top four entering the playoffs. He should be considered a heavy threat to return to the championship round and perhaps win back-to-back titles.
5. Christopher Bell (Last week: 7)
Bell’s up-and-down 2024 season is trending back up after his third-place effort in Darlington, his second such finish in a row. He has quietly racked up four top-six finishes in the past five races, and although Bell hasn’t had the blinding speed he had early in the summer, he has shown this season that his best days are better than any driver not named Larson. He’ll look to make it to Phoenix with a shot at the title for the third straight year. Perhaps the third try will be the charm.
6. Chase Elliott (Last week: 4)
Darlington was not an ideal closeout to Elliott’s regular season, as his No. 9 machine never seemed to have the speed. He finished 11th after taking advantage of late strategy, continuing a theme this season of Elliott and his team maximizing their finishes on bad days. However, while that might work during the regular season, it’s going to be hard to make it to Phoenix if the 2020 champion can’t show a return to his dominant form of a few years ago.
7. William Byron (Last week: 8)
Byron was having a solid race in Darlington until he got swept up in a late accident that resulted in a 30th-place DNF. The contending speed Byron showed Sunday, coupled with that in Michigan a few weeks ago, may be a sign that his No. 24 team is waking up at the right time. However, it remains to be seen if he can re-emerge as the top-tier title threat he looked like early in the season.
8. Kyle Busch (Last week: 13)
It was again too little and too late for Busch, who officially will miss the playoffs for the first time in 12 years and the first time ever under the 16-car, elimination-style format that debuted in 2014. Now the rest of his season becomes all about extending his streak of winning at least once in every season in his Cup Series career. He has the momentum to do it after his runner-up finish in Darlington, his third consecutive top-five finish.
9. Bubba Wallace (Last week: 6)
Wallace is another driver who finds himself on the outside of the playoffs, but it wasn’t for a lack of effort these past few weeks. He won the pole at Darlington and led 37 laps early on, but the handling got away from him after the sun set and his hopes were doomed for good when he suffered damage in the same accident that took out Byron. Wallace finished 16th, and like Busch, he will set his sights on chasing wins for the remainder of the season.
10. Joey Logano (Last week: 11)
Logano needed an uneventful night in Darlington after his involvement in wrecks in each of the past four races — and he had one, coming home a solid eighth. It’s hard to envision the No. 22 team making too much noise in the playoffs given its lack of speed throughout the season, but as one of the best superspeedway drivers in the garage, the two-time champion could get rolling with a win in Atlanta.
11. Brad Keselowski (Last week: 9)
Keselowski, who finished 14th on Sunday, was surprisingly quiet and thus unable to back up his Darlington win from earlier in the season. It’s hard to say what to make of his prospects toward making a run at a title, but after his teammate Buescher was left outside the picture, all the focus at Roush-Fenway-Keselowski Racing is on the team’s co-owner. He and his No. 6 bunch have been known to swing for the fences on strategy, so perhaps that could work in their favor.
12. Ty Gibbs (Last week: 10)
After the appeals by Austin Dillon and Richard Childress Racing to reinstate their playoff eligibility were denied, Gibbs became the biggest beneficiary. Why? Because had Dillon’s Richmond win stood as counting for a playoff spot, his 20th-place effort in Darlington would have stunningly left him out after being more than 100 points above the bubble earlier in the summer. The second-year driver can consider that a positive stroke of luck as he looks to make a deep run in his first playoff appearance.
13. Ross Chastain (Last week: 15)
Despite giving it his all at Darlington with a late strategy call to take the lead on old tires, Chastain will have no Melon Magic this season. He finished fifth, but nothing short of a win was going to be good enough, and now he’ll battle Buescher, Wallace and Busch for “best of the rest” honors while hoping to score a victory or two at some point in these final 10 races.
14. Chase Briscoe (Last week: not ranked)
Briscoe picked a great time to win and have the race of his life. In a season full of unpredictable finishes and upset winners, this one was far from a fluke. Briscoe had the second-best car all race behind only Larson, and he straight-up took it from him on a late restart before holding off Busch in the final laps. His win ensures Stewart-Haas Racing will have a playoff competitor in its farewell season.
15. Martin Truex Jr. (Last week: 12)
It seems as if every week things manage to hit a new low for Truex. He’s in the playoffs, but after crashing out at Darlington on only the third lap, he might have the least momentum of any driver still standing. His 36th-place finish is his fifth in a row outside the top 20 and seventh in the past eight races, completing an absolutely nightmarish summer for a driver who desperately needs something to go right for him in his final full-time campaign.
16. Chris Buescher (Last week: 14)
In the spring Darlington race, Buescher appeared to be on his way to winning before late contact with Reddick ended his hopes of solidifying a playoff spot. It all came full circle Sunday when Briscoe’s win knocked him out of the postseason. At Darlington, Buescher never seemed to have much speed. He fought his way up to sixth thanks to some pit strategy at the end, but it’s clear from his dejected post-race interview that moral victories don’t mean much for him.
Dropped out: Harrison Burton
