Week 14 NASCAR rankings: Larson's no-show shakes up the running order

Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 373.5 at Charlotte Motor Speedway saw Christopher Bell take the win when the race was rain-shortened following 249 of 400 laps.

Kyle Larson entered the weekend as the power rankings leader, but was unable to compete in the 600 due to scheduling complications from running in the Indianapolis 500, which was also impacted by rain. That means there's a new No. 1 driver this week.

1. Denny Hamlin (Last week: 2)

For the first time all season, Hamlin failed to lead a lap at Charlotte. However, he still takes over the top spot in the rankings based on his fourth consecutive top-five finish as he wound up fifth on Sunday. He also takes over the points lead as the series heads to Gateway, where he ran runner-up a season ago.

2. William Byron (Last week: 4)

Byron didn't win at Charlotte, but he made perhaps the move of the race when he went below the racing surface to make a three-wide pass on Tyler Reddick and Ty Gibbs late in the going. He led 49 laps and won the race's first stage, and seemed to have one of the cars to beat had the action resumed. Instead, he finished third and will look to end up just a couple spots better next week.

3. Kyle Larson (Last week: 1)

It wouldn't be fair to drop Larson any further than third, as it's not his fault Mother Nature decided to (literally) rain on his parade, preventing him from logging any laps at Charlotte. Justin Allgaier finished 13th in his substitute role for Larson, and his No. 5 machine was certainly fast enough to compete for the win. He'll try to get back on track (again, literally) at Gateway next week, where he was fourth in 2023.

4. Brad Keselowski (Last week: 8)

Two races ago, Keselowski was 15th in the power rankings. A win at Darlington and a runner-up at Charlotte (with the All-Star Race in between) have vaulted him all the way to fourth, and for good reason: he and his team are red-hot right now. Keselowski seems to have speed at virtually every track type as he enjoys his best season since moving over to RFK Racing, and has to be considered a dark horse title threat right now.

5. Tyler Reddick (Last week: 7)

Aside from Larson, Reddick has to be the driver most wondering what could have been on Sunday after he spent all race fighting an uphill battle. He was forced to start at the rear of the field and to serve a pass-thru penalty at the green flag due to team infractions earlier in the weekend, and fell a lap down before fighting back to finish fourth.

6. Martin Truex Jr. (Last week: 3)

Given how fast his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates were, it was somewhat of a disappointing run at Charlotte for Truex, a former two-time 600 winner back in 2017 and 2019. He finished 12th, the only JGR driver outside of the top six, and was unable to capitalize on Larson's absence to take over the points lead as Hamlin jumped over both of them. Expect him to be a factor at Gateway, though -- he's finished sixth and fifth in the Cup Series' two races there.

7. Chase Elliott (Last week: 5)

Elliott finished a respectable seventh on Sunday, and that's also the position he finds himself in here. The speed hasn't quite been there for him in recent weeks and yet he is still finding ways to grind out consistently solid finishes, having become one of the more methodical drivers in the Cup Series. He did not race at Gateway last season due to a suspension and was damaged from a crash early on in 2022, so next week will be a bit of an unknown for the No. 9 driver.

8. Ty Gibbs (Last week: 9)

Gibbs won his first career pole at Charlotte and led 74 laps, but faded to sixth as the race went along. Struggling to put full races together continues to be an issue for Gibbs and his No. 54 team, but he's gotten hot again after a slump as he also finished runner-up at Darlington before All-Star weekend.

9. Chris Buescher (Last week: 6)

Much like Reddick and Larson, Buescher never quite got to show what he was capable of on Sunday after starting in the back due to a practice crash. He made it up inside the top 15 on a few occasions, but issues on pit road dropped him further back and he finished a disappointing 23rd. At least it wasn't another heartbreaker while battling for the win.

10. Christopher Bell (Last week: not ranked)

After a dreadful past month or so, Bell bounced back in the biggest imaginable way: by winning. He had arguably the fastest car all night on Sunday and led more laps (90) than any other driver, so even though it's always disappointing for fans to see a race shortened, at least it was a well-deserved victory. He'll look to make it back-to-back at Gateway, where he's finished ninth and 11th in two starts.

11. Ross Chastain (Last week: 10)

Chastain briefly led and earned himself a quiet eighth-place result at Charlotte, the type of result that seems to have become the norm for him this season. He has only one top-five finish all season long, but he also only has one finish worse than 21st, and it was due to a crash on the final lap at Texas while battling for second. That rock-solid consistency should get him into the playoffs without much of a problem provided he keeps it up.

12. Alex Bowman (Last week: 11)

Speaking of consistency, here's yet another top-10 for Bowman (ninth), his fifth in a row. He's turned it up in recent weeks throughout a stretch of races that has included visits to several of his best tracks, so it will be interesting to see if he stays hot moving forward. He and his Hendrick teammates have struggled during the previous two Gateway races, so next week will be a good test for him.

13. Kyle Busch (Last week: 14)

Busch had to work hard to finish 15th at Charlotte, with multiple issues on pit-road (including one under green during the first stage that dropped him a lap down) preventing him from ever gaining solid track position. He did well shifting his focus back to the driver's seat while leaving last week's All-Star Race feud with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. behind him, and now he'll head to the site of his most recent win exactly one year ago.

14. Josh Berry (Last week: NR)

Don't look now, but Berry is riding back-to-back top-10 finishes after coming home 10th at Charlotte, and he hasn't finished worse than 16th in the past five races. The 33-year-old rookie is finding his groove after a rocky start to the year and has worked his way up to 19th in points despite questions clouding the future of his Stewart-Haas Racing organization.

15. Ryan Blaney (Last week: 13)

The defending Cup Series champion's rough stretch continues, with his second-straight DNF coming courtesy of an issue with one of his wheels while making a green-flag pit stop. He's fallen to 12th in points with his fourth finish of 20th or worse in the past six races, and finds himself closer to the playoff bubble than he would like to be. On the plus side, he's finished fourth and sixth in two previous starts at Gateway and led laps in both, so it's a golden opportunity for him to get back on the right track.

16. Noah Gragson (Last week: 12)

Gragson wasn't having a great day at Charlotte even before crashing late in the second stage and finishing 38th, but he had built up just enough goodwill from previous weeks to remain in the rankings -- for now. He'll be looking for redemption at Gateway after he crashed hard there a year ago and suffered a concussion.

Dropped out: Chase Briscoe, Joey Logano