Week 15 NASCAR power rankings: Gateway winner races into top 16

All looked set in stone as the conclusion neared in Sunday's Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Ill. 

Defending series champion Ryan Blaney was coasting to his first win of 2024, but then he ran out of fuel coming to the white flag.

One Team Penske driver's misfortune was another's gain as Austin Cindric drove by to take the win. Cindric's performance is enough to get him into this week's power rankings, but the driver at the top remains unchanged.

1. Denny Hamlin (Last week: 1)

Lost in the headlines of the exciting finish at Gateway was that Hamlin extended his top-five finish streak to five races, taking advantage of Blaney and Christopher Bell's misfortunes to come home in second. His points lead is 21 over Kyle Larson, but Sunday's Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway may be a challenge for him. Hamlin has finished 31st and 36th in two races there with the NextGen car.

2. Brad Keselowski (Last week: 4)

Hamlin isn't the only driver riding a recent hot streak, as Keselowski has finished first, second and third in the past three points-paying races. He has five top-three finishes in his past seven starts and climbed from 15th in points after Kansas three races ago to eighth. Much like Hamlin, Keselowski is not known to be much of a threat on road courses, but if he can run competitively at Sonoma, it may officially be time to declare him a championship contender.

3. Kyle Larson (Last week: 3)

Larson has been in the news a lot this past week as he continues to await word on the status of his playoff waiver from missing the Coca-Cola 600. It doesn't seem to be distracting him much on the track, though, because at Gateway, he rebounded from a spin at the end of Stage Two to finish a respectable 10th. He'll look to close back in on the points lead and perhaps reclaim the top spot in the power rankings after Sonoma, where he won in 2021.

4. William Byron (Last week: 2)

Byron showed speed early on at Gateway but lost his track position after a pit-strategy shakeup and never quite got it back, finishing an uneventful 15th. Still, he remains solidly in the top five in points, and as the winner of the season's only previous road-course race at Circuit of the Americas, he should be one of the favorites at Sonoma.

5. Christopher Bell (Last week: 10)

Before Blaney's heartbreak on the final lap took center stage, Bell faced heartbreak of his own. He had run down Blaney in the closing laps before his engine went sour and he wound up seventh. Still, Bell is suddenly on fire again after a miserable stretch before his Coke 600 win.

6. Tyler Reddick (Last week: 5)

Reddick, who finished fourth Sunday for the second consecutive race, remains under the radar in the championship conversation. He has performed well all season, and as one of the best road racers in the Cup Series field, he should be a prime candidate to turn heads at Sonoma.

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

Truex didn't get the finish he wanted Sunday, but it wasn't for a lack of speed. He was running in the top five when he had a tire go down under green during the second stage. He finished 34th, three laps down, and took a big hit in the points by dropping from second to fourth. On the bright side, Truex is a four-time winner at Sonoma, including last year's race when he led 51 of 110 laps.

8. Chase Elliott (Last week: 7)

Elliott showed speed in his first true test at Gateway (he was damaged in a crash early on in 2022 and missed the 2023 race) but faded late and finished 13th. Another one of NASCAR's premier road racers, Elliott feels overdue for a road-course victory (his last one came in 2021). Could that change this week?

9. Ty Gibbs (Last week: 8)

Just like the three drivers above him, Gibbs lost one spot in this week's rankings after a fairly uneventful run. He finished 11th, which was about where he ran for most of the race, and his consistent form has him continuing to stay strong, sitting in seventh in points. He's still searching for that first career Cup Series win, and with the road courses among his strongest track types, Sonoma will provide him another prime opportunity.

10. Ryan Blaney (Last week: 15)

Blaney finished 24th after his fuel tank ran dry one lap short, but while his result didn't reflect his performance, these rankings do. This was the type of "get right" run Blaney needed after struggling the past several races, and he salvaged a solid points day thanks to coming home third in both stages.

11. Ross Chastain (Last week: 11)

It was another day at the office for Chastain, who didn't make much noise but finished 12th. That is the theme for him in 2024 and a far cry from past years, when he seemed to be a lightning rod of controversy each week with erratic driving. But with Cindric winning from outside the playoff picture, that narrows the margin for error for Chastain and other winless drivers in the top 16 in points. Currently 59 markers to the good, he may need a win to be safe.

12. Austin Cindric (Last week: NR)

A one-win wonder no more is Cindric, the 2022 Daytona 500 champion who found himself in position to pounce Sunday after the misfortunes of  Bell and then Blaney in the closing laps. As mentioned above, that victory punches Cindric's ticket to the playoffs while making life that much tougher on the rest of the bubble.

13. Chris Buescher (Last week: 9)

One of the drivers squarely on that bubble is Buescher, who finished a quiet 14th at Gateway. His drop in the rankings is more due to the strong performances of other drivers behind him rather than his own, but he must be careful not to fall out of the playoff picture. He is only 10 points ahead of Chase Briscoe for the final spot. 

14. Joey Logano (Last week: not ranked)

Much like his Team Penske teammates, Logano ran near the front most of the afternoon Sunday, and yet despite finishing fifth, the result was not good for him as Cindric's win only knocks him further outside the playoffs. He's 14 markers back of Buescher, and road courses have not been his strong suit with the NextGen car. He could be staring at a big uphill climb as the regular season enters its home stretch.

15. Kyle Busch (Last week: 13)

Busch, the 2023 Gateway winner, is another two-time champion who finds himself on the outside looking in. He led 15 laps in the early going Sunday and had top-10 speed, but contact with Kyle Larson ended his day and he finished 35th. That drops Busch to 17th in points, which is really 19th given that Cindric and Daniel Suarez are behind him but have both won and therefore clinched playoff spots. 

16. Alex Bowman (Last week: 12)

Bowman had been riding a streak of five consecutive top-10 finishes entering Sunday, but that ended with a miserable 28th-place showing at Gateway. He's still in a solid position in regards to the playoff picture, tied for 10th with Chastain at 59 points above the cutoff, but just a few bad weeks could change that. 

Dropped out: Josh Berry, Noah Gragson