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NASCAR power rankings: Defending champion rises after surprising Texas triumph
Joey Logano snagged his first win of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday, holding off Ross Chastain and Ryan Blaney in NASCAR overtime. With 11 of 36 races complete, here’s where the NASCAR Cup Series field stacks up.
1. Kyle Larson
Larson led the most laps (90) of any driver in the field on Sunday, but a poor restart late in the race shuffled him from first to fourth and doomed any chance of a visit to victory lane. A fourth-place finish and a Stage 2 win is still a great day, and Larson is now only 13 points back of points leader William Byron.
2. William Byron
Byron, the 2023 Texas winner, was surprisingly absent from the conversation on Sunday. While he did manage to lead 22 laps, damage from contact on pit road made his car less than ideal to drive and relegated him to a 13th-place finish.
3. Christopher Bell
After a pit-road penalty early in the race, Bell and the No. 20 team scratched and clawed their way to a ninth-place finish on Sunday. The winning pace present over the first two months of the season has been largely absent over the last month for Bell, but keep an eye on him to be in the mix for his fourth win of the season at Kansas.
4. Tyler Reddick
A 21st-place finish doesn’t begin to tell the story for Reddick, who had one of the fastest cars in Fort Worth on Sunday. Reddick finished second in both stages before a late spin mired him in the back of the pack. Kansas has been one of Reddick’s strongest tracks so far in his young career - he won at the 1.5-mile facility in 2023 - so keep an eye out for the No. 45 as Reddick goes for his first win of 2025.
5. Denny Hamlin
How fast was Denny Hamlin on Sunday at Texas? Thanks to a blown engine in Stage 1, we’ll never know. Hamlin finished 38th on Sunday after his No. 11 Toyota lost an engine and briefly caught fire. Hamlin is a four-time winner at Kansas, and after a disappointing day in the Lone Star State, he’d love nothing more than to rebound in the Heartland.
6. Ryan Blaney
Blaney was quite harsh on himself in post-race interviews after finishing third on Sunday, saying that he “can’t do nothing right” after he chose the outside lane for the race-deciding restart. Still, Blaney has had plenty of speed so far in 2025. If his car stays in one piece at Kansas, he’ll likely be in contention for his first win of 2025.
7. Chase Elliott
Elliott is having a smoke-and-mirrors season: he’s been consistent enough that conversations about major changes to the team seem preposterous, while at the same time, his fourth-place standing in the points seems to hide the issues the No. 9 team is having. Elliott didn’t have the car to contend on Sunday, but a two-tire stop put him on the front row for a restart that saw Elliott promptly fall through the field like a rock. Elliott finished 16th - a frustrating day at a track that was the site of his last win.
8. Ross Chastain
Chastain described the march from his 31st-place starting spot to his runner-up finish at Texas as a “working class day.” The No. 1 team still needs to find a way to unload with faster cars, but Chastain continues to plug away and find the finishes he needs to stay afloat.
9. Alex Bowman
Bowman was one of the few drivers who could make significant headway on Sunday, but a crash on Lap 172 ended Bowman’s day after a poor pit stop mired him deep in the field. Bowman is still 10th in points despite his abundance of misfortune this season, and Kansas provides an excellent opportunity for the No. 48 team to bounce back.
10. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
A sixth-place finish at Texas bumped Stenhouse Jr. up to 15th in the regular-season standings, continuing a surprisingly hot start to the 2025 season for the rebranded HYAK Motorsports group. Not many pundits predicted that Stenhouse would be in the playoff picture in 2025, but so far, the 2023 Daytona 500 champion is proving his doubters wrong.
11. Bubba Wallace
Wallace saw a potential top-10 day come to an end in the same Lap 172 crash that took out Bowman. Despite his 33rd-place finish, Wallace still sits a comfortable eighth in the standings, thanks in large part to the 100 stage points he’s racked up this season.
12. Joey Logano
Logano earned his first top-five finish of 2025 in style by stealing a win at Texas. In typical Logano fashion, the No. 22 was a silent killer on Sunday, hanging around the top 10 before pouncing when the time was right. With the pressure of making the playoffs off his shoulders, Logano and the No. 22 team have the opportunity to take notes and try new strategies ahead of the postseason.
13. Austin Cindric
Cindric, who won at Talladega on April 27, was fast early in Sunday’s race at Texas. The No. 2 spent 60 laps out front before Cindric was shuffled back in the pack and eventually involved in a crash. Regardless of the result, the No. 2 team has arguably the most speed its ever had since Cindric got behind the wheel in 2022.
14. Chase Briscoe
Briscoe finished 27th after an early crash took him out of contention, but the No. 19 team still resides inside the playoff picture after a tumultuous day at Texas. While Briscoe does have a slight cushion to the playoff cut line, it would be nice to see him string more results together.
15. Chris Buescher
Buescher finished 18th on Sunday, but the Texas native deserves his flowers. Every time a crash happened, it seemed as if Buescher was right in the middle of it. His quiet 2025 campaign has the No. 17 team 12th in points as the halfway mark of the regular-season draws near.
16. Carson Hocevar
Hocevar was the fastest man at TMS on Saturday, as he paced the speed charts in practice and won the pole. Unfortunately, his race didn’t go as planned, as a late crash took him out of contention and relegated him to a 24th-place finish. Hocevar has as much raw speed as any driver in the Cup Series, but he must find a way to rein his speed and aggression in so that speed can produce good finishes.
More must-reads:
- Joey Logano wins wild Wurth 400 at Texas in NASCAR overtime
- Ryan Blaney blames himself after coming up short at Texas
- The 'NBA all-time assist leaders' quiz
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