NASCAR Power Rankings: Alex Bowman climbs with Chicago win
Alex Bowman, with his win Sunday on the Chicago street course, earns a spot in this week's power rankings. He had a great car, drove a great race, had great strategy and maybe caught a break or two.
Some of the drivers on this list didn't get breaks — or have brakes that worked for them. Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson were among those who locked up brakes and found themselves in barriers.
The series heads to Pocono Raceway this weekend and virtually every driver on this power ranking list (based primarily on recent 2024 performance) has won there in some vehicle. We'll take a look (odds via FanDuel Sportsbook):
1. Denny Hamlin (Last Week: 1)
Cup Series title odds: +450
Hamlin has seven Cup wins at Pocono, making it his best track on the circuit. He is the defending winner of the race and also won Cup events there in 2006 (twice, including his first career Cup win in June 2006), 2009, 2010, 2019, 2020 and 2023. He probably still considers that he won the 2022 race when he was disqualified for a piece of tape underneath the wrap at the front of the car.
2. Chase Elliott (LW: 3)
Cup Series title odds: +1000
Elliott has two victories at Pocono although he has been to victory lane only once. He visited victory lane when he won the 2013 ARCA race at the track. How about his 2022 Cup win? Nope. He was long gone from the track when he learned that Hamlin had been disqualified.
3. Kyle Larson (LW: 2)
Cup Series title odds: +450
Larson has two victories at Pocono, having won the 2014 ARCA race there as well as the 2016 Xfinity race. The best he has done in Cup is second — which he has finished at twice, but last year's race might have been the closest he came to victory as he got the short end of a battle with Denny Hamlin.
4. Tyler Reddick (LW: 5)
Cup Series title odds: +1200
Reddick is the only driver on this list who doesn't have a win at Pocono. He's been second in Cup twice (including last year), second in Xfinity and third in trucks. He has led just 17 laps, though, at the track, with 15 of those laps led coming last year in the Cup race.
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5. Christopher Bell (LW: 4)
Cup Series title odds: +450
Bell has one win at Pocono — in a truck race in 2017. His best finish there in a Cup car is fourth, which he did in his first race there in 2020 and again in 2022.
6. Ryan Blaney (LW: 6)
Cup Series title odds: +1000
Blaney has two victories at Pocono, including his first Cup win in 2017. But four years before that, he earned a truck win at the track.
7. William Byron (LW: 9)
Cup Series title odds: +550
Byron won in his first race at Pocono, leading 44 laps to capture the truck race there in 2016. He does have five top-10s there in a Cup car.
8. Alex Bowman (LW: NR)
Cup Series title odds: +2500
Bowman won a Cup race at Pocono in 2021 as he took the lead after leader Kyle Larson crashed on the final lap. Bowman didn't crash and has the trophy.
9. Ty Gibbs (LW: NR)
Cup Series title odds: +2500
Gibbs probably has good memories of Pocono as he won the 2020 ARCA race at the track. He also had a pair of second-place finishes there in the Xfinity Series. But it also is the place where he made his Cup debut in 2022 as a last-minute substitution for Kurt Busch, who had crashed the day prior and has not raced since. Gibbs finished fifth at Pocono a year ago.
10. Martin Truex Jr. (LW: 8)
Cup Series title odds: +1400
Truex has two Cup wins at Pocono — in 2015 and 2018. He has never raced in another series at the track as Xfinity and trucks didn't start racing there until after he moved to Cup in 2006.
Dropped out: Chris Buescher (LW: 7); Joey Logano (LW: 10)
On the verge: Buescher, Ross Chastain, Todd Gilliland, Brad Keselowski, Logano, Bubba Wallace
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
