Week 19 NASCAR power rankings: Who fell after wacky Nashville finish?

NASCAR Cup Series driver Ryan Blaney.

If Sunday's Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway taught us anything, it's that some results hold more weight than others.

The purpose of these power rankings is to assess drivers' latest series of races rather than simply their last race. For that reason, you won't see Ally 400 second-place finisher Zane Smith or fourth-place finisher Ryan Preece in this week's power rankings. Neither was a big factor in previous races.

So here's our top 16 before the NASCAR Cup Series heads to the Chicago Street Course for Sunday's Grant Park 165.

1. Kyle Larson (Last week: 1)

Another week, another race in which Larson was a strong contender for the win. He played a big role in the chaos at the finish, spinning Ross Chastain on the first overtime attempt and then running out of gas. There were enough additional cautions for him to still finish eighth, and he reclaimed sole possession of the points lead by 20 over teammate Chase Elliott. As the winner of the most recent road-course race, Larson will also be one to watch in Chicago.

2. Christopher Bell (Last week: 3)

Here's a fun stat: Bell has led the most laps in four of the past six races. He had led the most laps only twice in his entire Cup Series career prior to that. He's up to 582 laps led on the season, 17 shy of his total from 2023, and there are still 17 races left. Bell crashed out of contention at the Ally 400 after sweeping the first two stages, but he continues to perform at the highest level of his career.

3. Tyler Reddick (Last week: 5)

Reddick almost stole one during the fifth and final overtime attempt Sunday but came up just short in third — one of the only drivers who finished near the front who actually ran there all race. He scored the most points Sunday and racked up his fifth top-10 result in the past six races. He'll have a good chance to extend that streak in Chicago because he is always a threat on the road courses.

4. Denny Hamlin (Last week: 7)

Overtime giveth and overtime taketh away. Hamlin was on the right side of a late-race twist at Richmond earlier this season when his pit crew gave him the lead after teammate Martin Truex Jr. appeared to have the win in the bag. However, on Sunday, the extra laps forced him to pit for fuel after having been ahead prior to the race-extending caution. Still, Hamlin had one of the cars to beat along with Bell and regained much of the momentum he had lost in recent weeks despite finishing only 12th.

5. Ryan Blaney (Last week: 2)

Blaney finished sixth despite the chaos, which is impressive considering that he had pitted under green and lost a lap prior to the series of overtimes. He and his No. 12 team were on a bizarre strategy in which they had repeatedly stayed out under multiple cautions in the final stage despite knowingly being unable to make it to the finish on fuel. It all worked out as Blaney recorded his third result of seventh or better in the past four races.

6. Chase Elliott (Last week: 4)

For the second week in a row, Elliott encountered a late-race spin and yet still rebounded to keep alive his streak of finishing in the top 20 in every race this season. He ended up 18th after all the overtime action, but he lost the points lead to Larson and will hope to have a more uneventful day in Chicago, where he finished third a season ago.

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

Truex was one of the many drivers who ended up on the wrong side of the overtime shuffling. He had to pit for fuel after running inside the top five and then got spun by Daniel Suarez on the final lap, dropping him to 24th. His ninth-place effort at Loudon is his only top-10 in the past seven races despite having plenty of speed in most of those, proving once again that results are a product of luck as much as performance.

8. Ross Chastain (Last week: 9)

Chastain was in the midst of battling Hamlin for the win before the race went to its first of many overtimes, and then his evening came to a premature end when he was wrecked on the ensuing restart. His 33rd-place finish is only his second result outside the top-20 all season, the other being at Texas, and coincidentally both were races in which Chastain was in the top few spots in the closing laps.

9. Chris Buescher (Last week: 10)

Buescher had one of the more uneventful races of anyone in the field Sunday, which wasn't exactly a bad thing as he avoided the mayhem and finished fifth. It was a good points day for the driver of the No. 17 car, who puts more distance between himself and Bubba Wallace (56 points, to be exact) on the other side of the bubble. On the downside, though, fellow bubble driver Joey Logano winning the race gives Buescher much less margin for error in the coming weeks.

10. Joey Logano (Last week: 13)

Well, that's certainly one way to end a nearly 50-race winless streak. Logano was a non-factor until crew chief Paul Wolfe's gamble to leave him on the track through the many overtime restarts despite being nearly dry on fuel, and somehow the driver saved just enough gas to bring home the win and punch his ticket to the playoffs. Still, you can't count on finishes like this every week, and if the No. 22 team doesn't pick up its overall performance, he won't be in the title hunt for long.

11. Brad Keselowski (Last week: 12)

Keselowski had top-five speed for much of the going at the Nashville Superspeedway, but a late wreck took him out of the running, and that was even before the overtime chaos. He finished a lap down in 25th, his fourth double-digit finish in a row after his 1-2-3 string between Darlington and Gateway. Don't expect things to get much better for him Sunday at his most dreaded track type.

12. William Byron (Last week: 8)

You probably noticed that Keselowski gained a spot in the rankings despite being in a bit of a slump, and the reason for that is that Byron is slumping even more. He was borderline invisible at the Nashville Superspeedway, his second such run in a row, and he's finished 15th or worse in four of the past five races. The No. 24 team has been incredibly streaky this season.

13. Chase Briscoe (Last week: 14)

Briscoe might have had a shot at the win if Sunday's race went to only four overtimes instead of five, as he was battling hard with Logano before the final caution only to subsequently run out of fuel when the race restarted for the last time. He finished 21st, and to add insult to injury, Logano winning all but puts the dagger in his hopes of making the playoffs. Briscoe sits 78 markers behind Alex Bowman (and 27 behind Wallace) with only seven races to go.

14. Ty Gibbs (Last week: 15)

Gibbs was yet another victim of the wacky ending Sunday, getting caught up in the Chastain wreck during the first overtime and limping home to finish 23rd. He remains in a points position in which he should be safe to make the playoffs, but Logano's win complicates things a bit — he's 70 markers to the good, but should there be one more winner from outside the current field, that margin would drop to 19.

15. Josh Berry (Last week: 11)

Berry's hot stretch lately appeared that it would continue at the Nashville Superspeedway — his home track — when he qualified on the front row, but the driver of the No. 4 car dropped back early and never recovered, finishing 26th after being taken out in one of the overtime accidents. If he had any chance at all of making the playoffs without a win before this week, it's gone now.

16. Bubba Wallace (Last week: not ranked)

Welcome back to the power rankings, Bubba. It's been a while since he made it here, but Wallace had one of his better runs of the season Sunday as he ran in the top five for most of the final stage and then escaped all the chaos at the end, finishing seventh. Unfortunately, that doesn't matter much now since his rival for the final playoff spot grabbed the win, so Wallace must either win himself or makeup 51 points on Alex Bowman in the next seven races.

Dropped out: Todd Gilliland

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