NASCAR Power Rankings Week 0
1) Chase Elliott – The defending Cup Champ starts the season just where he left off last November.
2) Denny Hamlin – Daytona 500 2x defending champ has the best odds to win the Great American Race again on Sunday. He looks to be a staple in the Top 5 all year.
3) Kevin Harvick – Kevin is not great at Daytona but tends to dominate intermediate tracks. He will be excited to run twice at Atlanta this year, including an early date on March 21st.
4) Kyle Busch – 2019 champ will be quick to turn it around after a disappointing 2020 with a familiar face, Ben Beshore, as his new crew chief. The pairing won four Xfinity races in 2019 so there is some solid history there. The sports’ best heel will likely do something to piss off your favorite driver early and often.
5) Joey Logano – Joey is always up front at superspeedways. The 2018 champ remains high in confidence and low in friendships in the garage due to his extremely aggressive style. Hopefully he’s friendlier with his teammates than he was last spring at Daytona, causing Keselowski to crash both in the Clash and the 500.
6) Martin Truex Jr. – He showed his dominance on the road course Tuesday night. Truex hasn’t won at a superspeedway, but has been close. The key for him this year will be the seven road races that should help him towards a championship run.
7) Brad Keslowski – You can never count out Keslowski. He always seems to be running towards the front and can dominate a race from start to finish. Inconsistencies have derailed this team before. Depending on their late season form, they could be champs in Phoenix or out of contention completely.
8) Ryan Blaney – Blaney is always improving and seems to be right on par with his teammates. He is one of the bright young stars in the sport. Look for him to take another step forward and make a deep playoff run this fall.
9) Aric Almirola – The 10 is always up front. He starts there and finishes there. Not necessarily a “sexy” pick, especially in fantasy, but he’s as consistent as they come. He doesn’t beat himself, and is the ultimate “lunch pail guy” of NASCAR.
10) Alex Bowman – The new 48 driver has definite qualifying speed but can he turn it into race day speed? Awesome win last year at Fontana but seemed to fall off at the end of races in 2020. You can bet Greg Ives worked hard to figure out how to improve speed this year when it matters most.
11) Kurt Busch – Managed a 10th place finish in points last year. Always competitive but seems to have trouble finding the front of the pack. With middling equipment and a flood of young drivers in Cup, it’s safe to say Kurt’s best days are behind him.
12) William Byron – The young phenom is still young but hasn’t produced the wins to keep pace with the numbers he put up in trucks and Xfinity. Byron has only win out of 108 tries in the Cup Series. He needs to have a big year and win multiple races if he wants to be considered a top driver. This is his 4th year at Hendrick with supreme equipment, it’s time to win for the 24.
13) Matt DiBenedetto – Wood brothers always bring a good car to Daytona. Matty D competes like his job is on the line every week. Good thing he does because his future seems to always be uncertain. Look for the 21 to have a good run at Daytona and hopefully he can find himself a stable ride for the future.
14) Christopher Bell – Bell should prevail on the dirt in Bristol but will need to find victory lane on the intermediate tracks to be a threat in the playoffs. After eight wins in the 2019 Xfinity series, Bell had an underwhelming year driving the 95 Cup car in 2020. Now with a spot in the JGR garage, he could make a giant step this year.
15) Cole Custer – Cole had a great ride into victory lane last year in Kentucky, but was fairly average outside of that. Needs more consistency towards the front of the pack this year, especially with top equipment at SHR.
16) Tyler Reddick – Tyler had an underwhelming rookie year. Can he bounce back in a sub-optimal car at RCR? He does not have a great mentor in Austin Dillon when it comes to competing for wins in the cup series. Reddick has the talent but does he have a fast enough car to find victory lane in 2021?
17) Kyle Larson – I’m taking a wait and see approach with Kyle. He was in mediocre equipment last time he was in a cup car. He dominates races all over America but those aren’t against the best drivers in the Cup series. Look for some early growing pains the first few weeks of the #5 car.
