The inaugural Cup race at World Wide Technology Racing featured a sold-out crowd witnessing an overtime duel between Joey Logano and Kyle Busch. Logano won the race, but Busch remains No. 1 in this week’s NBC Sports NASCAR Power Rankings.
Here is a look at this week’s rankings as the series prepares to go to Sonoma Raceway for Sunday’s event (4 p.m. ET on FS1):
NBC Sports NASCAR Power Rankings
1. Kyle Busch (Last week: No. 1) — Sunday’s runner-up finish at Gateway marked his second consecutive second-place finish and his third top three in a row. Busch has five top-three finishes in the last seven races. He scored a race-high 46 points at Gateway.
2. Ross Chastain (Last week: No. 2) — Overshadowed by his incidents with Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin was that Chastain finished eighth. That gives him nine top-10 finishes this season. Only Kyle Busch has more top 10s this year with 11.
3. Joey Logano (Last week: No. 8) — Team has struggled to show consistency this season (he’s not had more than two top 10s in a row) but his win at Gateway is his second in the last four points races.
4. Christopher Bell (Last week: No. 4) — His ninth-place finish is his fifth top 10 in a row. That’s the longest active streak in the series.
5. Ryan Blaney (Last week: No. 7) — Overcame a spin after a flat tire to finish fourth. He led 12 laps Sunday. Blaney has led at least one lap in 13 of the 15 races this season.
6. Kyle Larson (Last week No. 6) — Placed 12th at Gateway. He has finished 12th or better in six of the last seven races. Next two races are at Sonoma and Nashville. Larson won both races last year. Is he bound to begin a summer run?
7. Chase Elliott (Last week: No. 3) — Had to pit an extra time early to tighten a wheel and then had to go on an alternate strategy to gain track position. Contact from Ross Chastain turned Elliott, and he wasn’t a factor after that, finishing 21st — his third consecutive result outside the top 20.
8. Denny Hamlin (Last week: No. 5) — Another victim of Ross Chastain after contact sent Hamlin into the wall, leading to a 34th-place finish. That snapped a streak of back-to-back top-five finishes for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver.
9. Alex Bowman (Last week: No. 9) — He placed 13th at Gateway. It is only the third time in the last 11 races Bowman has failed to finish in the top 10.
10. Kurt Busch (Last week: Not ranked) — Third-place finish is his second top-five result in the last three races.
Dropped out: William Byron (Last week: No. 10)
