Kyle Larson takes the top spot in the NASCAR Power Rankings after a dominant win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Christopher Bell and Brad Keselowski both move up after scoring top-five finishes at the Nevada track.
NBC SPORTS NASCAR POWER RANKINGS
1. Kyle Larson (Last Week: 3rd) — He won at Las Vegas after sweeping the first two stages and became the first driver to reach the Championship 4. Larson became the first driver in the Next Gen era to lead 900 laps in a season and then he became the first driver in the Next Gen era to lead 1,000 laps in a season. He has two wins in the playoffs.
2. William Byron (1) — He scored his sixth top-10 finish of the playoffs but had a relatively quiet afternoon at the track where he dominated in the spring. He ran inside of the top 10 throughout the day but didn’t contend for the win. Byron is nine points ahead of the first driver outside a transfer spot heading to Homestead, the track where he scored his second career Cup win.
3. Denny Hamlin (2) — He finished 10th after running inside of the top 10 all race. Hamlin scored his fifth top-10 finish of the playoffs and rebounded from a crash at the Roval. He is two points above the first driver outside a transfer spot heading to a track where he has three wins.
4. Christopher Bell (8) — He started from pole for the fourth time in the playoffs and scored the second-most stage points (17). Bell chased down Larson in the final stage but could not make the race-winning pass at the finish line. He still finished second and scored his third top-five finish in the past five weeks. Bell is two points out of the final transfer spot to the Championship 4.
5. Chris Buescher (5) — He finished 11th but was the only playoff driver to miss out on stage points. This was Buescher’s fifth top-15 finish of the playoffs. He has run consistently but sits 23 points below the final transfer spot.
6. Brad Keselowski (9) — He qualified 21st but spent the entire race around the top five. Keselowski used two-tire pit stops to gain track position and led 38 laps. He finished fourth at the track where he has three career wins and kept himself ninth in the standings.
7. Chase Elliott (4) — He headed to Las Vegas having finished 11th or better in the past seven races on the schedule. He then went through a disastrous weekend. Elliott went to a backup car after crashing in practice. He started at the rear of the field and did not crack the top 20 until the final stage. NASCAR then penalized him for laying back on a restart. Elliott finished 32nd.
8. Tyler Reddick (7) — He scored stage points and finished eighth but later said that his team had “missed it” on handling. Reddick is 16 points out of the final transfer spot heading to Homestead, the track where he won two Xfinity championships. He also has two top-four finishes at Homestead since moving to Cup.
9. Bubba Wallace (6) — He qualified seventh, his best starting position at Las Vegas. Wallace ran around the top 10 throughout the day but finished 13th. He has three more opportunities to score top-10 finishes before the offseason. Two more top 10s would put him at 10 on the season, matching his career-best mark.
10. Martin Truex Jr. (10) — He scored his first top-10 finish of the playoffs after recovering from the decision to stay out on old tires at the end of stage 1. Truex fell to two points above the cutline with two remaining races in the Round of 8. The good news for the 2017 Cup champion is that he has three career wins at Martinsville and one at Homestead.