Driver Ratings | Standings | Stage Points
Pete Pistone’s updated NASCAR Cup Series Power Rankings after the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway.
1. Kevin Harvick – An off night at Daytona with a 20th-place finish won’t deter Harvick from being the top seed and the prohibitive title favorite as the Playoffs kick off. The Stewart-Haas Racing driver is seeking double digits wins and his second career Cup title over the next 10 weeks.
Driver Rating: 109.7
Playoff Grid: 1st
Previous Ranking: 1st
2. Denny Hamlin – He has finished inside the top-three in six of the last eight races of 2020. The Daytona 500 winner had another strong outing Saturday night at “The World Center of Racing” and starts the Playoffs as one of the championship favorites.
Driver Rating: 103.0
Playoff Grid: 2nd
Previous Ranking: 2nd
3. Martin Truex Jr. – His fourth-place Daytona finish gave Truex Jr. a top four finish in the last eight races of the regular season. He wasn’t able to win in any of those outings but comes into the Playoffs as the most consistent driver in the series of late.
Driver Rating: 98.4
Playoff Grid: 8th
Previous Ranking: 3rd
4. Chase Elliott – A strong second-place finish behind his Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron capped off Elliott’s regular season performance. He doesn’t want a repeat of last year’s Playoff that resulted in a string of three consecutive finishes of 32nd or worse in the Round of 8.
Driver Rating: 98.4
Playoff Grid: 5th
Previous Ranking: 4th
5. Brad Keselowski – Ended the regular season with a 10th-place Daytona finish that somewhat epitomized Keselowski’s runs of late – decent but nothing extraordinary. He’ll look to find the next gear in the opening round of the Playoffs.
Driver Rating: 99.8
Playoff Grid: 3rd
Previous Ranking: 5th
6. Joey Logano – He won the first two stages and was leading late on Saturday night until Logano got caught up in the late race carnage that seemed to be inevitable. Logano will again be someone to watch when Talladega rolls around on the Playoff schedule.
Driver Rating: 98.1
Playoff Grid: 4th
Previous Ranking: 6th
7. Aric Almirola – He’ll need to recapture the performance that Almirola displayed much earlier in the season, which has faded away in recent weeks. An 18th-place Daytona effort ended the regular season in mediocre fashion for the Stewart-Haas Racing driver.
Driver Rating: 88.9
Playoff Grid: 12th
Previous Ranking: 7th
8. Alex Bowman – A good top-10 finish for Bowman with his seventh-place Daytona run. Bowman and crew chief Greg Ives will look to that as a springboard to get off to a good Playoff start in Darlington.
Driver Rating: 87.9
Playoff Grid: 6th
Previous Ranking: 8th
9. Ryan Blaney – A sixth-place Daytona finish for Blaney saw the Team Penske driver in the middle of a lot of action with his fellow Ford drivers. Blaney will look to the experience of crew chief Todd Gordon, who has 14 of his career 22 Cup victories at current Playoff tracks.
Driver Rating: 96.2
Playoff Grid: 7th
Previous Ranking: 10th
10. Matt DiBenedetto – Secured the final Playoff spot thanks to the combination of a 12th-place Daytona finish and some bad luck bestowed to others on Saturday night. DiBenedetto eeked into the post-season by just six points.
Driver Rating: 84.0
Playoff Grid: 16th
Previous Ranking: NR
Dropped Out: Kyle Busch
