Power Rankings: Coca-Cola 600 prime time for Elliott

Analysis: It’s hard to fault a guy like Larson, who’s doing the double, but it wasn’t ideal to see him finish last among the cars that were still running in the All-Star Race. Still, this is a driver essentially in a class of his own who has a legitimate shot to win two major races on Sunday.

Analysis: With no All-Star finish better than 10th entering Sunday, Bell’s win may have come as a surprise to some … but have you seen what he’s been doing this year? He’s obviously no stranger to putting together back-to-back victories, and as the defending Coca-Cola 600 winner, he might be embarking on his second hot streak of the season.

Analysis: Byron pieced together 12 laps led at North Wilkesboro but ultimately fell just shy of the top five. Still, it’s his best finish since a P3 last month at Talladega, and he mentioned over the weekend that he and his team “have the Coca-Cola 600 circled.” Watch out for the No. 24 on Sunday.

Analysis: At 11.7, Elliott is on pace to match his 2020 (the year he won the title) and 2024 average finish. He’s doing so with the second-worst average start of his career (15.3), implying he actually could have plenty of juice still left to squeeze out of the season. If he’s able to find a bit more speed on Saturdays, the wins could be coming. Worth noting: He’s started sixth or higher in four of the past five Coca-Cola 600s, a race he’s found the front of the field in every running since 2018. Feels like it could be the weekend it happens.

Analysis: All-Star Weekend tends to be a rocky one for Joe Gibbs Racing at times, and — despite winning with Christopher Bell — that was the case again for Denny Hamlin, who stumbled his way to a P12. Chalk it up as just an anomalous weekend, though, as the 2022 Coca-Cola 600 winner should be back in fine form for NASCAR’s marathon race.

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Analysis: Logano sparked his season with an All-Star Race victory a year ago and nearly replicated it Sunday, instead walking away from North Wilkesboro the most frustrated we’ve seen him in quite a while and several hundred thousand dollars short of where it was looking like he’d end up after leading 139 laps. Still, the No. 22 team is finally clicking in 2025, and despite just one top 10 at Charlotte this decade, it feels like he could find a way to compete for his first Coca-Cola 600 win this weekend.

Analysis: Including the All-Star exhibition, Reddick has led just a single lap since pacing the field for 42 circuits back at Darlington Raceway; a lack of the front-of-field speed that we’ve grown accustomed to seeing from No. 45. A Championship 4 driver not even a year ago, Reddick is also only on pace for 12 top 10s, which would be his worst showing since turning in nine for Richard Childress Racing during his 2020 rookie season.

Analysis: For as fast as Blaney and the No. 12 have been in 2025, it didn’t show up at North Wilkesboro, where the 2023 champ was essentially a non-factor. Somewhat unrelated but also worth noting — it seems that speed is prevalent annually, but Blaney’s average finish has dipped every year since a career-high 11.9 set in 2021, currently on pace (16.1) for what would be his worst showing since 2017 (17.3).

Analysis: Bowman and the No. 48 group have turned in wildly inconsistent results in 2025, with every finish either being inside the top nine or outside the top 25, but there are enough bright spots here that it feels like a win is certainly in the cards at some point. We’ve seen the No. 48 find streaks of dominance at Charlotte in the past, and it’s not unreasonable to think Bowman, who led 164 laps in the 2020 Coca-Cola 600, could find his way to Victory Lane at a track that has treated Hendrick quite well over the years.

Analysis: We’re starting to see this team come together, and a strong All-Star Race run — that could have resulted in a win, if Logano and Bell had continued scrapping in front of him — might be just the boost it was looking for after landing a recent Texas runner-up as well. He finally secured his first Charlotte top-10 finish last year, but it’s definitely a race he’s capable of winning; Chastain led a race-high 153 laps in 2022 before landing 15th.

Analysis: Briscoe missed the All-Star Race cut last year but did technically turn in a second straight top 10 in the event after landing P4 in the 2023 running. It does feel like this team is still finding its legs a bit, but that will only continue to improve with more time under their collective belt. With a P4 in the 2022 Coca-Cola 600, don’t be surprised if Briscoe — and the team that once led 392 laps in the 2016 running of this race — finds a way to be competitive this weekend.

Analysis: Tough weekend for Wallace and the No. 23 team, who missed the cut after leading no laps and finishing eighth in the All-Star Open. A lot of the early-season mojo seems to be petering out a bit for this group, and it’s tough to see a spark coming at a race track where he’s led a single lap and averaged a 21.6 finish across eight starts.

Analysis: One of them was an exhibition race, so take it with a grain of salt, but Cindric has been held out of the top 10 in the three races since his win — on a superspeedway, no less — and otherwise hasn’t seen a top 10 since Las Vegas Motor Speedway … in mid-March. It’s hard to rule out any Penske cars on any weekend, but this one doesn’t shape up like a strong one for Cindric, who has a 28.3 Coca-Cola 600 average finish.

Analysis: It’s not much, but an All-Star Race top 10 was a nice little boost for the No. 17 team, which had started to put some pieces together before a major penalty quashed its momentum. The Coca-Cola 600 is a decent race for him, typically, too, with top 10s in four of the past six runnings.

Analysis: Again, this was an exhibition, but Busch did still turn in his first top 10 since Darlington to stop the bleeding a bit, even finding the front for a pair of laps. Still a ways to go here, but RCR has been known to pop off a random win in the Coca-Cola 600 — a race Busch generally tends to be among the favorites.

Analysis: Berry started 11th and finished 17th in the All-Star Race, unable to string together a second straight week of solid results after a P6 at Kansas Speedway put an end to a dismal stretch since his Vegas victory. His lone Coca-Cola 600 start yielded a top-10 finish last spring, though, so he could get back on the horse this weekend.

Analysis: A bit less fireworks for Stenhouse Jr. than last spring’s All-Star Race, and a P15 in a 23-car race isn’t anything to write home about. He may never win it outright, but the Coca-Cola 600 has generally been a productive race for him, especially lately; the past Daytona 500 winner has four top 10s since 2018.

Analysis: Pro: Preece got to see a heck of a race on Sunday night, just like the rest of us. Con: It’s because he missed the cut after a mistake in the Open cost him a shot to make the main race. He looked sporty, though, and he could very well nab his first Charlotte top 10 despite a career average finish of 25.6 there.

Analysis: Nemechek continues to make a little noise in the back half of this top 20, having already matched his career high in top 10s (four) before transferring into the main event with a runner-up in the Open. He had a pair of quality runs at Charlotte in his rookie season in 2020 as well, and it’s quite possible he cracks the top 10 this weekend, too. (Especially if he gets any notes on the track from a certain boss of his.)

Analysis: If you’re looking for an up-and-comer who will really embrace the role of “All-Star” for the next decade-plus, here he is. Hocevar won the Open handily, then nearly converted on a top 10 in the main event. The arrow continues to point drastically up here, and a recent mini-slump (finished 24th or worse at Texas and Kansas) should come to an end at Charlotte.