With 10 races now left in the NASCAR Cup Series regular season, all developments at the most critical positions in the points standings become more significant as drivers battle for both the regular-season championship and a spot in the playoffs. As an illustration of exactly that, consider what happened to Denny Hamlin this past weekend at Sonoma.
Entering the day, Hamlin enjoyed a semi-comfortable 21-point advantage on Kyle Larson for the regular-season points lead, putting him in position to build on that advantage and work toward earning the regular-season title and the significant bonus in playoff points accompanying it. But that all changed coming to Lap 3, when Hamlin's engine grenaded and forced an early end to his day. As a result, Hamlin dropped from the points lead all the way back to third, falling 26 points back of Larson and 14 points behind new second-place driver Chase Elliott.
A BLOWN ENGINE FOR DENNY HAMLIN. His day is over. 😳 #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/dUISeNR3jG
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) June 9, 2024
Hamlin's blown engine also has consequences for him in the CBS Sports NASCAR Power Rankings, as he drops from the Power Rankings lead all the way back to sixth. In his place at the top of the standings is now Tyler Reddick, who inherits the lead after leading a race-high 35 laps at Sonoma on his way to a top-10 finish.
Here's a look at CBS Sports' latest NASCAR Power Rankings:
| Rank | Driver | Change | Comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tyler Reddick | Tyler Reddick had a car equal of and perhaps even superior to the one driven by race winner Kyle Larson. But the two would make contact while racing for position during a cycle of green flag stops, and Reddick's car was never as good again as he had to settle for eighth. | ||
| 2 | Chase Elliott | Chase Elliott has a total of six Iowa starts between the Xfinity and Truck Series on his way to Cup. His best finish at the track is a second in May 2015. | ||
| 3 | Brad Keselowski | Brad Keselowski's "Top Secret" King's Hawaiian car for Sonoma turned out to be a special paint scheme promoting "Despicable Me 4," complete with Keselowski wearing a Gru-themed firesuit and his crew wearing Minions-themed suits. RFK Racing's creative team did a nice job, though I was hoping Keselowski would recreate the Gru's Plan meme template. | ||
| 4 | Christopher Bell | It took Christopher Bell a minute to get the hang of Sonoma, but he's put things together there since finishing outside of the top 20 in his first two trips there. Bell finished ninth at Sonoma for the second year in a row. | ||
| 5 | Kyle Larson | As much as I prefer polite language, I don't particularly care for euphemisms and believe in plain speaking when plain speaking is called for. So, without going further into it so I don't get a talking-to, I appreciate the way Larson chose to describe the wreck that occurred between him and Kyle Busch at Gateway. | ||
| 6 | Denny Hamlin | The two laps Denny Hamlin completed at Sonoma mark the fewest he's ever made before dropping out of a Cup race in his entire career. His previous low came at Pocono in August 2013, where he made just 14 laps before crashing out. | ||
| 7 | Ross Chastain | On his long road to Cup stardom, Ross Chastain gave a first glimpse at what he would become while driving for Brad Keselowski during a Truck Series race at Iowa in 2013. Chastain had the best truck and led 116 laps, but lost the lead to James Buescher with nine laps to go and finished second. | ||
| 8 | Chris Buescher | -- | On the subject of James Buescher, the former Truck Series champion is Chris Buescher's cousin. And the two both have wins at Iowa Speedway, one of three tracks (plus Daytona and Michigan) where they've both won during their NASCAR careers. | |
| 9 | Ryan Blaney | Iowa Speedway is the site of a number of current Cup drivers' first NASCAR wins, including Ryan Blaney. Blaney got his first Truck Series win in just his third career start at the age of 18 back in September 2012. | ||
| 10 | Michael McDowell | Thanks to a second-place finish at Sonoma, Michael McDowell has pulled off quite the unique feat. He's now finished a Cup race in every possible position (1st through 40th), including 41st-43rd back before the maximum starting field was trimmed to 40 in 2016. | ||
| 11 | Joey Logano | -- | Joey Logano has only raced at Iowa once, but he's batting 1000 there. In 2007, Logano won a combination race of the old Camping World East and West Series, beating none other than Kevin Harvick for the victory. | |
| 12 | Martin Truex Jr. | I must admit that I got quite a kick out of Martin Truex Jr. crossing the finish line at Sonoma at a snail's pace and how much the crowd got into it. I haven't seen something like that since Carl Edwards jogged across the finish line at Talladega after flipping into the catchfence in that famous finish back in 2009. | ||
| 13 | Ty Gibbs | The new barriers at Sonoma were bound to ensnare at least one driver, and Ty Gibbs was the one who ended up being the unfortunate crash test dummy. Gibbs clipped the wall wrong with his right front, knocking his wheel out of place and sending him into the Turn 1 wall to bring an early end to his day. | ||
| 14 | Bubba Wallace | -- | Much like it was last year, the pressure is on Bubba Wallace as the playoff picture starts to take shape. After an off-track excursion and 20th-place finish at Sonoma, Wallace is the last driver above the cut line and holds just a eight-point advantage on Kyle Busch. | |
| 15 | Austin Cindric | Austin Cindric should be very thankful his car didn't bite and roll over when he got up on two wheels spinning out of Sonoma's Turn 1. For a split second, it looked like he was about to take the Steve Park and Ken Schrader line up into the air the way both those drivers did -- in the same race! -- back in 1999. | ||
| 16 | Todd Gilliland | With a multi-year contract extension at Front Row Motorsports now secured, Todd Gilliland is free to start working toward greater long-term goals like getting his first Cup win. He won at Iowa twice in K&N Pro Series competition in 2016 and 2017. | ||
| 17 | William Byron | Another first-time winner at Iowa is William Byron, who got his first ever Xfinity Series win there back in June 2017. Byron prevailed in a race that featured a mixed up top 10 with a lot of underdog drivers scoring great finishes, including Ross Chastain (fourth) back when he was driving for independent car owner Johnny Davis. | ||
| 18 | Carson Hocevar | I had to go back and check since his rise to the national level happened at about the same time Iowa was taken off NASCAR's schedule, but Carson Hocevar has indeed raced there. He ran fourth in an ARCA race at Iowa back in 2019. | ||
| 19 | Alex Bowman | Speaking of ARCA, Iowa was one of four races Alex Bowman won in that series during the 2012 season driving for Cunningham Motorsports. Bowman finished fourth in the championship standings that year as Chris Buescher won the title driving for the Roulo Brothers. | ||
| 20 | Justin Haley | Justin Haley had another very nice run going for himself at Sonoma, but mechanical gremlins would end up preventing him from getting the kind of finish he deserved. A steering failure left Haley 22 laps shy of finishing the race. | ||
| 21 | Kyle Busch | Right now, it feels like whatever bad thing can possibly happen to Kyle Busch is going to happen, as evidenced by a double-whammy last lap at Sonoma where he both got spun by Ross Chastain and ran out of fuel. Busch has an Iowa win in Xfinity Series action back in 2010. | ||
| 22 | Daniel Suarez | The performance that Daniel Suarez and his team had at Sonoma was the sort of day that they needed. A 14th-place run marked Suarez's first finish inside the top 15 since Texas. | ||
| 23 | Corey LaJoie | On the subject of finally getting back in the top 15, Corey LaJoie's 11th-place finish at Sonoma marked his first top 15 since he had two to open the year at Daytona and Atlanta. LaJoie was best in class among the Spire Motorsports cars on one of their best days since expanding to three cars. | ||
| 24 | Zane Smith | Not only did Zane Smith earn his second top 20 in a row, but he had one of his best and overall most complete runs of the entire season at Sonoma. After a brutal start, Smith is starting to show signs of progress as his first Cup season continues. | ||
| 25 | Noah Gragson | Since his hot streak at the end of April and into May, Noah Gragson's results have taken a real hit over the last three races. A 26th at Sonoma marked Gragson's third-straight finish outside the top 20. | ||
| 26 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | -- | Iowa is an important track in the career of Ricky Stenhouse Jr., as it was there that Stenhouse earned his first Xfinity Series win in 2011 and then swept the season there en route to the series title. That includes one of the best finishes in the track's history, where Stenhouse blew an engine coming off the final corner only to get rammed across the finish line by teammate Carl Edwards. | |
| 27 | Erik Jones | According to a report from Fox's pre-race show, Erik Jones could potentially reunite with Joe Gibbs Racing in the event Martin Truex Jr. chooses not to return in 2025. That would be quite a development, as Jones was once thought to be a big part of the company's future before he was dumped following 2020 in favor of Christopher Bell. | ||
| 28 | Chase Briscoe | The other driver tied to a potential open seat at Joe Gibbs Racing is Chase Briscoe, whose future landing spot after Stewart-Haas Racing closes is a major question mark. It'll be fascinating to see whether Ford is able to keep Briscoe in their ranks, or if Chevrolet or Toyota can snag him for their teams. | ||
| 29 | Josh Berry | Josh Berry has to wish it was May again. After it looked like he was finding his groove as a Cup Series driver, Berry has now opened the month of June with two-straight DNFs. | ||
| 30 | Kaz Grala | Kaz Grala earns another attaboy spot in this week's Power Rankings. A 23rd-place finish at Sonoma actually marks his fourth-best finish overall in 13 starts this season. |
