Ever since Kyle Larson went to drive for Hendrick Motorsports in 2021, all four of his seasons behind the wheel of the No. 5 Chevrolet have featured him asserting himself in the win column early in the season.
At the start of his championship season three years ago, it took Larson only four races with his new team before he was in the Winner's Circle after a dominant performance at Las Vegas. One year later, Larson's first checkered flag of the year came in thrilling fashion at the end of a thrilling race at Fontana. Last year saw Larson make everyone wait for it just a little bit -- it took seven races before Larson won for the first time at Richmond -- but this year, he's picked up his first win of the year in only his third outing.
Odds are Sunday's race at Las Vegas won't be the only one ending with Larson winning, especially not when he led 181 of 267 laps in doing so. And on the heels of that convincing victory, Kyle Larson has now entered the top five in the CBS Sports NASCAR Power Rankings as defending Cup champion Ryan Blaney continues to lead.
Here's a look at CBS Sports' updated NASCAR Power Rankings following Las Vegas:
| Rank | Driver | Change | Comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ryan Blaney | -- | Ryan Blaney's life and career fundamentally changed last fall when he left Phoenix Raceway with the Cup Series championship. He'll return this year off the high of second- and third-place finishes that have shown early that he's got the form to threaten for two in a row. | |
| 2 | Joey Logano | Guess he didn't really need those gloves after all. Penske horsepower was enough to get Joey Logano his second pole of the season at Las Vegas, in the process making him the first driver since Ricky Rudd in 2000 to start on the front row for the opening three races of the season. | ||
| 3 | William Byron | In all likelihood, the trash bag that flew onto the front of William Byron's car was likely from a camper in the infield or somewhere else around the inside of the track. A sudden gust of wind will pick things up and blow them away there quite suddenly (as I myself learned at Atlanta!) | ||
| 4 | Kyle Busch | For awhile it looked like Kyle Busch was going to have himself a nice Las Vegas homecoming. But a self-inflicted wound would ruin that, as Busch finished 26th after a penalty for pitting outside of the box. | ||
| 5 | Kyle Larson | Kyle Larson's stat line at Las Vegas Motor Speedway since moving to Hendrick in 2021 now looks as follows: three wins, five finishes of either first or second, and 602 laps led. He and Cliff Daniels have that place figured out. | ||
| 6 | Denny Hamlin | Denny Hamlin answered the age old question of "How do NASCAR drivers go to the bathroom?" when he revealed on his podcast last week that he went in his firesuit late in the race at Atlanta. This week, Hamlin finished eighth for his first top 10 of the year -- hopefully without making any unpleasant work for his interior guy. | ||
| 7 | Ross Chastain | Ross Chastain was in the right to kick himself after a fourth-place finish at Vegas, as pit road speeding penalties have been a theme for him early this year and have kept him from better chances to win. He'll try to clean that up next week and earn back-to-back wins at Phoenix following his victory there last fall. | ||
| 8 | Daniel Suarez | With a win in the bank, expect Daniel Suarez and crew chief Matt Swiderski to feel emboldened in trying out alternate strategies as a means of swinging for more wins. That's what they did at Las Vegas, and it got Suarez an additional 15 laps led on the season. | ||
| 9 | Ty Gibbs | It would've been interesting to see what Ty GIbbs could've done had he been able to get some better track position by late in the race. Gibbs had to battle back from troubles on pit road, including a transmission issue, to drive to a fifth-place finish. | ||
| 10 | Martin Truex Jr. | It was a solid day at the office for Martin Truex Jr. in Vegas, as he started and finished seventh while leading four laps and earning a chunk of stage points. Like his JGR teammate in Hamlin, Truex's Vegas finish marks his first top 10 of the young season. | ||
| 11 | Austin Cindric | Don't be fooled by the result following a pit road penalty: Austin Cindric was fast in Las Vegas, qualifying third and showing speed to run in the top 10 throughout the day. The early returns on his season suggest that he and his team are well ahead of where they were last year. | ||
| 12 | Bubba Wallace | Bubba Wallace and his team fell victim to a glitch present in the single lug nut system on the Next Gen car, which can get virtually welded on to the point that you can't get it off no matter how much torque the tire changer gets. The 23XI team had to break out the heavy equipment to cut the nut off, putting Wallace many laps down by the finish. | ||
| 13 | Corey LaJoie | It's perfectly possible for Corey LaJoie to leave Las Vegas encouraged by what his team showed but also frustrated with the eventual result. LaJoie had top 10 speed and ran as high up as the top five, but faded to midpack late and then finished 32nd after a self-spin and crash. | ||
| 14 | Chase Elliott | With three top-15 finishes to start 2024, Chase Elliott is still looking for a breakthrough performance. It'll come if Elliott and his team keep bringing cars like they had at Vegas, as Elliott ran up inside the top 10 and had a shot at finishing there as well. | ||
| 15 | Tyler Reddick | I guess Tyler Reddick is glad NASCAR is done with speedway racing for awhile. A downforce and handling track with low grip was just what the doctor ordered for Reddick, and his medicine was a second-place finish after a joust for the win with Kyle Larson. | ||
| 16 | Noah Gragson | The ultimate sin of Noah Gragson's abysmal rookie year in Cup was that it made a lot of people forget just how good he is when he's in a good car and is on top of his game. With two top 10s to start the year, look for Gragson to gain confidence and to keep having good runs in the SHR No. 10. | ||
| 17 | Todd Gilliland | Not much to be said about Todd Gilliland's race at Las Vegas, other than that 24th- and 25th-place finishes demonstrate Front Row Motorsports still has room to grow. More on that later this week ... | ||
| 18 | Alex Bowman | Two years ago, a two-tire call on a late pit stop got Alex Bowman the most recent win he's had in the Cup Series. Another two tire call got Bowman some stage points Sunday, but he was only left with a pedestrian 18th-place run at race's end. | ||
| 19 | Brad Keselowski | Brad Keselowski the car owner has a headache on his hands, as the botched pit stop and ensuing loose wheel on Chris Buescher's car will be a penalty later this week for the No. 17 team. Brad Keselowski the driver had a solid day in Vegas, finishing 13th. | ||
| 20 | Michael McDowell | After leading four laps during a green flag pit cycle, Michael McDowell has now led all three races to start the year and has 37 laps led in total to his credit. That's already more laps led than McDowell had the first 10 years of his Cup career combined. | ||
| 21 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Something Ricky Stenhouse will try and change this coming week at Phoenix: He's only had two top-10 finishes in his career at that racetrack, both of which came in 2017. | ||
| 22 | Carson Hocevar | It was a big weekend for drivers who grew up making NASCAR videos on YouTube when they were kids. Rajah Caruth got his first Truck Series win, then Carson Hocevar had a very impressive run on his way to a 15th-place finish in the Cup race. | ||
| 23 | Erik Jones | It took a long while for Erik Jones and his team to find their footing in 2023, but their foundation in 2024 looks to be quite good. A 14th-place finish at Las Vegas gave Jones two top 15s to start the year. | ||
| 24 | Chase Briscoe | Between Noah Gragson's finish and Chase Briscoe's qualifying run, Las Vegas surely showed Stewart-Haas Racing it's capable of bringing fast cars to the track. Briscoe couldn't sustain his track position despite a great starting spot, fading to 21st by race's end. | ||
| 25 | Daniel Hemric | Admittedly, I was surprised to see Daniel Hemric finish 19th at Las Vegas. It seemed like both the Kaulig cars were AWOL early on, but Hemric got back in the mix to keep his top 20 streak alive. | ||
| 26 | Christopher Bell | If we go all the way back to the end of last season, Christopher Bell has had a rough go of it lately with the exception of the Daytona 500. Three of Bell's last four Cup starts have featured spins, crashes and poor finishes. | ||
| 27 | Chris Buescher | The sight of Chris Buescher's No. 17 heading toward the wall with its wheel falling off brought to mind a favorite ditty sung by someone else who drove a silver No. 17. Sing it with me now: "You picked a fine time to leave me, loose wheel." | ||
| 28 | John Hunter Nemechek | The overall weekend for John Hunter Nemechek was a solid one, as he earned the 10th victory of his Xfinity Series career Saturday. That ties him on that series' all-time wins list with Cup stars like Tyler Reddick and Bobby Labonte as well as Xfinity Series greats Jason Keller and Robert Pressley. | ||
| 29 | Ryan Preece | Ryan Preece gets graded on a curve this week. A 23rd-place finish certainly isn't what anyone is looking for out of him, but it's a solid outing when you consider Preece had to do it with a backup car after a crash in practice. | ||
| 30 | Austin Dillon | Austin Dillon jumps into the power rankings after what had been a miserable first two races of the season. Dillon was competitive and ran inside the top 10 at Las Vegas, but missed out on the opportunity to earn a better finish than 16th. |
