NASCAR Power Rankings: Front Row Motorsports' Michael McDowell, Todd Gilliland crack top 10

The Front Row Motorsports teammates are climbing up the rankings

In an industry where many race teams close their doors just as quickly as they open them, Front Row Motorsports' growth as an organization is impressive. When Front Row Motorsports and car owner Bob Jenkins first showed up in the mid-2000s, their cars were -- quite honestly -- slow and barely able to qualify to make the field half the time.

But fast forward to 2023 and Front Row Motorsports has done it: They now have a Daytona 500 win and a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship to their name, and both of their Cup teams have maintained a place in and around the top 10 over the past several weeks. Though ascending second-year driver Todd Gilliland has led the way with two top 10s and four-straight top 15s, veteran driver and team leader Michael McDowell has hardly been outdone with a team-best sixth place and three finishes of 12th or better the last three weeks.

That's earned both Front Row Motorsports drivers a place in the top 10 of this week's CBS Sports NASCAR Power Rankings, as Bristol winner Christopher Bell has taken the lead from William Byron. The Bristol Dirt Race led to some considerable shuffling throughout the Power Rankings, headlined by Austin Dillon gaining a full 10 spots after a third place finish.

Here's a look at our updated Power Rankings:

Rank	Driver	Change	Comment
1	Christopher Bell		Here's something that really speaks to the changing dynamic of Joe Gibbs Racing: Since 2021, no JGR driver has won more races than... Christopher Bell, who has won five.
2	William Byron		Sunday night at Bristol was really the first time all year that William Byron didn't make much of an impression. A stage point and a 13th place finish was all that he had to speak of.
3	Tyler Reddick		After entering Turn 3 with a chance to win for the second year in a row, Tyler Reddick's shot at a last-ditch move on Bell for the win was thwarted by the final caution. Reddick was close enough that he could have tried a potential kamikaze move, but it's anyone's guess whether or not it would've actually worked.
4	Kyle Larson	--	Kyle Larson might want to examine whether or not he's crowding other drivers who are to his outside on corner exits. Larson's move that angered Ryan Preece at Bristol was awfully similar to the one that had Bubba Wallace seeing red at Las Vegas last year.
5	Alex Bowman		Alex Bowman was in position to get another top 10 finish late at Bristol, but he was thwarted by a flat tire and ended up finishing 29th -- by far his worst finish this season.
6	Kevin Harvick		With many radical changes to the Cup Series schedule in the final years of Kevin Harvick's career, you have to admire his ability to adapt in his late 40s. Harvick finished ninth at Bristol Dirt, his best finish in three tries in a Cup car on dirt.
7	Ty Gibbs		Ty Gibbs will try to earn his fifth-straight top 10 next week at Martinsville. The last time a Cup rookie had five or more top 10s in a row? That'd be in 2017, when Erik Jones had six in a row.
8	Kyle Busch		Kyle Busch looked just as fast as any dirt driver at Bristol, challenging for the lead until suspension problems ended his night prematurely. It was only Busch's second DNF of the year and his first since double overtime thwarted his chances of winning the Daytona 500.
9	Michael McDowell		A decade ago when Michael McDowell was driving start and park cars, you had to look close to notice just how talented a driver he was. Now, doing two 360s and driving back up through the field to finish 11th makes McDowell's abilities fairly obvious.
10	Todd Gilliland		At some point, people are going to have to notice what Todd Gilliland has done in Front Row's No. 38, which seldom ran on par with the No. 34 until Gilliland got behind the wheel. Gilliland continues to elevate himself in his second year with a strong top 10 run at Bristol.
11	Martin Truex Jr.		Martin Truex Jr. finally caught a break for a change, running a relatively drama-free race at Bristol on his way to finishing seventh. That should help calm things down at the No. 19 team after a testy post-race exchange at Richmond when it became clear that Truex and crew chief James Small weren't on the same page about their final pit stop.
12	Joey Logano		In the 96 laps that Joey Logano completed at Bristol, it felt like he hit everything he possibly could have. And if there were any way for his car to burrow under the dirt and hit the track's regular concrete, he may have hit that too had he been able to keep going.
13	Ross Chastain		So, after an entire week of jokes on NASCAR Twitter about how absolutely everything that's ever happened was Ross Chastain's fault, it was Chastain's wrecked car that led to the Bristol Dirt Race finishing under caution. Wow, Thanks Ross!
14	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.		JTG Daugherty Racing has to be pleased with the pace they have as they try to parlay their Daytona 500 win into a secure playoff spot. Ricky Stenhouse's fourth place finish at Bristol is his second top five and third top 10 so far this season.
15	Chase Briscoe		After breaking a finger on Thursday at another dirt race, Chase Briscoe toughed out some sure discomfort to race at Bristol this weekend. That toughness paid off as Briscoe contended for the win before finishing fifth.
16	Brad Keselowski		Brad Keselowski had a tough night at Bristol, going for several spins before finishing 17th. He'll likely be much more keen on a return to concrete in the fall, which he almost won on in last year's Night Race at Bristol.
17	Bubba Wallace		Everyone seems to forget that Bubba Wallace won on dirt in the Truck Series in 2014, holding a steady wheel while Kyle Larson knocked the wall down trying to find a way around him. Despite an early spin, Wallace had a solid night at Bristol and finished 12th.
18	Ryan Blaney		Ryan Blaney appeared to be exactly where he needed to be on the final restart to snap his winless streak, lining up first of the cars in the inside line. But Blaney's chances at the win were short lived, as he was spun by Chase Briscoe and finished 23rd.
19	Austin Dillon		Austin Dillon isn't thought of as a dirt racer by trade, but put him in a dirt late model and he's as good as anyone out there. That was on display at Bristol, as Dillon ran up front the entire night before finishing third.
20	Denny Hamlin		Denny Hamlin got his right front fender ripped off in an early accident at Bristol, and he would end up finishing 22nd. That continues a rough stretch for Hamlin, who hasn't finished better than 16th in any of the last three races.
21	Justin Haley		The Tide Ride is associated with many great NASCAR memories, whether it be some of Darrell Waltrip's signature wins or Ricky Craven's epic victory at Darlington in 2003. Haley did the Tide Ride proud at Bristol, finishing a season-best sixth.
22	AJ Allmendinger		Compared to his Kaulig Racing teammate, A.J. Allmendinger's Gain colors are more often associated with the car that Jeff Burton won with seemingly every time he showed up in the Busch Series in the early 2000s. Allmendinger wasn't quite that fast at Bristol, recovering from an early flat tire to finish 16th.
23	Corey LaJoie		Corey LaJoie had a long night in Bristol, finishing three laps down in 30th. It was LaJoie's worst finish of the entire season, which goes to illustrate how much he and his race team have grown.
24	Austin Cindric		Austin Cindric looked like he'd made some strides as a dirt racer by qualifying seventh, but he couldn't sustain them and finished 19th. So far this year, consistency has eluded the defending Cup Rookie of the Year.
25	Daniel Suarez		Daniel Suarez contended for the win in both of the previous two Bristol Dirt races, but he had nothing but trouble in this year's edition. Suarez was involved in multiple accidents and finished 25th.
26	Harrison Burton	--	Harrison Burton finished in the top 20 for the second week in a row, tying his season-best finish in 15th. Next up for Burton is a homecoming to Martinsville, where he finished 11th last fall.
27	Chris Buescher		Count Chris Buescher in among those who would really prefer to race on concrete at Bristol. After winning last year's Night Race, Buescher had a nondescript 18th place finish in the Dirt Race.
28	Erik Jones	--	It was another long day for Erik Jones, but at least this one had a good payoff. Jones recovered from early issues to finish 14th, his second-best run of the entire year so far.
29	Aric Almirola		Aric Almirola got put up front by the same strategy as Chase Briscoe, but he would finish 10 laps down in 31st after suffering a late-race right rear problem. In eight races so far, Almirola now already has five finishes of 30th or worse.
30	Ryan Preece		You can tell that Ryan Preece is really getting fed up with how he's getting raced. If you go back to some of the runs he's had that he's been taken out of because of other drivers' mistakes, his reaction to the way Kyle Larson raced him falls into place.