In the late stages of the 2023 season, not a single driver has changed the narrative -- in more ways than one -- quite like Ryan Blaney has.
In the context of the NASCAR playoffs, the narrative was Blaney had shown to be capable of making it to the Round of 8 time and again, but he still didn't have a Championship 4 berth to show for it and hadn't proved himself as a bona fide perennial championship contender. And compounding that, the narrative of Blaney's 2023 season was he had somehow managed to carry the banner for a struggling Team Penske, an organization that seemed to fall off from not only their 2022 championship form, but also fall behind among the Ford Performance teams.
But now, Blaney has earned two victories in the past five races, including a Martinsville victory that earned him a Championship 4 berth for the first time in his Cup career. That's earned him a spot alongside Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell and William Byron in the Championship Race at Phoenix, and it places Blaney atop the Championship 4 and the rest of the Cup Series field in this week's CBS Sports NASCAR Power Rankings.
Here's a look at our updated Power Rankings:
| Rank | Driver | Change | Comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ryan Blaney | Based on last year, Ryan Blaney getting to Phoenix with a shot at the championship isn't something his competitors wanted to see. Blaney led 109 laps in last year's Championship Race and likely only finished second because he deferred to teammate Joey Logano, who was going for a Cup title of his own. | ||
| 2 | Christopher Bell | Christopher Bell put up quite the fight in last year's Championship Race, challenging Joey Logano at one point before finishing 10th. Bell will get another crack at the title race after finishing seventh at Martinsville. | ||
| 3 | William Byron | William Byron's Martinsville performance invoked some bad memories of past penultimate race collapses -- Matt Kenseth in 2013 and Kevin Harvick in 2020 come to mind -- but it instead became a testament to Byron's perseverance and toughness. After overcoming an ill-handling car and heat exhaustion to make the Championship 4, it feels like William Byron can overcome anything Phoenix brings his way. | ||
| 4 | Kyle Larson | Hendrick Motorsports has strength in numbers, as they're the only race team to have multiple drivers in the Championship 4. That means there's a 50 percent chance this year's Cup champion is a Hendrick driver. Good odds. | ||
| 5 | Denny Hamlin | It's hard to imagine Denny Hamlin won't win a Cup championship before the end of his career given all the times he's made it deep into the playoffs with a shot at the championship. But after his elimination in this year's Round of 8, it's going to have to wait until at least 2024. | ||
| 6 | Bubba Wallace | Bubba Wallace now sits 10th in the Cup championship standings entering the season finale, putting him in position to finish in the top 10 for the first time in his career. In five prior seasons, Wallace's best finish in points had only been 19th a year ago. | ||
| 7 | Joey Logano | As Ryan Blaney leads Team Penske into the Championship 4 despite a down year, you can expect a bounceback campaign from the organization as a whole, including Joey Logano, in 2024. Logano finished fifth as Penske put all three of their cars in the top 10 for the first time since Nashville in 2022. | ||
| 8 | Chris Buescher | Chris Buescher's playoffs may have come to an end in Martinsville, but he did get a tasty cake. Sunday marked Buescher's 31st birthday. | ||
| 9 | Tyler Reddick | A spin in qualifying wound up setting the tone for what amounted to a huge letdown for Tyler Reddick. Reddick was never in Martinsville's elimination race and saw his playoffs come to an end in the Round of 8. | ||
| 10 | Chase Elliott | Chase Elliott's strategy didn't end up working out, but it was surely welcome for him to run at the front again. Elliott's 83 laps led were the most he's had all season and his most in a single race since Atlanta in July 2022. | ||
| 11 | Ross Chastain | For the heck of it I decided to check out what the right side of Ross Chastain's car looked like at the end of Sunday's race. Unlike after the Hail Melon, Chastain's Chevy looked pretty much identical to the way it did in pre-race. | ||
| 12 | Kevin Harvick | 825 career starts down, one to go. Next week in Phoenix, Kevin Harvick's career -- which started so abruptly at Rockingham in February 2001 -- will come to a close. | ||
| 13 | Aric Almirola | Speaking of endings, Aric Almirola almost pulled off a storybook ending to his own career as a full-time Cup driver. Only one day after announcing he would be moving on at the end of the 2023 season, Almirola came 23 laps away from winning at Martinsville in what would have been a watershed moment for one of the good guys of NASCAR. | ||
| 14 | Brad Keselowski | Brad Keselowski is back in familiar territory, as he now sits seventh in the Cup Series standings and will once again have a top-10 finish in the championship standings. Keselowski was top 10 in points for five straight years until a 24th-place finish in last year's standings broke that streak. | ||
| 15 | Martin Truex Jr. | Martin Truex Jr.'s playoff collapse, finally sealed at the end of the Round of 8, will be examined for years to come. Truex has gone from handily winning the regular-season championship to potentially not even finishing in the top 10 of the final championship standings. | ||
| 16 | Kyle Busch | Kyle Busch's 2023 season is ending on quite the whimper, but that's honestly the least of Richard Childress Racing's worries right now. Not after the Xfinity Series race at Martinsville, which brought tensions between Austin Hill and Sheldon Creed to a head and led to Childress himself calling out Creed for a lack of intelligence. | ||
| 17 | AJ Allmendinger | Martinsville was far from the followup AJ Allmendinger was looking for to his top five at Homestead, as he finished two laps down in 28th. That's Allmendinger's worst result in a race where he was running at the finish since back at Bristol in September. | ||
| 18 | Ryan Preece | A 20th-place finish didn't quite match the way Ryan Preece ran at times on Sunday, but he at least left Martinsville weekend with a victory. Preece took the checkered flag in Thursday night's Whelen Modified Tour finale. | ||
| 19 | Corey LaJoie | As long as he takes the checkered flag next week, Corey LaJoie will join a very select fraternity of drivers to be running at the finish of every single race in a given season. It'd be a remarkable turnaround for LaJoie and the No. 7 team, as they had eight DNFs in 2022. | ||
| 20 | Ty Gibbs | -- | A year's worth of personal and professional growth is about to pay off for Ty Gibbs. When he takes the checkered flag at Phoenix, he will officially be crowned as the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of the Year. | |
| 21 | Daniel Suarez | What's separated Daniel Suarez's 2023 season from his breakout 2022 season is that his range of outcomes on race day has been much wider. Suarez's DNF at Martinsville was his sixth of the season, which ties his rookie year of 2017 for a career-worst mark. | ||
| 22 | Austin Cindric | During pre-race at Martinsville, Austin Cindric promised me he'd do a post-race interview if he got a top-five finish. He finished ninth and I had to let him off the hook. I'll get him one of these days. | ||
| 23 | Erik Jones | Phoenix will mark Erik Jones' last start as a Chevrolet driver before his homecoming to Toyota in 2024. Jones came to NASCAR through Toyota's ladder system and was with the manufacturer until being let go by Joe Gibbs Racing at the end of the 2020 season. | ||
| 24 | Todd Gilliland | Todd Gilliland saved one of his best performances of the 2023 season for (almost) last, making it into the top 10 at Martinsville and staying there with a 10th-place finish. Gilliland's fourth top 10 of 2023 doubles his mark from his rookie year in 2022. | ||
| 25 | Alex Bowman | Alex Bowman brought out the first caution of the day in Martinsville and eventually limped home in 32nd. Bowman is near the top of the list in terms of drivers who just want their 2023 seasons to be over. | ||
| 26 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | After four straight finishes outside the top 20, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. got back on the right side of that threshold with a 19th-place run at Martinsville. He'll have one more race in 2023 before turning his full attention to a defense of his Daytona 500 crown. | ||
| 27 | Austin Dillon | A 23rd-place finish at Martinsville marked Austin Dillon's worst finish in a race where he was running at the finish since a 33rd-place run at Kansas in September. Dillon will close out a disappointing 2023 season trying to improve on a 16th-place run at Phoenix back in March. | ||
| 28 | Harrison Burton | Another nice Martinsville performance for Harrison Burton, who brought home a 15th-place finish on Sunday despite an early accident. Performances like that illustrate why the Wood Brothers have maintained faith in Burton's development, which they surely hope bears fruit in 2024. | ||
| 29 | Michael McDowell | With Michael McDowell on pace to end his 2023 season in a funk, it's a good time for him to visit his home racetrack. McDowell is a Phoenix native. | ||
| 30 | Justin Haley | Kaulig Racing has been instrumental in Justin Haley's rise as a NASCAR driver, but all good partnerships must eventually come to an end. Phoenix will be Haley's last start for Kaulig before he moves to Rick Ware Racing in 2024. |
