Down years for a top NASCAR race team aren't supposed to entail contending for a championship. In fact, they're not supposed to even come close to that level. And yet, for as frustrating as 2023 has been for Team Penske, they still have a shot thanks to Ryan Blaney.
One year after winning the Daytona 500 with Austin Cindric and the Cup Series championship with Joey Logano, Penske has been off seemingly all year and has underperformed relative to what the company is accustomed to and what is expected of them. But with yet another dramatic victory at Talladega -- his third victory at the speedway in as many photo finishes -- Ryan Blaney has moved on to the Round of 8 and ensured Team Penske will still have a chance at back-to-back championships through at least the next four races.
"I think a shot in the arm like this, it's like, 'Let's go. We're in the Round of 8, we're still in this thing. We have one in it. Let's keep working.' That's their mindset no matter if we would have won today or not," Blaney said when asked about how his Talladega win could serve as a galvanizing force for a frustrated Penske team. "Our people are always into it. Maybe they're frustrated at times that you're not running good, but they're always — they don't give up. They always just try to be better and just work to solve the problem."
Thanks to his victory, Blaney has improved a full 10 spots in this week's CBS Sports NASCAR Power Rankings, moving him out of the middle of the Power Rankings and well up inside the top 10 in sixth. Blaney is among eight playoff drivers in the top eight positions, including second-place William Byron who he joins in having advanced through the Round of 12.
Here's a look at our updated Power Rankings:
| Rank | Driver | Change | Comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Denny Hamlin | -- | Normally on superspeedways, lapped cars are expected to yield and not cause difficulties for the leaders if they're in the lead pack. Denny Hamlin took the opposite approach instead, racing at the front in an effort to try and unlap himself the hard way. Hamlin eventually got the free pass and finished third. | |
| 2 | William Byron | Oh, to be a fly on the wall at Hendrick Motorsports' competition meeting on Monday morning. The Hendrick cars were in position to control the final laps at Talladega, but they missed out after William Byron broke formation and went for the win himself. | ||
| 3 | Kyle Larson | Kyle Larson has had issues in the past with making it to the end of superspeedway races. He made it this time, but not facing the right way at the checkered flag -- Larson slid across the finish line in 15th. | ||
| 4 | Chris Buescher | -- | While there are never any guarantees in racing, Chris Buescher's position in the Round of 8 seems to be very secure entering the Charlotte Roval. Buescher is currently 19 points above the cut line and is a terrific road racer with finishes of third and sixth in the past two Roval races. | |
| 5 | Christopher Bell | Last year, Christopher Bell took his playoff run to the next level by winning not once, but twice in must-win scenarios. The first of those was at the Charlotte Roval, which he now returns to as the race's defending champion. | ||
| 6 | Ryan Blaney | There wasn't a place for this in our post-race recap, but this quote from Ryan Blaney's post-race press conference on why he usually doesn't do burnouts is golden: "Dale Inman pulled me aside one day and he said, 'Hey, you don't see the winner of the Kentucky Derby get off his horse and start beating the s--t out of it.'" | ||
| 7 | Bubba Wallace | Bubba Wallace tried to get to the front in the closing laps and it didn't work out, which might happen to anyone at Talladega. But to come out of the day with a midpack finish and no stage points really has to sting for Wallace and his race team. | ||
| 8 | Tyler Reddick | -- | Speaking to him on pit road following the race, it was very clear Tyler Reddick had already mentally moved on and was greatly looking forward to racing at the Roval. "It's in our hands to get to the Round of 8," he said. | |
| 9 | Chase Elliott | Count Chase Elliott among those looking forward to the Roval, as he has just five races left this season to try and keep from going winless in 2023. Elliott won at the Roval back-to-back years in 2019 and 2020. | ||
| 10 | Kevin Harvick | What happened to Kevin Harvick in post-race at Talladega reminded me a lot of something that happened after Jimmie Johnson just missed out on a win in his last year before retirement. Johnson finished second in the 2020 Coca-Cola 600, but he was also disqualified for failing post-race inspection. | ||
| 11 | Brad Keselowski | The best thing that happened in Brad Keselowski's accident was what didn't happen. Keselowski's car began to go airborne as it spun, but the roof flaps and other safety devices worked as intended and settled the spinning No. 6 back on solid ground, avoiding another airborne crash like what happened to Ryan Preece at Daytona. | ||
| 12 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | -- | Considering 2023 has become the best season of Ricky Stenhouse Jr.'s career, it's surprising he hasn't led more laps. The 14 laps Stenhouse led at Talladega only brought his season total laps led to 39. | |
| 13 | Alex Bowman | While he got shuffled out in the final laps, Alex Bowman was the leader on the final restart and made his presence felt late in the going at Talladega. Bowman's 13 laps led marked the fourth time he's led more than 10 laps in a race this season. | ||
| 14 | Michael McDowell | After winning the Truck race at Talladega, Brett Moffitt mentioned what a "night and day" difference there is between what Front Row Motorsports was when he won Cup Rookie of the Year with the team in 2015 to what it is now. FRM cars led 15 laps on Sunday, including five by McDowell. | ||
| 15 | Daniel Suarez | For the third time this season, Daniel Suarez has put together a streak of consecutive finishes inside the top 10. A 10th-place finish at Talladega brought his season total to 10 top-10 finishes, the second year in a row he's had 10 or more. | ||
| 16 | Ross Chastain | An odd complication of Kevin Harvick's disqualification is that it actually caused Ross Chastain to lose a point toward the cut line. He had been nine points back at the checkered flag, but the redistribution of stage points following Harvick's disqualification led to Chastain dropping to 10 points back as he faces potential elimination at the Roval. | ||
| 17 | Erik Jones | Another week where Erik Jones didn't get a finish befitting of where he ran at times. Jones ended up right where he started in 26th despite leading twice for four laps. | ||
| 18 | Corey LaJoie | If Spire Motorsports takes yet another step forward competitively in 2024, it's fascinating to think of what Corey LaJoie might be capable of as the team's elder statesman. LaJoie's fourth-place finish at Talladega entrenched this year as by far the best of his Cup career. | ||
| 19 | Martin Truex Jr. | How much do the regular season and playoff points matter? I'll tell you how much they matter: Despite pedestrian 17th- and 18th-place finishes in the first two races of the Round of 12, Martin Truex Jr. still has a 17-point advantage over the cut line thanks to his regular-season championship. | ||
| 20 | Joey Logano | Joey Logano was the only driver to lead more than 15 laps at Talladega, as he paced the field for 48 circuits after starting up front. It was the most laps in a single race Logano has led since his lone win of the season at Atlanta in March. | ||
| 21 | Kyle Busch | Kyle Busch's Round of 12 points hole got even deeper at Talladega, as a 25th-place finish left him a full 26 points below the cut line entering the Roval. If he's going to continue his playoff run, Busch is going to have to get to Victory Lane for the first time since back at Gateway in June. | ||
| 22 | Justin Haley | If I squinted, Justin Haley's yellow and blueish paint scheme at Talladega looked just a little bit like the old No. 31 Lowe's Chevrolet Mike Skinner drove back in the late 1990s. Skinner was a great speedway racer, and Haley continued to show he himself is one with a sixth-place finish. | ||
| 23 | Aric Almirola | After leading seven laps from the pole at Talladega, Aric Almirola was able to pad his total of laps led in 2023 to 107. This year is the first time he's led over a hundred laps in a season since 2020, where he led a career-best 305. | ||
| 24 | Ryan Preece | A bread battle occurred at the front of the field at Talladega, as Ryan Preece's "Talladega Nights"-inspired Wonder Bread Ford battled for the top spot with Ricky Stenhouse Jr.'s Sara Lee Artesano Bakery Bread Chevrolet. It was like RIcky Bobby racing against Jean Girard, if Ricky Bobby and Jean Girard were loaves of bread. | ||
| 25 | Chase Briscoe | During the late laps at Talladega, Chase Briscoe was miffed after he received crash damage only a few laps after Ryan Preece bailed on his Cal Naughton Jr.-inspired car. Granted, it wasn't quite the same level of treachery as in "Talladega Nights," when Naughton got wrecked on team orders by Ricky Bobby's replacement at Dennit Racing. | ||
| 26 | Todd Gilliland | Todd Gilliland one-upped dear old Dad at Talladega, as a 12th-place finish in the Cup race was far better than his old man's finish in Saturday's Truck Series race. Todd's father and TRICON Garage owner David Gilliland failed to finish after getting taken out in a mid-race accident. | ||
| 27 | Ty Gibbs | The hits both Ty Gibbs and Austin Dillon took exiting the tri-oval were both so nasty it forced a nearly 10-minute red flag while NASCAR repaired that section of the SAFER barrier. It might have been even nastier had those two cars not had Brad Keselowski's car disrupt some of their momentum. | ||
| 28 | AJ Allmendinger | You can count AJ Allmendinger among the drivers to watch at the Charlotte Roval, but he's only had two finishes out of five road course races in Cup that reflect his road racing pedigree. Allmendinger was sixth at Sonoma in June and fourth at Watkins Glen in August. | ||
| 29 | Ty Dillon | Here's a bit of a surprise: Ty Dillon's pair of laps led at Talladega brought him to 11 total laps led this season. That's about on par with his laps led totals from both 2019 (14) and 2020 (13). | ||
| 30 | Harrison Burton | A late-race accident continued what's been a disappointing season for Harrison Burton, but he's going to get at least one more shot at it next season. This weekend, it was announced Burton will return to the driver's seat of the No. 21 in 2024. |
