NASCAR Power Rankings After 10 Races

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by Julian Spivey
NASCAR can be weird sometimes (honestly, maybe most of the time). The 2020 Cup season was dominated by Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin with those three drivers combining to win 58 percent of the season's races. There was little parity in the 2020 season. Through the first 10 races of the 2021 Cup Season it's been nothing but parity. Nine different drivers have won races this season, making things tight aleady for the 16-driver playoff field with 15 races remaining before the playoffs. There's a potential we could be looking at the first season in which more than 16 drivers when races and a race-winner (which is supposed to be an automatic playoff qualification) would still miss the playoffs. I don't expect that to happen, but some of the biggest names within the sport haven't won yet, including the three winningest drivers last season: Harvick, Hamlin and Elliott. Kyle Busch also hasn't won a race either and he's won at least one race every year of his career (16 seasons). I'd expect at least those four drivers win a race before the postseason begins, which would allow for three positions on points. 
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Here are my top 10 power rankings for drivers at this point in the season ... 

Note: Michael McDowell and Alex Bowman have both won a race this season, but didn't make my cut. 

10. Christopher Bell 
I predicted Christopher Bell would win his first Cup Series race this season in his first for Joe Gibbs Racing, but I didn't think it would come at the Daytona Roval course in the second weekend of the season. Bell is currently 10th in the point standings and has finished in the top-10 in half of the races thus far this season. 

9. Chase Elliott
I didn't expect for the defending champion Chase Elliott to be this far back this far into the season, even if the bulk of his 2020 success came in the playoffs, including three of his five wins on the season. Elliott is winless after the first 10 races, which makes him the only driver at Hendrick Motorsports without a victory thus far. He's eighth in the point standings with three top fives. 

8. Kevin Harvick
Kevin Harvick led the Cup Series last season with nine victories and like the defending champ Chase Elliott finds himself winless past the quarter mark of the season. There has been a noticeable drop in quality at Stewart-Haas Racing this season, but Harvick is still seventh in the points (second highest of all winless drivers) with three top fives and seven top-10s. What's most concerning about Harvick's first 10 races is he's only led 29 laps thus far when he led more than 1,500 last season and has led at least 850 laps every season since 2013. 

7. Kyle Larson 
Kyle Larson going to Hendrick Motorsports made him a popular pick for the 2021 Champion Four drivers, which I thought was a little much given he hadn't competed in the series for almost a full year. Thus far he's kind of been in between what I'd consider a title threat and where I expected him to be. He won the fourth race of the season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which was quite a bit quicker than I expected. He's ninth in the point standings with four top five finishes. 

6. Ryan Blaney
Ryan Blaney is consistent. He's won exactly one race every season since his first win in 2017. He got his win out of the way early this year doing so at Atlanta Motor Speedway. To be a championship contender he's going to need to find a way to rack up a few more checkered flags. Blaney only has one other top five thus far besides that win and has five top-10s. 

5. Brad Keselowski 
Brad Keselowski is the most recent winner on the NASCAR Cup Series circuit when he won his sixth career race at Talladega Superspeedway last week, which tied him with Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. for the second most ever at the biggest oval in the sport. He's currently sixth in the point standings. The weird thing about his season is he's only finished in the top-10 four times, but all four times have been top fives. 

4. William Byron 
William Byron has quietly been one of the most consistent finishers in the Cup Series this season. He won his second career Cup Series race in the third race of the year at Homestead-Miami Speedway and is fourth in the point standings with eight top-10s. 

3. Joey Logano 
It's in no way surprising that Joey Logano is a race winner in the first 10 races of the 2021 season, but doing so at the first NASCAR Cup Series dirt race in more than half a century and being fairly dominant at it was a bit surprising. Overall, Logano is third in the point standings with four top fives and six top-10s. 

2. Martin Truex Jr. 
Martin Truex Jr. is the only Cup Series driver with multiple wins thus far in 2021. He won at Phoenix Raceway and Martinsville Speedway, where he's become quite the recurring winner. His two wins have helped him to second overall in the point standings. He has four top fives and six top-10s. 

1. Denny Hamlin
It might seem ridiculous to have a driver who hasn't won a race yet this season at the top spot in my power rankings after 10 races, but Denny Hamlin has been the most consistent driver in the sport and his numbers tell me the win and likely wins are going to come. Even without a victory Hamlin is the overall points leader and has accumulated almost 100 more points than his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. in second place. He also had twice as many top fives as anybody else with eight in 10 races. Hamlin has already led 737 laps this season and led 1,083 last season when he won seven races. It's franly quite amazing Hamlin has been this dominant without winning, but again it's just a matter of time. 

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