The first race of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season kicks off Feb. 18. Here are the keys dates for the upcoming season.v
It was all worth the wait for Tyler Reddick.
The 23XI Racing driver, who hadn’t won since April, scored his second victory of the season at Michigan International Speedway after a rain delay pushed the event to Monday.
Reddick took the lead on the double overtime restart and didn’t look back, earning his seventh career win and fourth for Michael Jordan’s team since joining the organization last year.
Next up is a trip to Florida for the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway. How does the field stack up after Michigan? Here’s our latest NASCAR power rankings:
1. Tyler Reddick
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Last week: 4
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Last week, I wrote about how Reddick’s only negative this season has been a lack of wins. That script was quickly flipped. Reddick now has two victories, and he leads the series with 11 top-fives (2 more than next-closest driver) and 17 top-10s (4 more than next-closest driver). It’s undoubtedly been the best season of his young career.
2. Denny Hamlin
Last week: 3
Hamlin spun on his own toward the end of Stage 1, which killed any chance he had at earning stage points and competing for the win. He recovered to finish ninth thanks to the late cautions. But Hamlin’s chances of winning the regular season title are dwindling as he’s 28 points behind Reddick with two races to go.
3. Kyle Larson
Last week: 2
Like Hamlin, Larson lost control of his car and spun out. Unlike Hamlin, his spin caused a multi-car pileup and ended his day. The 34th-place finish bumped him from the top of the standings to fourth, 32 points behind Reddick.
4. Christopher Bell
Last week: 1
Bell was collected in the aftermath of Larson’s spin and finished 35th. Before that, it was a quiet race for a driver that has been in contention for victories almost every week. Bell scored no stage points, with an unexpected lack of speed hindering him.
5. William Byron
Last week: 7
Is this the race that gets Byron back into form? He led 20 laps and finished second to Reddick. It was the first time he’s led a lap since Memorial Day. Now, Byron has to start stacking these good runs. He hasn’t had consecutive top-fives since April, so we’ll see if he can pull that off in Daytona.
6. Chase Elliott
Last week: 6
At times it looked like Elliott could win on Monday. He led 29 laps, his highest in a race in nearly two months. But he faded in the closing run and fell even farther back on the final restart to finish 15th. Elliott’s consistency (hasn’t finished worse than 21st all season) has kept him within 10 points of Reddick, but the No. 9 just hasn’t looked like a championship-worthy team yet.
7. Ryan Blaney
Last week: 5
Blaney got the worse end of Elliott’s double overtime mistake and finished 18th. On the bright side, he walked away from Michigan with a playoff point for winning Stage 1. Daytona has typically been one of Blaney’s best tracks – he’s a master at drafting and should be a factor on Saturday night.
8. Brad Keselowski
Last week: 10
Another race at his hometrack, another tough loss. The Michigan native was fifth on Monday, his ninth top-five in 27 starts without a win in the Irish Hills. Keselowski hasn’t won at Daytona since 2016 but – like Blaney – he’s among the elite superspeedway racers in the sport.
9. Bubba Wallace
Last week: 8
Another innocent bystander who was impacted by Larson’s crash. Wallace had race-winning speed on Monday, leading five laps and finishing fourth in Stage 1. But the crash damage was too severe to keep pace, and he rode around to finish 26th. Wallace is just one point outside the playoff bubble – it’ll be a sleepless two weeks for the 23XI Racing driver.
10. Joey Logano
Last week: 9
It was a brutal Monday for Logano, who had a tire problem early and then was collected in the oft-cited Larson crash. He finished 33rd – marking three straight finishes of 19th or worse (though he was wrecked while leading on the final lap last week). Logano has led laps in 11 straight Daytona races, so expect him to be out front at some point on Saturday.
First four out: Martin Truex Jr., Ty Gibbs, Chris Buescher, Alex Bowman
