SiriusXM NASCAR Radio’s Power Rankings

In this week’s ‘Power Rankings,’ Pete Pistone weighs the impact of this past Sunday’s return to Sonoma Raceway for the Toyota SaveMart 350.

by:
Pete Pistone
June 7, 2021

(Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

Pete Pistone will unveil Power Rankings each week of the NASCAR season. Check out this week’s edition of NASCAR Power Rankings below, and listen to SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) on the SiriusXM app now.

Here’s how Sunday’s return to Sonoma Raceway for the Toyota SaveMart 350 impacted this week’s Power Rankings:

1. Kyle Larson  – Win number three of the season came with a second straight sweep Sunday for Larson at Sonoma. He led six times for 57 laps including the final 17 to notch his first road course win and the ninth of his Cup Series career.

Driver Rating: 108.9
Point Standings: 2nd
Previous Ranking: 2nd

2. Chase Elliott – He’s finished in the top-two in six of the last seven road course races and scored his best finish at Sonoma Sunday with a runner-up effort. Elliott has finished top-two in the last three races this season.

Driver Rating: 99.1
Point Standings: 3rd
Previous Ranking: 5th

3. Denny Hamlin– His point lead is starting to shrink as Hamlin remains winless this season. Put an eighth-place finish on the board Sunday in Sonoma to at least remain a consistent presence in the top-10.

Driver Rating: 109.8
Point Standings: 1st
Previous Ranking: 1st

4. Alex Bowman– He’s finished top-10 in the last four road course races and Bowman has not finished worse than 14th on road courses since joining Hendrick Motorsports. Came home ninth on Sunday.

Driver Rating: 86.1
Point Standings: 11th
Previous Ranking: 3rd

5. Martin Truex Jr. – Had his two-race Sonoma winning streak snapped Sunday but still a solid third-place outing for Truex Jr.  He also ended a three-race streak of finishing 19thor worse this season.

Driver Rating: 102.4
Point Standings: 5th
Previous Ranking: 6th

6. William Byron – A victim of some tight racing at Sonoma as Byron was caught up in a chain reaction incident in the last going. His battered Hendrick Chevrolet was credited with a 35th-place finish.

Driver Rating: 100.0
Point Standings: 4th
Previous Ranking: 4th

7. Kyle Busch  – The Joe Gibbs Racing driver raced his way home to a fifth-place finish Sunday. Busch scored his sixth straight top-10 finish at Sonoma and his first top-five finish on a road course since Sonoma in 2019.

Driver Rating: 96.0
Point Standings: 7th
Previous Ranking: 7th

8. Joey Logano  – A little pit strategy helped Logano home to a fourth-place Sonoma finish on Sunday. Logano has now finished top-10 in the last six races on road courses.

Driver Rating: 100.5
Point Standings: 5th
Previous Ranking: NR

9. Austin Dillon – Hovered around the top-10 most of the day, Dillon ended up with a 13th-place Sonoma performance.

Driver Rating: 82.0
Point Standings: 12th
Previous Ranking: 10th

10. Tyler Reddick– He admits road course racing is a work in progress but Reddick did pretty well in his first visit to Sonoma on Sunday. His 19th-place finish not completely indicative of how he ran during much of the race.

Driver Rating: 74.9

Point Standings: 13th
Previous Ranking: 8th

Dropped Out: Kevin Harvick

 

 



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