Although Kevin Harvick couldn’t get by Joey Logano to win at Kansas last weekend, Harvick moved ahead of Chase Elliott to take back the No. 1 spot in this week’s NBC Sports NASCAR Power Rankings.
Three weeks remain in the season. The series heads to Texas Motor Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET Sunday on NBCSN) for the middle race in the Round of 8. Joey Logano climbed six spots in this week’s rankings after his win at Kansas.
Here is this week’s NBC Sports Power Rankings
1. Kevin Harvick (Last week No. 4): Runner-up finish at Kansas marks the third time in the last seven races he’s placed either first or second. Led a race-high 85 laps at Kansas. Has led a series-high 1,503 laps this season. Is one win away from becoming only the third driver in the last 25 years to win at least 10 Cup races in a season.
2. Chase Elliott (Last week No. 1): Sixth-place finish is his fourth consecutive finish of sixth or better. Most of the talk after the race was about his radio issues and if NASCAR erred in not sending him to pit road to fix the matter. A NASCAR official said Monday that the sanctioning body “might have missed” ordering him to pit road.
3. Alex Bowman (Last week No. 3): Third-place finish at Kansas is his seventh top 10 in the last nine races. No other Cup driver has as many top 10s in that stretch. Even so, he sees a lack of respect for he and his team. “I use that as a lot of motivation personally,” he said. “I love it. Honestly, like, if people want to motivate me, just talk crap about me on the Internet. It works pretty well.”
4. Joey Logano (Last week No. 10): Kansas winner has placed in the top two in each of the past two races. The victory makes him the first driver to qualify for the Nov. 8 championship race at Phoenix. He has four top-three finishes in the last seven races.
5. Martin Truex Jr. (Last week No. 7): Ninth-place finish at Kansas is his 12th top 10 in the last 15 races, but he doesn’t have a win in that stretch. He does have three runner-up finishes and five third-place results in that span.
6. Erik Jones (Last week No. 2): Streak of four consecutive top-10 finishes came to an end with a 20th-place finish at Kansas.
7. William Byron (Last week No. 9): Eighth-place result is his third top 10 in a row. That ties for his best top-10 streak this season.
8. Denny Hamlin (Last week No. 5): Finished 15th at Kansas after bouncing off the wall and damaging his car. It marks his second 15th-place finish in a row.
9. Chase Briscoe (Last week unranked): Won Saturday’s Xfinity race for his series-high ninth win of the year.
10. Ryan Blaney (Last week unranked): Seventh-place result at Kansas is his third top 10 in the last four races.
Dropped out: AJ Allmendinger, Kurt Busch