In today's NASCAR, it isn't so much about at what point you peak in a season so much as it is about managing your peaks and making sure that you're performing at exactly the right time. If William Byron can earn the Cup championship this season, he'll become the latest case study in illustrating that.
Byron started the season the best way he could have by winning the Daytona 500 in February, one of three victories he earned during the first eight races of the season. That hot start assured him a firm place in this year's playoffs, but it also gave way to a lull throughout the coming months that cast some doubt over Byron's viability as a championship contender. But those doubts have now been wiped away, as an excellent start to the Round of 12 has already put him in the next round and suggested he's very close to another trip to the Winner's Circle at exactly the right time.
Byron is now the new No. 1 driver in the CBS Sports NASCAR Power Rankings following Talladega and entering this weekend's Round of 12 finale at the Charlotte Roval.
| Rank | Driver | Change | Comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | William Byron | One year ago, William Byron had a streak of three straight finishes of either first or second in the Round of 12, which allowed him to breeze into the Round of 8. He's on another such streak this year with a second at Kansas and third at Talladega, which has already clinched him a spot in the next round. | ||
| 2 | Christopher Bell | Two years ago, Christopher Bell earned a walk-off Charlotte Roval win to stave off playoff elimination and advance to the Round of 8. Two years later, Bell enjoys a 57-point cushion over the cut line and is a virtual lock to move on to the next round. | ||
| 3 | Kyle Larson | -- | The next time NASCAR races on a superspeedway in the 2025 Daytona 500, Kyle Larson will have a chance to win all four of NASCAR's majors. Talladega offered a nice preamble to that quest, as Larson tied his career-best finish on a superspeedway by crossing the finish line fourth. | |
| 4 | Denny Hamlin | This isn't a 1:1 comparison, but just putting out there: After suing NASCAR in 1961 following an attempt to form a drivers union, the legendary Curtis Turner only earned one more victory (following a lifetime ban that was later overturned) at Rockingham in 1965. Fingers crossed that Denny Hamlin avoids such a fate. | ||
| 5 | Alex Bowman | Alex Bowman enters the Charlotte Roval 26 points above the cut line for the Round of 8. If he can protect that advantage, Bowman will make the Round of 8 for the second time in his career and the first time since 2020. | ||
| 6 | Ty Gibbs | Keep your eye on Ty Gibbs this weekend. One of the best performances of his rookie year came at the Charlotte Roval, a race in which he finished fourth. | ||
| 7 | Ryan Blaney | I guess if you're going to get crashed out of a race as a playoff contender, you might as well do it after you've earned some stage points. Ryan Blaney hit the wall hard crossing the finish line for Stage 2 at Talladega, but he at least finished eighth in the stage and got some points for his troubles. | ||
| 8 | Joey Logano | Joey Logano led 19 laps at Talladega, but a DNF after getting collected in The Big One short-circuited the opportunity he had and leaves him 13 points below the cutline and facing elimination. Logano's best finish at the Charlotte Roval is a second in 2020. | ||
| 9 | Chase Elliott | Chase Elliott was the early master of the Charlotte Roval, with two consecutive wins in 2019 and 2020. He's since led 47 laps in Roval races, but with only one top 10 to show for it. | ||
| 10 | Ross Chastain | As safe as NASCAR has gotten, there's still a moment of dread that you get when a car is on fire and the driver isn't out of it yet. Thankfully, Ross Chastain was able to get out of his after his grinding crash with Ryan Blaney. | ||
| 11 | Chris Buescher | Chris Buescher has three straight top-10 finishes at the Charlotte Roval, and he's got an opportunity to become NASCAR's King of the Road for 2024 this weekend if he can go back-to-back on road courses following his win at Watkins Glen. The four road course races this season have all been four by four different drivers. | ||
| 12 | Austin Cindric | All Austin Cindric can ask for is that he was in position to win, and in position to make the Round of 8, when he got spun out of the lead and in front of the pack with five to go at Talladega. He now faces a must-win scenario at the Roval to advance to the next round. | ||
| 13 | Daniel Suarez | Over the past few years, we've seen more drivers going a lap down on superspeedways try to force the leaders to split them in order to force their way back into the draft instead of yielding. It seems reckless and unsafe and I wouldn't mind NASCAR putting a stop to it -- but if Daniel Suarez getting wrecked trying to do that at Talladega is any indication, maybe that sort of move is self-policing. | ||
| 14 | Chase Briscoe | Tony Stewart was on hand at Talladega as Chase Briscoe drove a throwback to Stewart's Rush Truck Centers paint scheme from about 10 years ago. With Stewart-Haas Racing going kaput at season's end and Stewart now racing in NHRA, who knows how many more times we'll see Smoke at a NASCAR race? | ||
| 15 | Tyler Reddick | -- | With good road racing chops, three straight Roval top 10s and a 14-point cushion over the cut line, you would think that Tyler Reddick is in good shape to make the Round of 8 despite a lull in performance over the fall. But all it takes is one issue and Reddick's chances of taking his regular-season championship all the way could be doomed. | |
| 16 | Brad Keselowski | The stairway to seven is a tough one to take: 0.006 separated Brad Keselowski from his seventh Talladega win, which would have given him sole possession of second in track history only behind Dale Earnhardt's 10 victories. | ||
| 17 | Martin Truex Jr. | -- | The finish to the inaugural Roval race in 2018 where Jimmie Johnson spun under braking and then spun Martin Truex Jr. will live forever in the highlight reels of NASCAR's wildest finishes. After two straight finishes of seventh at the Roval following that race, Truex has three finishes of 17th or worse the last three years. | |
| 18 | Kyle Busch | -- | Seeing Kyle Busch make a move to the third lane on the final lap only to get hung out to dry gave me some bad flashbacks to my iRacing career. In Turn 1 on the final lap of a race at Talladega I jumped out of line and tried to make something happen. No one went with me and I still don't understand why. | |
| 19 | Bubba Wallace | After he and his wife welcomed their first child into the world, Bubba Wallace went from driving in reverse out of The Big One to earning a top-10 finish at Talladega. Quite the way to do it -- baby needs a new pair of shoes, after all. | ||
| 20 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | With his fourth career win at Talladega, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is now the third driver all-time to have all four of his Cup victories come at either Daytona and Talladega. The other two are Pete Hamilton and Michael Waltrip, who Stenhouse joined in the fraternity of Daytona 500 champions in 2023. | ||
| 21 | Justin Haley | Justin Haley finished seventh at Talladega, earning his best finish of the 2024 season in just his second outing with Spire Motorsports. He also led twice for four laps for good measure. | ||
| 22 | Carson Hocevar | -- | Two straight DNFs for Josh Berry and four in his last seven starts have allowed Carson Hocevar to be able to put one hand on the Rookie of the Year title for 2024. After finishing 14th at Talladega, Hocevar now has an 88-point advantage over Berry for the right to be this year's top rookie. | |
| 23 | Zane Smith | Getting collected in The Big One and finishing 21st at Talladega broke Zane Smith's stride somewhat. It ended a three-race stretch in which Smith had finished 16th or better, including one top five and two top 10s. | ||
| 24 | Austin Dillon | An eighth-place finish at Talladega allowed Austin Dillon to do something he hasn't done since early in the 2023 season. For the first time since Bristol Dirt and Martinsville a year ago, Dillon has earned two straight finishes of 12th or better. | ||
| 25 | Michael McDowell | -- | Despite getting taken out in yet another crash on a superspeedway, there's one thing that McDowell will be able to leave Daytona, Talladega, and Atlanta with: The 256 laps he has now led are the most, by far, he has ever led in a single season in his Cup career. | |
| 26 | Corey LaJoie | Rick Ware Racing has quietly built a very good speedway program, which both Corey LaJoie and teammate Cody Ware took full advantage of at Talladega. LaJoie would lead five laps and finish 18th, while Ware would lead a Cup race for the first time since Atlanta in March 2023 and finished 12th. | ||
| 27 | Ryan Preece | During the red flag at Talladega I was able to get a photo of Ryan Preece's Talladega Nights-inspired Wonder Bread car being towed back to the garage area after it got taken out in The Big One. It gave me the opportunity to bust out a "HELP ME OPRAH WINFREY!!!" joke I had been saving in case The Ricky Bobby Special came to grief. | ||
| 28 | Noah Gragson | In case you forgot, this weekend will mark Noah Gragson's second start at the Charlotte Roval after he didn't complete the Cup Series season a year ago. Gragson finished 23rd at the Roval in 2022 while subbing for an injured Alex Bowman. | ||
| 29 | Daniel Hemric | Daniel Hemric was a driver to watch at Talladega, as he was often trying to make something work in the third or even fourth lane and led one lap. Hemric, however, ran out of room trying to gun it through The Big One on the top of the track. | ||
| 30 | Todd Gilliland | -- | Todd Gilliland's whole day at Talladega turned on a dime when he was nabbed for speeding on pit road during the last round of green flag stops. If not for that, he probably would have had a chance at winning. |
