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NASCAR power rankings: Third win keeps Christopher Bell on top
Christopher Bell beat Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson to earn his third consecutive NASCAR Cup Series victory on Sunday at Phoenix Raceway. With Bell as the clear No. 1, here’s where the rest of the Cup Series field stacks up four races into the 2025 season.
1. Christopher Bell
Bell’s win at Phoenix on Sunday makes him the first driver to win three consecutive races since Kyle Larson in 2021 and the first since Kevin Harvick in 2018 to win three of the first four. He’s the clear championship favorite as the circuit heads to Las Vegas, where he’ll look to match Bill Elliott’s 1992 mark of winning four of the first five races.
2. William Byron
A poorly-timed yellow flag while Byron was on pit road kept the No. 24 team from battling Bell for the win, but Byron clearly had one of the fastest cars in Phoenix. He won at Las Vegas in the spring of 2023, and looks to be the field’s best bet to break Bell’s winning streak.
3. Tyler Reddick
A 20th-place finish due to power steering issues won’t show it, but Reddick ran up front with Bell and Byron for much of the day at Phoenix. He should be in the mix again at Las Vegas, and it seems inevitable that he’ll collect his first win of 2025 soon.
4. Alex Bowman
Bowman keeps putting himself in less than desirable situations, only to stage thrilling comebacks. After a poor qualifying lap on Saturday put him 32nd on the grid, he gradually picked his way through the pack en-route to a seventh-place finish on Sunday. The No. 48 team has quietly put together three top-10 finishes over the first four races.
5. Kyle Busch
Busch grinded out his third consecutive top-10 finish at Phoenix on Sunday, and has come into 2025 with newfound speed after going winless in 2024. He’ll look to snap a 61-race winless streak at his home track of Las Vegas on March 16.
6. Chris Buescher
A quiet fifth-place effort for Buescher on Sunday netted him his third top-10 finish over the first four races. Buescher has made a living out of consistency over the past two years, and that seems to be the case again in 2025.
7. Denny Hamlin
Hamlin wasn’t dominant on Sunday, but he was in contention when it mattered most. While he wasn’t able to outduel Bell on the race’s final restart, Phoenix was a move in the right direction for a No. 11 team looking to assert itself as a championship threat early in the season.
8. Kyle Larson
Saturday’s practice and qualifying sessions were worrying for the 2021 champion, who was 26th-fastest in practice and only qualified in 17th. Like he always does, however, Larson found a way to be in the mix late, and had he been more aggressive when given the opportunity, he may have earned his first win of 2025.
9. Chase Elliott
A 10th-place finish isn’t a bad result by any means, but Elliott’s lack of speed in the first conventional race of the season is slightly alarming. For a team looking to get back to the Championship 4, 10th-place finishes aren’t going to cut it.
10. Ross Chastain
There’s not much to say about Chastain’s 11th-place finish on Sunday. The best news? He didn’t make any new enemies, unlike the March 2 race at COTA in which he divebombed his way into the first corner of the race. Las Vegas should offer the No. 1 team the opportunity to contend inside the top-five.
11. Bubba Wallace
A broken brake rotor took Wallace from running inside the top-10 to a 29th-place finish on Sunday. Wallace has been solid at Las Vegas with the Next-Gen car, and should have enough speed to run inside the top-10 in Sin City.
12. Ryan Blaney
Blaney mainly drops this far back due to his 28th-place finish as a result of an engine failure, but he didn’t run a bad race at Phoenix. For whatever reason, Penske doesn’t have the same speed at Phoenix in the spring as it does in the fall, though Blaney likely doesn’t mind.
13. Michael McDowell
For the first time this season, McDowell and the No. 71 team were unable to overcome the sea of obstacles that seem to bite them on a weekly basis. A steering rack change before the race forced McDowell to relinquish his seventh-place starting spot and drop to the back of the field. After two blown tires, the No. 71 limped home in 27th. Despite his poor result at Phoenix, McDowell still sits 15th in points.
14. Carson Hocevar
A promising weekend for Hocevar was wiped out on Lap 99, when a crash on the backstretch knocked out Hocevar and Spire Motorsports teammate Justin Haley. Hocevar has shown speed every weekend so far, and is a solid dark horse pick as the circuit heads to Las Vegas.
15. John Hunter Nemechek
Through four races, Nemechek sits 13th in points. He picked up a 14th-place finish on Sunday, and has three top-15 finishes in the first four races. After finishing dead last in points among full-time drivers in 2024, the No. 42 team has come out of the gates strong in 2025.
16. Josh Berry
Berry is only 21st in points following Sunday’s race at Phoenix, but his fourth-place run makes him deserving of the final spot this week. After a rough three-year stretch with Harrison Burton, the Wood Brothers and Berry have found some speed this year. Another good run at Las Vegas would be a great sign as the No. 21 team attempts to claw itself into the playoff picture.
More must-reads:
- Christopher Bell wins third consecutive NASCAR Cup Series race in wild finish at Phoenix
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