NASCAR Contender Rankings: Will Anyone In The Chase Catch Kyle Larson?

Kyle Larson potentially could have put a huge gap between himself and the rest of the Chase field with a win, but Chase Briscoe was able to hold him off Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The defending Cup champion certainly remains, though, the definitive Chase favorite halfway through the 10-race postseason. Here are my championship contender rankings going into the Charlotte oval race this weekend. On the verge (in alphabetical order): On The Verge (Alphabetical Order): Chris Buescher (RFK Racing No. 17 Ford, -196 points behind leader): Buescher still seeks his first top 10 of The Chase after a 13th at Las Vegas. William Byron (Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevrolet, -160): Byron’s sixth at Vegas was his fourth consecutive top 10 but it’s too little, too late for him. Chase Elliott (Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 Chevrolet, -163): Elliott was seventh at Vegas and still seeks his first top five of The Chase. Carson Hocevar (Spire Motorsports No. 77 Chevrolet, -158): Hocevar was 12th with two stage points at Vegas, which was not enough to start a comeback. Ryan Preece (RFK Racing No. 60 Ford, -200): Preece was 28th at Vegas and will look to just get some momentum for 2027. Daniel Suárez (Spire Motorsports No. 7 Chevrolet, -195): Suárez finished 14th for the third consecutive week and still seeks his first Chase top 10. Charlotte could be the place; he won the 600 in May. Contender Rankings Cindric gained 12 points on Larson, thanks to a strong opening stage and a fourth-place finish at Vegas as he has posted back-to-back top 10s on the 1.5-mile tracks. He’s ninth in the standings and that should make him smile. But Cindric’s best finish on the Charlotte oval is 20th. An early speeding penalty ruined the day for Gibbs as he finished 17th at Vegas and lost 16 points to Larson. He has no top fives in his four Next Gen starts on the Charlotte oval. Wallace finished in the top 10 in each stage and placed eighth at Vegas to gain three points on Larson. But he was challenging for the lead late in the race and the fact he was dicing it up front shows progress. He has four top 10s in the five Chase races. Wallace has just one top five in his career on the Charlotte oval. Reddick rebounded from an early battery issue — and three consecutive finishes outside the top 10 — to finish third at Vegas. He also gained five points on Larson. He has finished in the top five in three of the last four Next Gen races at Charlotte. Reddick was on the pole and placed fourth in the 600 in May. Logano lost four points to Larson with his 10th-place finish at Vegas. That 20th-place finish last week at Kansas hurts. Logano’s best Next Gen finish at Charlotte was his eighth in the 600 in May. Blaney gained 11 points on Larson, thanks to finishing in the top five in both stages and fifth in the race. He has three top fives in The Chase, but two finishes outside the top 30 are going to keep him from winning the title. He won the 600 in 2023, but that is his only top five in the Next Gen car on the Charlotte oval. Bell fought a power steering issue for much of the Vegas race, and he lost five points to Larson, thanks to his 23rd-place finish. It pretty much is his second mulligan of The Chase, and he is going to need a great five races to overcome it. Bell has three top-five finishes in the five Next Gen races at Charlotte — including the win in the 600 in 2024 and a second in May. Briscoe, with the Vegas win and sweeping the stages, gained 43 points on Larson. But can he do that again in the final five races to have a reasonable shot at the title? It’s possible but overcoming the 32nd and 27th earlier in The Chase is going to be a challenge. Briscoe has two top fives in the five Next Gen races at Charlotte. He crashed in May to finish 34th. Hamlin lost 14 points to Larson. He had a frustrating Vegas race where he spun and lost several spots. He also had his fuel pressure cut off under caution, costing him more as he tried to rally. However, he’s still just a couple of wins away from wiping out Larson’s lead. Hamlin has three top fives — including a win in 2022 — in the five Next Gen races at Charlotte. He was third in May. Larson finished second at Vegas, and his average finish of 2.0 in The Chase is mega. Yet he still doesn’t have a comfortable lead in the standings with five races remaining. Larson has only one top five in Next Gen races on the Charlotte oval which was his fifth in the race in May.