NASCAR Power Rankings After Shane Van Gisbergen’s Win In Chicago

Shane Van Gisbergen became the first winner of the second half of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, and in doing so, cemented himself as a potential playoff bracket buster and a member of our weekly power rankings. Van Gisbergen makes a debut appearance in the rankings, and some trends from last week continued to hold true seven days later.

Shane Van Gisbergen was already essentially locked into NASCAR’s win-and-you’re-in playoff format, but a second win of the season solidifies his spot as a potential monkey wrench for other playoff contenders.

Van Gisbergen, who is delivering exactly what Trackhouse Racing hoped he would, makes his first move into our power rankings this week, while he could soon climb even higher.

10) Shane Van Gisbergen

You don’t have to like the current NASCAR championship format. But it’s hard to argue that Trackhouse Racing and Shane Van Gisbergen are taking full advantage of it.

Van Gisbergen was brought to Trackhouse and the Cup Series to do one thing: win on road/street courses. He’s now done that in two of three attempts this season and, in the process, vaulted he’s way into the playoffs and up the standings.

Van Gisbergen could make it three of four next week at Sonoma, and we certainly wouldn’t bet against him doing it.

Last Week: UR NASCAR Playoff Standings: 5th

9) Tyler Reddick

Reddick is still searching for that elusive first win of the season. But after a brutal end to Spring and start to Summer, he’s now strung together back-to-back top-five finishes and seemingly steadied the ship after finishing third in both stages and the race on Sunday.

Like Van Gisbergen, Reddick should be considered one of the favorites to win next week at Sonoma, and he’s beginning to get back to the title-contending level of performance we expect from him.

Last Week: 9th NASCAR Playoff Standings: 13th

8) Ross Chastain

Much like Reddick, Chastain needed a steady showing in Chicago and three consecutive poor finishes, and much like Reddick, he got one.

While he was outshone by his Trackhouse teammate, Chastain moved from 22nd to sixth in the first stage before bringing home the final spot in the top 10 to end the race.

Was it a spectacular performance? No. But it was enough to get the team moving back in the right direction and to keep Chastain from falling any farther in the power rankings.

Last Week: 8th NASCAR Playoff Standings: 12th

7) Chase Briscoe

A 23rd-place finish won’t tell the story of how well Briscoe ran in Chicago. While a late tire deficit and some rough racing knocked him down the final running order, Briscoe was a mainstay at the front of the field.

He qualified fifth and managed to turn that into a fourth-place finish in stage one and second in stage two. Briscoe actually led the race with 16 laps to go before getting passed by Van Gisbergen. Unfortunately, his day went downhill from then on.

Last Week: 7th NASCAR Playoff Standings: 9th

6) William Byron

William Byron might want to consider consulting a witch to remove whatever hex seems to be over him these days.

Yes, Byron is somehow still ahead of the regular season points. But as we said in our earlier rankings, if he has a spell of bad races, he’s going to regret not winning more when he had elite speed. Well, Byron has now finished 40th, 37th, and 27th in his last three races.

His lead over teammate Chase Elliott in the regular season points is now just 13, with fellow teammate Kyle Larson just a further six points back.

Last Week: 5th NASCAR Playoff Standings: 4th

5) Ryan Blaney

Outside of a mid-race tire issue that sent him tumbling down the order, Sunday’s race at Chicago went about as well as realistically expected for Blaney.

He started in 17th position and quickly diced his way up through the pack. After flipping the first stage, Blaney stayed out to win stage two and pick up an all-important playoff point.

He then rallied back to finish just behind teammate Joey Logano in 12th and finished the day with the seventh-highest points total thanks to the 10 in stage two.

Last Week: 6th NASCAR Playoff Standings: 6th

4) Chase Elliott

Welp, so much from carrying over the momentum from last weekend’s victory at Atlanta.

Elliott had been the hottest driver in the series of late. But a crash in practice meant he had no opportunity to qualify and started the race at the back of the field.

By the end of the second stage, Elliott had at least rebounded enough to finish seventh and take home some stage points. But he finished the day in 16th and missed a golden opportunity to overtake Byron for the regular season points lead.

Last Week: 4th NASCAR Playoff Standings: 11th

3) Christopher Bell

Bell couldn’t get out of his own (or Austins Hill and Cindric) way on Sunday in Chicago.

After a 13th-place start, he failed to score points in the opening stage and was then the victim of two incidents, the first with Austin Cindric and then again with five laps to go with Austin Hill when it looked like a top-10 finish was possible.

Ultimately, Bell finished in 24th. However, Byron and Elliott having similar struggles prevent him from moving down the power rankings.

Last Week: 3rd NASCAR Playoff Standings: 3rd

2) Kyle Larson

Larson qualified in 14th position for Sunday’s race, but an unapproved adjustment to the car meant that he was forced to start from the rear.

Like Elliott, moving up the running order proved difficult, and Larson failed to score any stage points before bringing home a middling 13th-place finish.

Also like Elliott, the performance meant Larson missed a chance to jump Byron into the regular-season playoff standings. But he holds on to the No. 2 spot in the rankings due to Bell and Elliott’s less-than-inspiring days.

Last Week: 2nd NASCAR Playoff Standings: 1st

1) Denny Hamlin

Hamlin hadn’t had the most success with NASCAR’s NextGen car on road and street circuits. But his drive on Sunday in Chicago was, outside of Van Gisbergen, perhaps the best of anyone in the field.

Like Elliott, he crashed in practice and started in dead last, 40th. But unlike Elliott and Larson, Hamlin methodically worked his way to the front. He didn’t score in stage one, but in stage two he finished sixth.

In the final stage, Hamlin more or less kept himself in the top five throughout before bringing home a fourth-place finish. Hamlin scored the fourth-most points of any driver on Sunday and pulled within 43 points of Byron for the regular-season lead despite missing an entire race in Mexico City to attend the birth of his third child.

Last Week: 1st NASCAR Playoff Standings: 2nd