NASCAR Power Rankings After Chase Elliott’s Miraculous Playoff Win In Kansas

The first half of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs is in the books, highlighted by a miraculous win by Chase Elliott on Sunday afternoon at Kansas.

The win vaults Elliott into the round of eight and establishes him as a genuine threat to win a second-career championship. Meanwhile, the chaotic last lap leads to a huge shakeup in the first playoff edition of our NASCAR power rankings.

NASCAR Power Rankings At Halfway Point Of Playoffs

Throughout the regular season, Denny Hamlin held a firm grip on the top spot of our rankings before a late-season surge by Ryan Blaney saw him vault to No. 1 entering the postseason.

In the opening weeks of the playoffs, Blaney has cemented that status, while Hamlin and Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe combined to sweep the opening round.

The series now heads to the Charlotte Roval with 12 drivers still technically alive for a championship. But some, more than others, have made it clear that they’re a force to be reckoned with.

12) Austin Cindric

Cindric hung on to survive a dramatic opening round of the playoffs, but the second round has not been as kind to him. A mistake in qualifying at New Hampshire saw the Team Penske have to start from deep in the pack and he was unable to recover.

He then failed to find his footing at Kansas, where all three Penske drivers suffered issues. Cindric now goes into next week’s race at Charlotte needing an improbable victory to reach the round of eight.

NASCAR Playoff Standings: 12th (48 points below cut line)

11) Tyler Reddick

Reddick’s miserable 2025 season continued two weeks ago at New Hampshire when a 21st-place finish meant he would need either two incredible races at Kansas and Charlotte or a win to reach the next round.

Despite a strong finish to Sunday’s race at Kansas, he struggled early on, failing to secure stage points before finishing seventh. Reddick now heads to Charlotte more or less needing a victory or plenty of things to go his way if he hopes to advance to the next round.

NASCAR Playoff Standings: 11th (29 points below cut line)

10) Ross Chastain 

Chastain has put together back-to-back solid runs, finishing ninth in New Hampshire and 11th in Kansas, to give himself a genuine shot to move on in the playoffs with a good run at the Charlotte ROVAL.

However, his best starting position at the ROVAL is 12th in 2023, and he only has one top-10 finish at the track, finishing 10th in the same year.

Ultimately, Chastain hasn’t done much to set a foot wrong in the playoffs, but he and his Trackhouse Racing team just don’t have the speed to compete week in and week out.

NASCAR Playoffs Standings: 9th (13 points below cut line)

9) Bubba Wallace

After a rough showing in New Hampshire and a difficult start to the race in Kansas, it looked for all the world as if Bubba Wallace’s playoff run was dead in the water.

However, he and crew chief Charles Denike worked together and had one of the best cars on track at the end of Sunday’s race. Had it not been for a dive bomb move from, ironically, 23XI team owner Denny Hamlin, Wallace may well have earned his second win of the year and an automatic spot in the next round.

Instead, he heads to the ROVAL well below the cut line and needs either incredible luck or an unlikely victory to move on.

NASCAR Playoff Standings: 10th (26 points below cut line)

8) Joey Logano

As they do seemingly every year in the playoffs, Logano and crew chief Paul Wolfe have raised their level when it counts the most.

A strong run and fourth-place finish in New Hampshire saw Logano enter Sunday’s race at Kansas well above the cut line. However, after a horrific qualifying run, the three-time series champion had to start the race deep in the field. He impressively drove up into the top 20 on the first run of the race and then took home all-important stage points after a two-tire strategy call.

Logano then ran in the back end of the top-10 for much of the race before falling victim to a crash that was out of his control. Ultimately, he finished 21st and lost a good bit of his points buffer. But the team is still in solid shape heading into next weekend’s race at Charlotte.

NASCAR Playoff Standings: 8th (13 points above cut line)

7) William Byron

A number of NASCAR fans and drivers complain that the current format makes the regular season meaningless. William Byron is currently proving that to be untrue.

Byron, the regular-season champion, entered the playoffs with a boatload of bonus points, which helped see him through the first round despite not recording a single top-10 finish. In the second round, he finished third at New Hampshire and now ninth at Kansas.

But Byron’s team still hasn’t shown the speed it did early in the season. The Hendrick Motorsports start should still reach the round of eight, but if he wants to qualify for the championship race at Phoenix, he’ll have to step things up in the next round.

NASCAR Playoff Standings: 6th (40 points above cut line)

6) Chase Briscoe

Unlike Byron, Briscoe did not enter the postseason with a load of bonus points despite showing great speed throughout much of the regular season.

That didn’t matter in the first round as he immediately won the opening race of the playoffs at Darlington to reach of the round of 12.

However, a difficult run at New Hampshire meant that Briscoe entered Sunday’s race at Kansas just above the cut line. He then responded with an impressive showing, sitting on the pole and leading a number of laps before finishing fourth, giving himself some breathing room entering next week’s race at Charlotte.

NASCAR Playoff Standings: 7th (21 points above cut line)

5) Denny Hamlin

Hamlin could realistically be as high as No. 2 on this list. After all, he won the opening-round race at Gateway and dominated Sunday’s race at Kansas before bringing home a runner-up finish, all but locking him into the next round.

However, the big knock on Hamlin has always been that he struggles to get the job done when the chips are down, which is why the future Hall of Famer has not yet won a championship.

We’ve seen glimpses of those struggles in recent races, highlighted by a run-in with teammate Ty Gibbs at New Hampshire and now a seemingly unnecessary bonzai move on Bubba Wallace in the final turn at Kansas.

Those are the types of desperation situations that worry you about Hamlin’s ability to produce with the pressure on.

NASCAR Playoff Standings: 4th (+48 to cut line)

4) Christopher Bell

The third and final Joe Gibbs Racing driver on this list, Christopher Bell has been his typical steady self through the first five races of the playoffs. He picked up a big win at Bristol Motor Speedway in round one, and then nearly added another this Sunday at Kansas.

Bell is perhaps the most underrated elite driver in the series, which may come down to his quiet demeanor. But he just continues to go about his business and looks like a serious threat to win his first career championship.

Bell enters Sunday’s race at Kansas all but locked into the round of eight.

NASCAR Playoff Standings: 5th (44 points above cut line)

3) Kyle Larson

Larson, like Byron, took advantage of the bonus points he stacked up in the regular season to advance through the opening round despite finishes of 19th, 12th, and 32nd.

Thus far, the second round has been a different story, as he’s finished in the top 10 at both New Hampshire and Kansas. Like Byron, Larson is likely going to have to find a little more speed if he wants to reach Phoenix and win a championship. But the 2021 series champ has pushed all the right buttons of late to remain steady and keep his hopes alive.

NASCAR Playoff Standings: 3rd (54 points above the cut line)

Fortunes can change quickly in auto racing, and no driver knows that quite like Chase Elliott. The Hendrick Motorsports star was nearly eliminated in the opening round after a crash at Bristol Motor Speedway. But stumbles from others allowed him to reach of the round of 12.

Elliott then finished fifth at New Hampshire to give himself a little breathing room to the cut line entering this past Sunday’s race at Kansas. But as it turns out, he didn’t need it.

The 2020 series champion raced from eighth to the lead on the final restart of Sunday’s race to take home the win and lock himself into the next round, grabbing some much-needed momentum in the process.

NASCAR Playoff Standings: 2nd (Advanced with win at Kansas)

1) Ryan Blaney

Blaney entered the playoffs atop the power rankings and as the hottest driver in the series, and that hasn’t changed in the postseason.

After a slightly difficult opening race at Darlington, Blaney brought home top-five finishes at both St. Louis and Bristol to cruise into the second round before winning the opening race of the round at New Hampshire in dominant fashion.

The win locked Blaney into the round of eight, which features three tracks in Las Vegas, Talladega, and Martinsville that he’s had immense success at in the past. As we said with Elliott, things can change incredibly quickly, but right now, Blaney looks like the man to beat for a championship in 2025.