NASCAR Power Rankings 2026: 10 Best NASCAR Drivers After Atlanta

The first two races of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season are in the books, with Tyler Reddick becoming just the sixth driver in history to win the first two points races in a season. Naturally, he comes out on top of the latest power rankings for the NASCAR Cup Series but there is plenty of movement behind him.

Let’s dive into our latest NASCAR power rankings right now, with analysis on the 10 best drivers after the Autotrader 400 at EchoPark Speedway.

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1. Tyler Reddick

Tyler Reddick seemed content, even with a damaged car, to push teammate Bubba Wallace toward an overtime win in the Autotrader 400 at EchoPark Speedway. Then Wallace moved up to block the top lane, leaving the No. 45 car a wide-open path to score a second consecutive victory. Reddick took full advantage. After leading just a single lap in his Daytona 500 win, Reddick led 53 laps on Sunday and now has the third-most laps led (54) in the Cup Series this season. Thanks to the 15-point bonus for race wins, Reddick holds a 40-point lead over the second-place driver in the standings, and only three drivers currently have 80-plus points. He now heads to COTA, where he has finished in the top five in each of his last three starts.

Related: Winners, Losers from the Autotrader 400

2. Chase Elliott

After some last-second heartbreak at Daytona, Chase Elliott responded with 12 early stage points at EchoPark Speedway by finishing fifth in both stages. He also led 11 laps, the seventh-most in the Autotrader 400. Elliott had to overcome some adversity as well, overshooting his pit box after the first stage and having to back up before the crew could service the car, and then navigating multiple wrecks. He now boasts an average finishing position of 7.5 through the first two races and also won Duel 2 at Daytona. As some other top drivers from elite teams struggle, Elliott is off to a great start.

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Related: NASCAR Results Today for Cup Series, NASCAR Stage Results for Atlanta

3. Bubba Wallace

It’s impossible to ignore the hot start Bubba Wallace is off to this season. While he certainly blew his chance to win the Autotrader 400, he finished with the third-most laps led (46) and earned the second-most points (48). Wallace is the only driver in the Cup Series with multiple stage wins this season, and he leads all drivers in laps led (86), holding a 31-lap edge over the next-closest driver, Kyle Larson. For context, that gap alone would rank as the sixth-most laps led in 2026. Wallace probably should have multiple top-five finishes this year, but his mistake at EchoPark and William Byron’s late recovery in front of him at Daytona prevented that. Still, he’s been one of the best NASCAR drivers this season, though COTA could pose some problems for him next week.

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Related: NASCAR Points Leaders after AutoTrader 400

4. Joey Logano

Joey Logano performed really well for most of the Autotrader 400, finishing eighth in Stage 1 (3 points) and positioning himself near the front of the field in the final stage with 26 laps led. Then his wheels locked up and his car got into Denny Hamlin, which caused the No. 11 to wreck. Logano continued on, but the car had further issues. With 23 laps to go and Logano running sixth, the No. 22 came down into the middle lane when it wasn’t clear and clipped the front of Carson Hocevar’s car. Logano got turned and, while he avoided wrecking, it caused a flat right-rear tire and he finished 18th. He caused his own undoing, but he’s sixth in points, fifth in laps led (35), and he has consistently put himself in strong position in the closing laps of the final stage.

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Related: NASCAR Truck Race Stage Results and Fr8 Racing 208 Full Results

5. Ryan Blaney

At one of his best tracks, Ryan Blaney probably isn’t going to be happy with his result at EchoPark Speedway. He finished 10th, but he only led six laps and ended up with a modest 31 points (four stage points). He spent a fair amount of time outside the top 10 on Sunday, in part because he was too fast exiting pit road after Stage 1, and that seemed to affect the team’s pit strategy after that. It wasn’t an ideal day for Blaney, but he is tied for seventh in points despite having a DNF this season.

Related: NASCAR Results for O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Race at EchoPark Speedway

6. William Byron

Something happened to the No. 24 car in the final laps of the Autotrader 400. William Byron was seventh with four laps to go and had a good shot at a top-five finish. Then the car just got loose, apparently because of damage from the earlier wreck, he lost grip, hit the wall and, as the car fell further and further back in the field, it turned up and got clipped by Austin Cindric. He DNF’d in 28th place to end a day where he would have won Stage 2 if not for a last-second caution. That’s twice now this season that something has been wrong with the No. 24 car after sustaining damage in a wreck, which makes it rather remarkable that he’s tied for 12th in points. Given his track record, Byron and Hendrick Motorsports should rebound from this.

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7. Kyle Larson

Kyle Larson had a car that certainly could’ve won on Sunday in Atlanta. He prevented that. Entering the final turn before the end of Stage 2, he inexplicably tried to cut all the way from the top lane to the bottom lane. It didn’t matter that he had no idea if someone (Shane van Gisbergen) was already in the bottom lane; he went for it to try to gain an additional stage point or two. Instead, he wrecked himself out of the race. It wasted a day where he finished third in Stage 1 and led 48 laps with arguably the fastest car of the day. Larson is capable of being the best NASCAR driver, but he’s still making dumbfounding decisions at 33 years old, and he might pay the price this season because of the new points format and the Chase scoring system.

8. Carson Hocevar

In the top 10 early in Stage 1 on Sunday, Carson Hocevar’s car had a flat tire that sent him into the wall and fortunately caused only minimal damage. He then missed pit road on his first attempt, and by the time the tire was replaced, he was two laps down. Hocevar finished sixth in Stage 2 and had a shot at the win in overtime before falling to fourth with no one willing to help him. The overly aggressive move he made to try to squeeze between Christopher Bell and Bubba Wallace seconds into overtime certainly won’t do him any favors in getting help from other drivers on the track. With that said, the speed the No. 77 car has shown through these first two races speaks for itself. We felt pretty confident that Hocevar would win his first Cup Series race this season, and we feel even better about that entering March.

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9. Chase Briscoe

For a team with Cup Series championship aspirations, Chase Briscoe needed a strong performance in Atlanta. After finishing 36th at Daytona because of a wreck, rain wiping out qualifying this past weekend meant Briscoe started 34th in the Autotrader 400. It was a massive hole to be in, especially because of its impact on pit-stall selection. To his credit, Briscoe was up to 20th by the end of Stage 1 and finished third in Stage 2. He kept himself near the front from then on, snagging a second-place finish behind Tyler Reddick. The recovery pushed him up 22 spots on the points leaderboard.

10. Denny Hamlin

Denny Hamlin will almost certainly be much higher in our NASCAR power rankings a month from now, or at least we’d like to think so. Unfortunately, it’s been a challenging start to the 2026 season for the future Hall of Famer. He has recorded just a single stage point through two races, and that’s a big part of why he’s in such a massive hole right now (93 points behind Tyler Reddick). The lack of stage points is only made worse by the fact that he’s been involved in wrecks in the final stage in both races this season, and neither was his fault. Good fortune has to be on his side at some point, but that average finishing position of 22.0 with just 32 total points on the season is a massive disappointment.

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Related: Denny Hamlin Predicts Who Wins the NASCAR Championship

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