The last traditional intermediate race (Chicagoland) of the regular season saw a first-time 2026 winner in Chase Briscoe.
That wasn’t a surprise, as Briscoe has been fast in his few years at Joe Gibbs Racing, and he was coming off a second-place finish at Sonoma.
So Briscoe continues to move up these rankings as NASCAR heads to the drafting-style Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend.
Here are my rankings:
Dropped out: Ryan Preece (Last Week: 10), Carson Hocevar (Last Week: 9), Chris Buescher (Last Week: 8)
On the verge: Chris Buescher, Chase Elliott, Riley Herbst, Carson Hocevar, Ryan Preece, Daniel Suárez
10.
Bowman followed up a 10th-place finish at Sonoma with a fifth at Chicagoland. For him and the season he has had, that’s a solid top-10 streak.
9.
Wallace placed sixth at Chicagoland for his third top-six finish in the last five races. He’s now 13th in the driver standings.
8.
Byron swept the stages and finished fourth, as he led a race-high 94 laps at Chicagoland. More performances like that and he will win. And soon.
7.
His radiator getting punctured resulted in a lengthy garage stay, and he ended up finishing 30 laps down. Reddick is fine to make the playoffs but he needs to get some momentum back over the next few weeks.
6.
Gibbs finished eighth at Chicagoland on a day when he was very good but not great. He’s fourth in the series standings.
5.
Blaney placed seventh at Chicagoland and he sits third in the series standings. As mentioned here before, he’s doing his best with what he has. He was the only Ford in the top 10.
4.
Larson spun and finished a couple laps down, a frustrating result considering he had speed to potentially challenge for the win.
3.
Bell couldn’t catch his teammate Briscoe during the race and finished second. It was his third runner-up finish of the year. Is a win around the corner?
2.
With a second and a win in his last two races, Briscoe is one of the hottest drivers on the circuit. But can he maintain it?
1.
Hamlin appeared as if he would challenge for the win but wound up third at Chicagoland. He now leads the series standings by 44 points over Reddick.
