NASCAR Cup Series Power Rankings Week 21 Edition

Table of Contents

1 Sonoma Raceway Review
2 Race Winner Shane Van Gisbergen
- 2.1 Key Stats Heading Into Week 21
3 Full Driver Results & Finishing Order
4 Top 16 Driver Power Rankings for Week 21
5 Cup Series In-Season Bracket Challenge Update

Sonoma Raceway Review

Week 21 is upon us and we will be giving you our updated power rankings. NASCAR Cup Series in California wine country brought the heat on Sunday afternoon. For the second weekend in a row, there was no shortage of late-race dramatics to spice up the finish as we’ve become accustomed to seeing on road courses so far (6 cautions for 17 laps, 12 lead changes) along with a tense exchange between the pit crews of Ty Gibbs and Brad Keselowski in the pits.

The rest of the field of drivers were doing their best aggressive style bumping and knocking cars all over the place battling for space. It was easy to tell how important this race was to all of them for the playoffs are closing in with now only 6 remaining races left in the regular season. Let’s get into our week 21 Power Rankings.

Race Winner Shane Van Gisbergen

For the third time in the last five races, Shane Van Gisbergen was victorious this weekend again and he is out-driving the entire field of other drivers in the road courses during this NASCAR Cup Series season. We will see if he can continue this run in week 21. Van Gisbergen also won Stage 2 out of an incredibly timed pit stop late in the stage.

This allowed him to pass a struggling Kyle Larson #5 car to secure critical stage points for playoff points positioning. The whole race was dominated by Shane he was by far and away the fastest, it wasn’t even close he was the best driver on Sunday. It should be interesting to see if any drivers can change this fate heading into week 21.

Key Stats Heading Into Week 21

Laps Led: 97 out of 110
Road Course Wins: 3 consecutive wins (Mexico City, Chicago, Sonoma)
Career Cup Series Wins: 4 (3 this season)
Fastest to 4 Wins: 34 career starts, fastest foreign-born driver to reach milestone since Parnelli Jones in 1967
Playoff Standings: Tied for the lead in playoff points having 3 wins on the season

Full Driver Results & Finishing Order

Shane van Gisbergen, No. 88 (59pts)
Chase Briscoe, No. 19 (44pts)
Chase Elliott, No. 9 (35pts)
Michael McDowell, No. 71 (33pts)
Christopher Bell, No. 20 (32pts)
Tyler Reddick, No. 45 (31pts)
Ty Gibbs, No. 54 (32pts)
William Byron, No. 24 (36pts)
Joey Logano, No. 22 (28pts)
Kyle Busch, No. 8 (35Pts)
Brad Keselowski, No. 6 (26pts)
Ryan Preece, No. 60 (25pts)
Josh Berry, No. 21 (24pts)
Daniel Suarez, No. 99 (23pts)
Justin Haley, No. 7 (23pts)
Chris Buescher, No. 17 (24pts)
Ty Dillon, No. 10 (29pts)
AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 (19pts)
Alex Bowman, No. 48 (18pts)
Denny Hamlin, No. 11 (17pts)
Austin Dillon, No. 3 (16pts)
Todd Gilliland, No. 34 (15pts)
Cole Custer, No. 41 (14pts)
Ross Chastain, No. 1 (23pts)
Riley Herbst, No. 35 (12pts)
Bubba Wallace, No. 23 (26pts)
Zane Smith, No. 38 (10pts)
John Hunter Nemechek, No. 42 (9pts)
Erik Jones, No. 43 (8pts)
Austin Cindric, No. 2 (7pts)
Katherine Legge, No. 78 (6pts)
Carson Hocevar, No. 77 (5pts)
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 (17pts)
Cody Ware, No. 51 (3pts)
Kyle Larson, No. 5 (11pts)
Ryan Blaney, No. 12 [wrecked](6pts)
Noah Gragson, No. 4 [wrecked](1pts)

Stage 1 Top 10: #1, #88, #23, #47, #24, #10, #19, #12, #54, #9

Stage 2 Top 10: #88, #5, #8, #23, #47, #19, #10, #17, #12, #24

Fastest Lap: #7 Justin Haley, Lap 95, 75.988s, 94.278MPH

Margin of Victory: 1.128 seconds #88

Top 16 Driver Power Rankings for Week 21

1 – Chase Elliott +2 (Previously 3rd)

2 – Christopher Bell +6 (Previously 8th)

3 – William Byron +6 (Previously 9th)

4 – Denny Hamlin -3 (Previously 1st)

5 – Kyle Larson -3 (Previously 2nd)

6 – Chase Briscoe

7 – Tyler Reddick -2 (Previously 5th)

8 – Ross Chastain -2 (Previously 6th)

9 – Joey Logano +3 (Previously 12th)

10 – Ryan Blaney -8 (Previously 4th)

11 – Ty Gibbs +3 (Previously 14th)

12 – Kyle Busch +4 (Previously 16th)

13 – Shane Van Gisbergen

14 – Ryan Preece -6 (Previously 10th)

15 – Chris Buescher -3 (Previously 12th)

16 – Josh Berry (Previously Skidding and Sliding)

Gaining Fast:

Michael McDowell, Brad Keselowski, Ty Dillon

Skidding And Sliding:

A.J. Allmendinger, Bubba Wallace, Erik Jones

Driver To Watch in Week 21

John Hunter Nemechek, #42, Legacy Motor Club. His previous month was becoming a solid string of qualifications and finishes but as of lately his been in a bit of a rut of sorts. Though JHN is still alive in the in-season tournament bracket challenge and with that comes with a larger sense of urgency for the driver to win which I believe he is on the verge of accomplishing it starts with a strong weekend of racing at Dover to advance into the next round, Nemechek should do that this Sunday.

Cup Series In-Season Bracket Challenge Update

Four drivers now remain in the tournament, only two will earn the spots to advance after this weekend in Delaware and who will those two drivers be? Tyler Reddick finished in 6th place at Sonoma Raceway while his opponent Ryan Preece enduring heavy front end damage from a collision in the later stages of the race mustered a admirable 12th place finish but ultimately resulting in his exit from the bracket and Reddick moves on.

In the next match-up Ty Gibbs finished in 7th place being one of the better drivers in the race last Sunday earning a top 10 result easily dispatching Zane Smith whom struggled mightily at the road course finishing in 27th place, not a good day for #38 car and Gibbs takes his spot onto the round of 4.

On the other side of the bracket there was much closer results between the other four competitors which led to a tense finish in final laps of the race. The Cinderella run continued for the No. 32 seeded Ty Dillon. In the waning laps of the race on one of the final turns before the checkered he bumps his opponent Alex Bowman out of the way to boost himself through to the finish line ahead of him as he has a 17th place finish.

While that maneuver leaves Alex Bowman dropping to 19th place and out of the bracket challenge Ty Dillon’s incredulous tournament run continues looking to upset his next awaiting match-up. Between John Hunter Nemechek and Erik Jones, teammates of Legacy Motor Club they had themselves a duel towards the back of the pack, which they found each other at frequently for the majority of that race back and forth.

Then In the midst of a restart on a late caution coming out what separated the two drivers came down to 1 position from each other and a mere 1.779 second difference, alas, Nemechek finishes 28th putting himself through to the next round of the bracket challenge and Jones done finishing in 29th. Stage is now set, opponents now determined and the pressure in pursuit for the $1 million prize gets even closer for these fantastic remaining 4 Cup Series drivers.

My Picks

(12) Nemechek vs (32) Dillon – I am taking John Hunter Nemechek to win this match-up and finish the race better than Ty Dillon. JHN advances to the championship round.
(6) Reddick vs (23) Gibbs – I am going with Ty Gibbs here to win the match-up and finish the race better than Tyler Reddick. Gibbs moves on to the championship round.

Latest Articles

If you enjoyed our Week 21 power rankings, check here to look back on previous weeks and see how the rankings have changed as the season has progressed. Check back following week 21 and throughout the season as we continue to give you our weekly power rankings.

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