NASCAR Power Rankings: Does a Win at Homestead Launch Larson Into P1?
Kyle Larson finally broke through for his first win of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season in Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, which will allow the Hendrick Motorsports driver to rise through the Racing America On SI Power Rankings this week.
However, Larson's three spots gained weren't enough to garner him the top spot in the rankings this week -- one of his teammates got that honor -- and it wasn't enough to secure him the most positions gained in the rankings this week.
Bubba Wallace (third at Homestead), Chase Briscoe (fourth), and Justin Haley (10th) were the biggest gainers this week in the Power Rankings as all three drivers vaulted six spots up the rankings. Meanwhile Carson Hocevar (finished last at Homestead) suffered the biggest drop as he fell eight spots in the Rankings following Homestead.
Without further ado, here are the updated weekly NASCAR Power Rankings as voted on by our very own Toby Christie, Joseph Srigley, and Zach Evans.
Willie B has been steady Eddy through the first six races of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season. Byron rallied from a late-race speeding penalty to finish just outside of the top 10 at Homestead in 12th. He's the point leader, and he tops our weekly Power Rankings again this week. -Toby Christie
It was abundently clear Sunday at Homestead... Larson was going to win the race, or he was going to rip the right side off of his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet trying. Fortunately, for Larson, it was the former, and he went to victory lane for the first time this year. Now, he has three consecutive top-10 finishes after a rocky start to the year. -TC
I don't know if it was the rumors swirling about his future last season, but something has lit a fire under Alex Bowman. The driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet nearly beat Kyle Larson at Homestead, but would settle for a second-place finish. Bowman leads the series in top-10 finishes (five) through the opening six races of 2025. -TC
Christopher Bell: Sunday did not provide the Christopher Bell that we are accustomed to seeing in the NASCAR Cup Series, with an incident in the race’s second stage that damaged the front end of the No. 20 Toyota Camry XSE. After getting damage on the front end of his Rheem-sponsored entry, it was tough for Bell to rebound. -Joseph Srigley
Throughout the afternoon at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Denny Hamlin got PROGRESSIVE-ly better, eventually driving himself into contention for a victory in the Straight Talk Wireless 400. Hamlin finished fifth, his second top-five of 2025, but the momentum is definitely positive for the organization. A big week for the No. 11 driver ends on a high note. -JS
Chase Elliott saw his three-race top-10 finishing streak come to an end on Sunday with an 18th-place run at Homestead. However, Elliott was much better than that throughout the race. A pit road penalty for not entering pit road single file sent him to the back late in the race, and he couldn't get back near the front. -TC
Tyler Reddick tallied his third top-10 finish of the season with an eighth-place effort on Sunday. Reddick is fourth in points, just ahead of fellow Toyota driver Christopher Bell. -Zach Evans
Chris Buescher means business this year. Aside from a 30th-place run at Atlanta, he's finished 13th or better in every other race this season. Buescher continued to build momentum with a solid sixth-place finish at Homestead on Sunday. -TC
Ryan Blaney now has three straight DNFs, two of which stemmed from engine failures. This time, the engine failure came after Blaney had led 124 laps and was in contention for the win at Homestead. There’s no doubt the No. 12 team has pace, and surely this trend of DNFs will subside sooner rather than later. -ZE
Last week was always going to be a tough act to follow for Josh Berry, and spinning on pit road certainly put a damper on those expectations. Berry finished 17th, and now sets his sights on Martinsville Speedway, where he’s won in the NASCAR Xfinity Series as well as Late Model competition. -ZE
Don’t look now, but Bubba Wallace has quietly worked his way up to seventh in the NASCAR Cup Series points standings. While the finishes haven’t always been there, Wallace has led laps in four of the first six races of the season, including a season-high 56 laps led on Sunday at Homestead en route to a third-place finish. -ZE
The bizarre start to 2025 continues for Joey Logano. In many ways, bouncing back from a pit road incident to finish 14th is a great recovery drive. However, it also continues a trend for last year’s champion - a fourth top-15 finish, without any finishes in the top 10. -ZE
An easy contender for the most puzzling run of the afternoon, Ross Chastain was absent from the TV Monitors of viewers tuned in to watch the NASCAR Cup Series event on Sunday. Chastain had a poor run, and an even more poor finish (31st) at Homestead-Miami Speedway, dropping him down in the points. -JS
Now, these are the types of results many have expected from Ryan Preece since moving to the NASCAR Cup Series in 2019. The Connecticut native finished ninth in the No. 60 RFK Racing Ford on Sunday at Homestead, which marks his second consecutive top-10 run, and third top-15 in a row. -TC
It was another solid day for Austin Cindric, earning stage points in both stages before falling to 19th in the final running order. If it weren’t for the points penalty for his incident at COTA with Ty Dillon, Cindric would be seventh in points currently, tops among the Ford teams. -ZE
Sunday’s Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead was exactly what the doctor ordered for Chase Briscoe and the No. 19 Toyota Camry XSE at Joe Gibbs Racing, bringing home a fourth-place finish, and even being involved in the battle for the victory. Hopefully, this finish will bring some positive momentum with it. -JS
All of the positivity Kyle Busch gained over a three-race top-10 finishing streak from Atlanta to Phoenix has all gone out the window over the last two weeks. Busch finished 21st this week at Homestead a week after he lost a wheel and finished 33rd at Las Vegas. Time to right the ship this upcoming weekend in Martinsville. -TC
It is certainly a sign of Spire Motorsports’ growth leading into the 2025 season that a 20th-place finish might be disappointing for Michael McDowell. It’s the veteran’s fifth top-20 finish of the season. The results have been steady even when sometimes race day has been adventurous for the No. 71 group. -ZE
After a frustrating start to the season, A.J. Allmendinger has rattled off back-to-back top-1o finishes at Las Vegas and Homestead. Allmendinger has now cracked the top 20 in the NASCAR Cup Series points standings, and looks to keep the momentum rolling at Martinsville. -ZE
Of the three Trackhouse Racing teammates, Daniel Suarez had the quickest car on the afternoon, and was poised for a really solid finish when he ended up spinning at the entrance to pit road, kicking him from the top 10 to outside the top 30. The Monterrey, Mexico-native never fully recovered from that, bringing home a 22nd-place finish. -JS
A 23rd-place run at Homestead isn't JHN's best run of the season, in fact it ranks as his worst finish so far. However, it wasn't complete disaster. Nemechek is continuing to churn out decent results week-in and week-out in year two with LEGACY MOTOR CLUB. -TC
Justin Haley picked up his first top-10 finish of the season on Sunday. Like the rest of the Spire Motorsports outfit, Haley has had pace at times early in the year, but finally, the pieces clicked together for a strong finish at Homestead. -ZE
Now, this is the Zane Smith that we saw in the second half of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series campaign. The Huntington Beach, California native nearly cracked the top 10 on Sunday, earning a season-best 11th-place finish. That’s the driver’s third top-15 finish in the last five races. -JS
Another pretty quiet afternoon for Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and HYAK Motorsports, coming home in 24th place, without a scratch and on the lead lap. It’s not the team’s strongest run of the season, but eliminating poor finishes altogether, like the team’s been able to do this season, certainly isn’t a bad thing. -JS
Erik Jones has been showing great speed in practice and qualifying this season, but it usually falls apart in the race for the driver and his No. 43 LEGACY MOTOR CLUB team. This week, they improved from a 28th starting position (and starting at the rear due to unapproved adjustments) to pick up their second top-15 finish of the season with a 15th-place run. -TC
He just about won the pole on Saturday, and he spent lots of time at the front of the field on Sunday, so despite only recording a 16th-place finish, the weekend was overall solid for Noah Gragson. More performances like these will help them recover from the early-season points hole they find themselves in. -JS
Finally, Austin Dillon didn't get swept up in someone else's problem this weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and the driver of the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet nabbed a 13th-place finish, which was good enough for his second best finish of the opening six races of the year. -TC
There seems to be a key component missing for the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports team as of late, as the speed for Todd Gilliland just hasn’t been up to snuff for what the organization is used to. Another disappointing weekend was had at Homestead, finishing 30th, when both of his teammates showed decent speed. -JS
It has been feast or famine for Carson Hocevar and his No. 77 team so far in 2025. The runner-up finish at Atlanta was the highlight, but now there have been three DNFs following an engine failure at Homestead. Hocevar led four laps before his early exit on Sunday. -ZE
It's been a miserable start to the 2025 season for Brad Keselowski, who has no top-10 finishes through the opening six races of a season for the first time since his Sophomore season in 2011. Something has to change, and quickly. Keselowski won a race last season, and has made the Playoffs in each of the last two seasons. -TC
Ty Dillon had a disappointing day, finishing 27th on Sunday at Homestead. Dillon now falls into a tie for 28th in points with brother Austin Dillon. -ZE
Things were looking somewhat up for Ty Gibbs and the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing team after Saturday’s practice and qualifying sessions from Homestead-Miami Speedway, but Sunday’s Straight Talk Wireless was not kind to Gibbs, coming home with a 25th-place finish. There’s definitely still some work to be done for the organization. -JS
A late unscheduled pit stop relegated Riley Herbst to a 33rd-place finish on Sunday at Homestead, which cost him the honor of best-finishing rookie on the day. Herbst remains ahead of Shane Van Gisbergen in the NASCAR Cup Series points standings by six points. -ZE
It’s going to take some time for Shane Van Gisbergen to learn race craft on these ovals, and Sunday at Homestead was a big learning experience – one that also came with a really disappointing 32nd-place result. -JS
It took a massive save on the first lap of Sunday’s Straight Talk Wireless 400 to keep Cole Custer in the race, bringing his No. 41 Ford Mustang Dark Horse home 28th. For a team that is supposed to be a pseudo-fourth RFK Racing car, the newly revamped team isn’t finding the speed that matches its alliance-mate, who placed two cars in the top 10. -JS
Cody Ware didn't finish last this weekend. That was the good news. The bad news is that he'll need to finish better than 34th to move up in the Power Rankings next weekend at Martinsville. -TC
Recommended Articles
feed
Toby Christie is the Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. He has 15 years of experience as a motorsports journalist and has been with Racing America since 2023.
Joseph Srigley covers NASCAR for TobyChristie.com, Racing America, and OnSI, and is the owner of the #SrigleyStats brand. With a higher education in the subjects of business, mathematics, and data analytics, Joseph is able to fully understand the inner workings of the sport through multiple points of perspective.
Zach Evans is the Managing Editor of RacingAmerica.com, with nearly a decade of experience in motorsports. He has been with Racing America since 2017.