![\"Kyle](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/kyle-larson-nascar-power-rankings.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Kyle Larson’s disastrous Phoenix finish shakes up the NASCAR Cup power rankings ahead of Talladega and with 3 races remaining.<\/p>\n
NASCAR Chase leader Kyle Larson\u2019s disastrous day at Phoenix Raceway threw the championship race into chaos, shrinking his 49-point lead to five after a blown tire left him 34th. But Larson still holds the top spot in the Fox Sports NASCAR Cup power rankings<\/a>, according to motorsports insider Bob Pockrass.<\/p>\n Larson started 22nd<\/a>, never found speed and collected three points. Six drivers now sit within 56 of him with three races left. The reigning champion carries that thin margin into Talladega, with a crowded field behind him and no way to know who cracks first.<\/p>\n Fox\u2019s weekly power rankings still put Larson at No. 1, with a far smaller margin than a week ago. Pockrass expects him to be the favorite at Homestead, though he must get there, preferably still leading the points, to control his own title hopes, according to Pockrass in his latest ranking published Monday.<\/p>\n 2026 NASCAR CUP SERIES \u2014 THE CHASE STANDINGS<\/p>\n After Phoenix Raceway \u2022 Race 33 of 36 \u2022 October 18, 2026 \u2022 Top 16 in The Chase<\/p>\n Pos 1 2 \u25b21 3 \u25b21 4 \u25bc2 5 6 7 8 9 10 \u25b22 11 \u25bc1 12 \u25bc1 13 \u25b21 14 \u25bc1 15 16 Top 16 drivers competing in The Chase \u2022 10-race championship battle \u2022 3 races remaining \u2022 \u25b2\/\u25bc = position change from previous race. Chev = Chevrolet. Source: NASCAR.com, after Phoenix Raceway Race 33.<\/p>\n Kyle Larson\u2019s Phoenix Collapse Reshapes the Chase<\/p>\n Larson qualified poorly, according to the Associated Press qualifying report<\/a>, and the race never improved. Pockrass wrote that Larson ran somewhere between 20th and 25th for much of the afternoon before his tire failed.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t expect to be good, but I didn\u2019t expect to be that bad either,\u201d Larson said, as quoted by NBC Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n Phoenix had been friendly territory for the defending NASCAR champion. Seven days earlier, Pockrass noted Larson had six finishes of third or fourth in his last seven starts there, according to the Fox Sports Oct. 12 rankings<\/a>. That ranking had Denny Hamlin second, 49 points back, with Chase Briscoe third and Christopher Bell fourth.<\/p>\n Now Bell is the closest anyone has been to Larson in weeks, according to Kelly Crandall of RACER<\/a>.<\/p>\n Contender Rankings Versus the Points Standings Pockrass\u2019s top seven track the standings closely. Larson, Bell and Briscoe hold identical spots in both, and the lone swap comes in the middle. Pockrass has Ryan Blaney fourth and Hamlin fifth, while the points put Hamlin 31 back and Blaney 40 back. The order comes after Race 33 of 36, according to NASCAR\u2019s official Cup Series standings<\/a>.<\/p>\n Denny Hamlin held his place in Pockrass\u2019s rankings even after a flat tire and a speeding penalty left him 28th, because he still gained 18 points on Larson. Briscoe, meanwhile, trailed by 123 points after Kansas Speedway and has cut that to 24 by winning two of the last three races.<\/p>\n Tyler Reddick ended a 23-race winless streak at Phoenix and now sits seventh, 56 back. Blaney finished second at a track where he had won the last two Cup races, and now trails by 40. Joey Logano swept both stages, finished sixth and trails by 44.<\/p>\n \u201cI felt like we were a long shot before this, but still could do it,\u201d Logano said. \u201cI don\u2019t feel like so much of a long shot anymore,\u201d as quoted by RACER\u2019s Kelly Crandall<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cTeams crack during this time of year. We\u2019ve seen it over and over again,\u201d Logano said, as quoted by RACER.<\/p>\n Christopher Bell led the most laps at Phoenix before finishing fourth.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a battle, that\u2019s for sure. We\u2019re right there in it,\u201d Bell said, as quoted by NBC Sports.<\/p>\n Larson looks ahead to Talladega.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve done well at the superspeedways, so hopefully we can execute, get some points and keep ourselves in the hunt,\u201d he said, as quoted by NBC Sports. Briscoe, the defending winner there, finished 29th in the spring race, according to Pockrass.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t \n\t\t\tJonathan Vankin<\/a> JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist who covers MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, boxing, golf, and Olympic sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Newspaper and Press Association awards for sports feature writing. He was a sports editor and writer at The Daily Yomiuri in Tokyo, Japan, covering the Olympics, pro baseball, boxing, sumo and other sports. More about Jonathan Vankin<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Kyle Larson’s disastrous Phoenix finish shakes up the NASCAR Cup power rankings ahead of Talladega and with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":939315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-939314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=939314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/939315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=939314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=939314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=939314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nNo.
\nDriver
\nMfr
\nPoints
\nBehind
\nWins
\nTop 5s
\nTop 10s
\nDNFs
\nLaps Led<\/p>\n
\n5
\nKyle Larson
\nChev
\n2370
\n\u2014
\n2
\n14
\n19
\n4
\n1,215<\/p>\n
\n20
\nChristopher Bell
\nToyota
\n2365
\n-5
\n1
\n15
\n18
\n4
\n792<\/p>\n
\n19
\nChase Briscoe
\nToyota
\n2346
\n-24
\n3
\n13
\n18
\n6
\n662<\/p>\n
\n11
\nDenny Hamlin
\nToyota
\n2339
\n-31
\n4
\n16
\n21
\n0
\n993<\/p>\n
\n12
\nRyan Blaney
\nFord
\n2330
\n-40
\n3
\n11
\n22
\n5
\n1,100<\/p>\n
\n22
\nJoey Logano
\nFord
\n2326
\n-44
\n3
\n7
\n15
\n3
\n809<\/p>\n
\n45
\nTyler Reddick
\nToyota
\n2314
\n-56
\n6
\n14
\n20
\n2
\n542<\/p>\n
\n2
\nAustin Cindric
\nFord
\n2240
\n-130
\n0
\n4
\n9
\n3
\n85<\/p>\n
\n54
\nTy Gibbs
\nToyota
\n2238
\n-132
\n2
\n12
\n19
\n5
\n402<\/p>\n
\n9
\nChase Elliott
\nChev
\n2221
\n-149
\n2
\n7
\n12
\n3
\n318<\/p>\n
\n77
\nCarson Hocevar
\nChev
\n2212
\n-158
\n1
\n6
\n11
\n2
\n198<\/p>\n
\n23
\nBubba Wallace
\nToyota
\n2208
\n-162
\n0
\n4
\n15
\n4
\n316<\/p>\n
\n7
\nDaniel Su\u00e1rez
\nChev
\n2182
\n-188
\n1
\n3
\n8
\n2
\n42<\/p>\n
\n24
\nWilliam Byron
\nChev
\n2180
\n-190
\n0
\n5
\n15
\n5
\n178<\/p>\n
\n17
\nChris Buescher
\nFord
\n2166
\n-204
\n0
\n2
\n11
\n2
\n81<\/p>\n
\n60
\nRyan Preece
\nFord
\n2159
\n-211
\n1
\n1
\n10
\n3
\n55<\/p>\n
\n![\"Tyler](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/NASCAR-contender-ranking-Chase-standings.jpg\")
GettyTyler Reddick, driver of the #45 ROCKSTAR ENERGY DRINK Toyota, celebrates after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Freeway Insurance 500 at Phoenix Raceway on October 18, 2026 in Avondale, Arizona.<\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/denny-hamlin-nascar-blunt-response-tire.com_.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n