Week Twenty-Five - 2025 StatChat Power Rankings After Richmond
- Adam Carabine
- Aug 21
- 4 min read
By Adam Carabine
A look at the Top Ten in our weekly Power Rankings, plus the biggest movers! While finishing position is important, it’s not always indicative of the full picture. StatChat rankings are determined using a large number of statistical inputs, with an emphasis placed on the most recent 5 races.
Kyle Larson – This week: 10 – Last week: 14
Larson makes his way back into the Top 10 after a few weeks absent. The push to the playoffs hasn’t been Larson’s most consistent part of the season, but he’s also locked in comfortably, and knows how to ratchet things up when needed. P6 and the highest Pass Differential at Richmond.
Brad Keselowski – This week: 9 – Last week: 8
What a funny little up-and-down season it’s been for Brad Keselowski and the 6 team. Some of the highest of highs (though not quite as high as I’m sure they’d like), and certainly some major lows too. While his only shot at the playoffs comes with a win next weekend at Daytona, he’s put together a decent run here of late. Another Top 10 at Richmond.
Chase Elliott – This week: 8 – Last week: 2
Last week we talked about Chase Elliott’s Top 20 streak being broken. This week, he breaks another, with a DNF at Richmond. Until this past weekend, Elliott had finished every single lap but one. Now he falls down to 11th in laps run in the entire Cup Series field. They’ll certainly hope he’s done breaking streaks, especially in time for the start of the playoffs.
Christopher Bell – This week: 7 – Last week: 6
It was a weird day for Christopher Bell, and Toyotas in general, at Richmond. He qualified in the Top 10, ran up front some, but wound up finishing a lap down in 21st. Bell is another driver who has already clinched the playoffs, so results aren’t quite as important right now for him, but he’ll definitely want to get back to victory lane. While he did win 3 races in a row at the start of the year, he hasn’t returned since.
Bubba Wallace – This week: 6 – Last week: 7
There’s something brewing in Bubba Wallace and his team right now. Until an unlucky loose wheel took him out of contention for the win at Richmond, he was one of the cars to beat. He led the most laps, 123, and even got the bonus point for the Xfinity Fastest Lap. He’s more mellow than we’ve seen him in a long time, and it seems to be paying off in his race results.
Alex Bowman – This week: 5 – Last week: 11
Bowman came into the weekend on a bit of a hot seat. Without a win, he was needing a good result to put him in the best position to get into the playoffs. P2 at Richmond puts him 60 points up on the cut line, though he’s technically still in danger if there’s another new winner. Bowman looked good, too. If he’d had another 10-15 laps or so, he might have been able to track down Austin Dillon and take the win.
Chase Briscoe – This week: 4 – Last week: 5
It wasn’t a flashy week for the 19 team, but Briscoe still got it done. Despite getting somewhat caught up in some of the drama of the mid-race ‘big one,’ (as much of a big one as there can be at Richmond), he managed to salvage a P13 and continue a run of great consistency that he’s been on lately.
Denny Hamlin – This week: 3 – Last week: 9
It’s weird to think that Denny didn’t lead any laps at Richmond, as it seemed like he was often in the conversation and up front. He finished with a Top 10 on the day, and at times looked like one of the best cars out there. While Toyota had a weird day as far as finishes go (Denny was actually their top finisher, P10), Hamlin and his team look like they’ll be hard to beat, especially if they clean up their mess on pit road.
William Byron – This week: 2 – Last week: 3
Byron clinched the Regular Season Championship at Richmond, aided partly by Chase Elliott’s last-place DNF. In true Byron fashion, it wasn’t flashy, but it was consistent. His average running position was 12th, and his finishing position was also 12th. Add a couple of extra stage points for good measure, and Byron will be getting those bonus 15 playoff points after next week’s regular season finale.
Ryan Blaney – This week: 1 – Last week: 4
This isn’t actually Ryan Blaney’s first time in the top spot of our Power Rankings. The driver of the 12 was there for one week, right after the second race of the season, Atlanta. He’s maintained a solid standing, often in the Top 10, since then, but a run of consistency lately (all of his last five races he finished in the Top 8) has cemented him back there. Watch out for this Team Penske team in the playoffs, they know how to find that extra gear.
Biggest Movers
Justin Haley – This week: 34 – Last week: 20
Falls 14 places
Zane Smith – This week: 22 – Last week: 34
Gains 12 places
Rest of the List
11. | Ryan Preece | LW: 10 | -1 |
12. | Austin Cindric | LW: 16 | +4 |
13. | Tyler Reddick | LW: 12 | -1 |
14. | SVG | LW: 1 | -13 |
15. | Chris Buescher | LW: 13 | -2 |
16. | Kyle Busch | LW: 16 | +1 |
17. | Austin Dillon | LW: 25 | +8 |
18. | Ty Gibbs | LW: 17 | -1 |
19. | Daniel Suarez | LW: 23 | +4 |
20. | JH Nemechek | LW: 18 | -2 |
21. | Joey Logano | LW: 22 | +1 |
22. | Zane Smith | LW: 34 | +12 |
23. | Carson Hocevar | LW: 29 | +6 |
24. | Todd Gilliland | LW: 21 | -3 |
25. | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | LW: 19 | -6 |
26. | Josh Berry | LW: 31 | +5 |
27. | Ross Chastain | LW: 27 | -- |
28. | AJ Allmendinger | LW: 30 | +2 |
29. | Erik Jones | LW: 28 | -1 |
30. | Cole Custer | LW: 32 | +2 |
31. | Michael McDowell | LW: 24 | -7 |
32. | Riley Herbst | LW: 33 | +1 |
33. | Noah Gragson | LW: 35 | +2 |
34. | Justin Haley | LW: 20 | -14 |
35. | Ty Dillon | LW: 26 | -9 |
36. | Cody Ware | LW: 36 | -- |
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