NASCAR Power Rankings: Chase Elliott hits highest position of season

Chase Elliott cracks the top three on this list thanks to his win Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway.

But it wasn't just that race. It was the fifth-place finish at Richmond. And then the third place (after William Byron passed him on the last lap) at Martinsville.

The fact he challenged for the win on back-to-back weeks at two unique tracks distinguishes Elliott as one of the top drivers currently in the series. His Hendrick Motorsports teammate Byron remains atop the list after a third-place finish at Texas, his fourth top-five of the season (the other three were wins).

And just think how Elliott was doing after nine races a year ago. He had competed in just three events after missing six races because of a broken leg.

How do the drivers on this list compare to where they were a year ago? We'll take a look on this list (The only different track over the first nine races was Texas; last year, California's final 2-mile track configuration race was the second event of the year).

1. William Byron (Last Week: 1)

Byron is ahead of where he was after nine races last year, and that's still the case when taking into consideration he had a 60-point penalty for a greenhouse violation. He has 297 points and three wins this year — last year at this time, he had 208 points (268 if not for the penalty) and two wins.

2. Kyle Larson (LW: 2)

Larson certainly has left wins on the table, but he has done a solid job of maximizing points as he leads the series standings even though he doesn't have as many wins at this point this year as he did last year. The Hendrick driver has 335 points and one win — last year it was 285 points and two wins.

3. Chase Elliott (LW: 5)

Obviously, Elliott has more points at this point of the season