NASCAR Power Rankings: Ryan Blaney climbs to No. 1 after Richmond

The first short track points race of 2022 added another shuffle to the NBC Sports NASCAR Power Rankings.

Denny Hamlin snagged his first win in the Next Gen car at Richmond Raceway, but a rocky start without a single top-10 finish in the prior six races holds him out of this top 10 for the time being. Christopher Bell and Kevin Harvick remain on the verge of breaking into this list as well but haven’t cracked through quite yet.

Meanwhile, as drivers rise up, that means others must fall. Take a look at who falls where after seven Cup races:

1. Ryan Blaney (Last week: No. 2) Tied with Chase Elliott for the points lead, Blaney also becomes the new leader of the Power Rankings. Blaney leads the series in average running position at 9.25, according to NASCAR’s loop data statistics, as well as in laps led (334), poles (three) and fastest laps run (110). The obvious knock so far is that the No. 12 Ford has yet to win a race and perhaps puts his top spot in question. However, Blaney has led laps in every race this season and has been a consistent threat to win despite myriad new faces at the front of the field. That consistency earns him the No. 1 position for now — but he has to capitalize on that potential soon to keep it.

2. Ross Chastain (Last week: No. 1) Chastain never quite showed the same speed at Richmond that he and his Trackhouse Racing team showed in the prior four races. His four-race streak of top-three finishes came to an end with a 19th-place effort in Virginia. The No. 1 Chevrolet wasn’t a factor Sunday and particularly fell off in the final run. Yet Chastain still posted the sixth-best average running position at Richmond (7.72) and sits seventh in that category overall (13.054). The performances Chastain have