NASCAR Power Rankings: Talladega win boosts Tyler Reddick

With the unpredictability of Talladega last week, there was little movement in these rankings except for two big jumps.

Tyler Reddick, with his win, went from sixth to second. That's because it marked his fifth consecutive top-10 finish, with three of those top-5s.

Brad Keselowski jumps back in the rankings after his second-place finish. It was his fourth top-5 in his last seven starts.

Of all the stats that I saw last week, the one that surprised me the most was that Chase Elliott has the best average finish of drivers in the Next Gen era.

Well, active drivers. Technically, Travis Pastrana, with an 11th-place finish in his one start, has the best average finish. But Elliott is tops among all active drivers at 12.48 after the race at Talladega.

So for the comments in this week's power rankings (based on recent performance), we'll take a look at where the driver is on this list (thanks to the database from Racing Insights) of best performance in the Next Gen era (2022-2024). Any driver with fewer than a full season of starts (36) is not counted when I list where these drivers rank in average finish.

1. William Byron (Last Week: 1)

Byron is second in average finish behind his teammate with a 12.87. But he leads in what many would consider the most important category — the Hendrick Motorsports driver has 11 victories in the Next Gen era.

2. Tyler Reddick (LW: 6)

Reddick is 13th among drivers in the Next Gen era, which he opened at Richard Childress Racing before moving to 23XI Racing prior to last season. He has an average finish of 16.15. His six wins tie him for fourth overall.

3. Kyle Larson (LW: 2)

This probably won't surprise many. Larson ranks second in wins in the Next Gen era behind his Hendrick teammate