The deciding moment of Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta came down the backstraightaway on the final lap, when Christopher Bell gave the shove of all shoves to Joey Logano to get him clear of Brad Keselowski and back to the checkered flag first. It was a push that not only stood out, but also highlights exactly the sort of Cup driver Bell has become.
To start the 2022 season, four of Bell's five races have ended with finishes of third, fifth, sixth and third. If you exclude a crash that knocked him out of the race at Fontana, that means Bell hasn't had any finishes worse than sixth. And when you factor in the two wins he had late in the 2022 season to advance to the Championship 4, you can make the argument that Bell has formally begun to come of age not only as a Cup championship contender, but also as a driver who can be one of the best in the sport year-in and year-out.
Bell is now second in the Cup Series standings, but he improves to first in the CBS Sports NASCAR Power Rankings ahead of Hendrick Motorsports teammates Alex Bowman and William Byron, both of whom saw minor slides after penalties assessed to Hendrick Motorsports were followed up by a crash for Byron and Bowman's first finish outside the top 10 this season.
Austin Cindric made the biggest gains in this week's Power Rankings, as he improved 10 spots thanks to a strong run at Atlanta that saw him finish just outside the top 10 in 11th. Quite a few drivers saw major drops, including a pair of Stewart-Haas Racing teammates in Chase Briscoe and Ryan Preece, whose rough starts to the year resumed after a brief interruption through top-15 runs at Phoenix.
Here's a look at our updated Power Rankings:
| Rank | Driver | Change | Comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Christopher Bell | There's a very good chance that Christopher Bell can keep up his top five streak next week at COTA. Bell was third there last year and won the most recent road course race last fall at the Charlotte Roval. | ||
| 2 | Alex Bowman | For the first time this year, Alex Bowman failed to finish inside the top 10. But it's not like he was far off, as a 14th-place finish keeps his average finish a solid 7.8. | ||
| 3 | William Byron | William Byron had a fast car in Atlanta, but his chances of three wins in a row ended when he was collected in the big wreck on the backstretch. It was Byron's first DNF since last August at Daytona. | ||
| 4 | Kyle Busch | For the first time since joining RCR, Kyle Busch has consecutive top-10 finishes with a ninth and 10th in the last two races. Busch was 10th in the inaugural race at COTA in 2021, but he spun and finished 28th there last year. | ||
| 5 | Joey Logano | Joey Logano's win at Atlanta was the 32nd of his Cup career, moving him into a tie for 27th with Dale Jarrett on NASCAR's all-time wins list. Next up is Fireball Roberts, who also drove the No. 22 way back in the early 1960s. | ||
| 6 | Brad Keselowski | Had Brad Keselowski been able to hang on for one more lap, it would have put the No. 6 back in Victory Lane at Atlanta for the first time since the 1994 season finale. Mark Martin earned one of his two Atlanta wins that day to wrap up a second-place finish in the Winston Cup standings. | ||
| 7 | Kyle Larson | Just an observation, but it seems like Kyle Larson has mastered the art of extreme damage to the tough Next Gen car. He's gotten destroyed at Las Vegas last fall, the Daytona 500 and now at Atlanta. | ||
| 8 | Ryan Blaney | Ryan Blaney's BodyArmor paint scheme at Atlanta was dubbed "Stormtrooper White" as a nod to Blaney's Star Wars fandom. Unlike most stormtroopers, Blaney did not suffer a deathblow when he sped on pit road and battled back to finish seventh. | ||
| 9 | Tyler Reddick | Tyler Reddick earned his second top five in a row at Atlanta, a feat made that much more impressive considering he was ill enough Sunday morning that John Hunter Nemechek was put on standby as a relief driver. A fast car has a strange way of making a driver feel better. | ||
| 10 | Kevin Harvick | In his post-race press conference, Joey Logano mentioned that he was a fan in the grandstands the day Kevin Harvick got his first win at Atlanta in 2001. Harvick's last spring race ended in him getting spun from the lead, but he has one more ride around this track set for the summer. | ||
| 11 | Ross Chastain | Ross Chastain's return to COTA after his first career win last year might be what he needs to get his season going back in the right direction. After getting walled at Phoenix and triggering a crash at Atlanta, he could use a strong and clean run. | ||
| 12 | Denny Hamlin | It took all of four races for Denny Hamlin to get in trouble for something he said on his new podcast for the first time. I'd be interested to see what Dirty Mo Media's metrics must look like, because Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s media company had a major coup. | ||
| 13 | Corey LaJoie | The next couple of races will likely determine whether Corey LaJoie and his team can sustain the form they've shown in the first five races of the year. In the three races between COTA and Martinsville last year, LaJoie had no finishes better than 31st. | ||
| 14 | Austin Cindric | Austin Cindric won a stage at Atlanta and played an important role in Team Penske's total team control of much of the race. He just missed out on a top 10 in 11th as he heads to his wheelhouse in road course racing. | ||
| 15 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | For the first time since taking the checkered flag in the Daytona 500, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. led a Cup Series race on Sunday. Stenhouse led seven laps at Atlanta before getting shuffled back and finishing 17th. | ||
| 16 | Daniel Suarez | Daniel Suarez has likely had a return to COTA circled on his calendar since last year. Suarez looked like he had the car to beat until a cut tire set him back in the field and took him out of contention. | ||
| 17 | Martin Truex Jr. | The early season optimism for Martin Truex Jr. has really tailed off after two disappointing finishes in a row. He hasn't finished outside the top 20 yet, but a 19th-place finish at Atlanta marked his worst finish the season. | ||
| 18 | Erik Jones | Do yourself a favor and watch the onboard camera of Erik Jones' final lap at Atlanta as he shot through the pack to finish in the top 10. V-TEC JUST KICKED IN YO! | ||
| 19 | Chris Buescher | If he hadn't gotten caught in the big crash on the backstretch, Chris Buescher could have been up there at the finish racing his boss Brad Keselowski for the win. Buescher still has the first win in RFK Racing's new era, which came in the Bristol Night Race last fall. | ||
| 20 | Bubba Wallace | Bubba Wallace's day was pretty much doomed when he lost it on his own and nosed into the inside wall on Lap 10. Wallace labored to a 27th-place finish many laps down, but not before also punching a huge hole in the nose running into Harrison Burton during the backstretch pileup. | ||
| 21 | Austin Dillon | It happened again: Austin Dillon wasn't really heard from on Sunday. At one point he was running with cars that were a lap down. But lo and behold, he just snuck into the top 20 with a 20th-place run at the checkered flag. | ||
| 22 | Ty Gibbs | Ty Gibbs earned the best finish of his young Cup career in ninth, which also marked his first top-10 finish for his family's Cup team. Gibbs' only previous Cup top 10 came when he was subbing for Kurt Busch in the 23XI No. 45 last year at Michigan. | ||
| 23 | AJ Allmendinger | AJ Allmendinger finished 16th at Atlanta, giving him another top-20 finish heading into a race where he is expected to contend for the win. Allmendinger almost won last year at COTA with a bump-and-run, but ended up getting outmuscled by Ross Chastain. | ||
| 24 | Aric Almirola | Before his right rear tire went kablaam, Aric Almirola used strategy to lead 17 laps at Atlanta. It marked the most laps he's led in a Cup race since he led 36 at both Bristol and Talladega last fall. | ||
| 25 | Todd Gilliland | For someone who isn't in the spotlight a lot, Todd Gilliland has managed to get FRM's No. 38 in the top 15 much more often than it had been. A 15th-place run at Atlanta was the latest, following up a 13th-place run in the penultimate race last year at Martinsville. | ||
| 26 | Michael McDowell | It's fair to say that a little more could have been expected out of Michael McDowell at a drafting track like Atlanta. But it never felt like McDowell had track position, and he never ended up getting it in 21st. | ||
| 27 | Noah Gragson | A return east was what Noah Gragson needed to jumpstart his season a touch. A 12th-place run was his best of the season and the first top 15 for Legacy MC's No. 42 since Michigan last summer. | ||
| 28 | Justin Haley | Justin Haley was able to have usual crew chief Trent Owens at Atlanta due to a deferral of his suspension stemming from his team's Phoenix infractions. Haley was poised to contend late in the race, but he was taken out of contention when he was collected in Aric Almirola and Kyle Larson's crash. | ||
| 29 | Chase Briscoe | So much for being off the schneid: Despite a top-10 qualifying effort, Chase Briscoe had yet another bad day and finished as the first car one lap down in 24th. | ||
| 30 | Ryan Preece | Ryan Preece had a long day at Atlanta, finishing many laps down after suffering a voltage issue that put him down RPMs and down 16 laps by the checkered flag. Stewart-Haas' No. 41 team still has a lot of answers to find to get the rest of the company outside of Kevin Harvick running better. |
