Denny Hamlin is back on top in this week\u2019s Power Rankings after his third-place finish at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n
1. Denny Hamlin:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n Hamlin started last after crashing in qualifying, and charged his way to a third-place finish at Indianapolis.<\/p>\n \u201cI just signed a contract extension to remain with Joe Gibbs Racing,\u201d Hamlin said. \u201cI think NASCAR is happy that I signed the extension, if for no other reason than they can be sure I\u2019ll be able to pay my legal bills.\u201d<\/p>\n 2. Chase Elliott:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n Elliott finished 13th in the Brickyard 400.<\/p>\n \u201cThe In-Season Challenge champion was crowned,\u201d Elliott said, \u201cwith Ty Gibbs finishing 21st to beat Ty Dillon. It would have been totally appropriate had the Challenge ended in a tie, because nobody cared who won.\u201d <\/p>\n 3. Chase Briscoe:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0Briscoe started on the pole and won Stage 2 on his way to an 18th-place finish in the Brickyard 400.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you think as a fan it\u2019s hard staying awake for the Indy race,\u201d Briscoe said, \u201cyou should try staying awake for this race as a driver.\u201d<\/p>\n 4. Kyle Larson:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n Larson couldn\u2019t chase down Bubba Wallace during two overtime restarts and settled for second in the Brickyard 400.<\/p>\n \u201cIndianapolis Motor Speedway is one of my favorite tracks,\u201d Larson said, \u201cas long as I come here just once a year.\u201d<\/p>\n 5. Alex Bowman:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n Bowman finished ninth in the Brickyard 400.<\/p>\n \u201cLike most NASCAR races at Indy,\u201d Bowman said, \u201cthe outcome comes down to fuel mileage. I\u2019m not sure that\u2019s the kind of race that appeals to NASCAR fans, because if you tell a NASCAR fan they\u2019ll have to \u2018do math\u2019 to enjoy this race, they\u2019ll certainly ask you to clarify.\u201d<\/p>\n 6. Ryan Blaney:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n Blaney won Stage 2 at Indianapolis and surged late to finish seventh at Indianapolis.<\/p>\n \u201cI was forced to pit while pit lane was closed at the end of Stage 2,\u201d Blaney said. \u201cI was forced to pit because had I not, I would have run out of gas. So it was a no-brainer. Also, a no-brainer: putting yourself in a position where you have to pit when pit lane is closed.\u201d<\/p>\n 7. William Byron:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n Byron finished 16th in the Brickyard 400.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not sure what the television ratings were for the Indy race,\u201d Byron said. \u201cSo I don\u2019t know who was watching. As an affiliate of Liberty University, I\u2019m only concerned about one person watching.\u201d<\/p>\n 8. Bubba Wallace:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n Wallace held off Kyle Larson in overtime at Indianapolis to win the Brickyard 400 and snap a 100-race winless streak. Wallace also clinched a spot in the playoffs.<\/p>\n \u201cI was lucky enough to be able to \u2018kiss the bricks,’\u201d Wallace said. \u201cFor a minute there, though, I thought I was going to have to kiss the bricks goodbye.\u201d<\/p>\n 9. Joey Logano:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n Logano blew a right-rear tire with 26 laps to go while running as the de facto leader, ruining his chances for the win. He limped home to a 32nd-place finish.<\/p>\n \u201cI heard a pop,\u201d Logano said. \u201cI guess that was my tire, or my bubble bursting, or both.\u201d<\/p>\n 10. Christopher Bell<\/strong><\/p>\n Bell:<\/strong>\u00a0Bell finished eighth at Indianapolis.<\/p>\n \u201cCongratulations to Bubba Wallace and Ty Gibbs,\u201d Bell said, \u201cfor winning the race and the In-Season Challenge, respectively, despite my best efforts to prevent them from doing so.\u201d<\/p>\n Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Denny Hamlin is back on top in this week\u2019s Power Rankings after his third-place finish at Indianapolis Motor…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":98635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[35119,22019,46824,4422,16413,11130,52998,9650,15865,1406,1459,64535,20534,62,67,132,68,22880],"class_list":{"0":"post-98634","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-alex-bowman","9":"tag-bubba-wallace","10":"tag-chase-briscoe","11":"tag-chase-elliott","12":"tag-christopher-bell","13":"tag-denny-hamlin","14":"tag-indianapolis-motor-speedway","15":"tag-joey-logano","16":"tag-kyle-larson","17":"tag-nascar","18":"tag-nascar-cup-series","19":"tag-nascar-top-10-power-rankings-phoenix","20":"tag-ryan-blaney","21":"tag-sports","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-william-byron"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114929338341788942","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}