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Power Rankings: Ryan Blaney poised to punch early Championship 4 ticket?
By Pat DeCola | Tuesday, October 12, 2021
NASCAR Digital Media
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NASCAR.com's Pat DeCola ranks the 2021 NASCAR Playoffs drivers after the Round of 12 elimination race at Charlotte Motor Speedway's Roval and before the Round of 8 opener at Texas Motor Speedway.
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8. Brad Keselowski (-4)
Season-high: 2nd
Season-low: 15th
Comment: Keselowski experienced his first true "off" race in the playoffs, but because of his strong start in the first five postseason events he scooted through to the Round of 8. It's a little surprising Keselowski hasn't won at Texas before in 25 starts — he once led 22 or more laps in five straight there, culminating in a whopping 312 en route to a runner-up — and he should have a good shot to claim his first this weekend.
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
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7. Chase Elliott (-1)
Season-high: 1st
Season-low: 10th
Comment: Sunday was probably the most noteworthy 12th-place finish of Elliott's career; one in which the hottest feud of the year was reignited (twice?) and it looked for a bit like the defending champ would be eliminated from contention. He's still alive, however, and now heads to a track at which his first five trips saw him average a 7.4 finish.
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6. Ryan Blaney (+1)
Season-high: 4th
Season-low: 15th
Comment: Blaney has been one of the sport's best drivers from about early-summer-on, and there's a strong chance he adds another win in this last month of the season. Perhaps his best shot comes this weekend at Texas, where he is on a dazzling seven-race run that includes a runner-up and 20 or more laps led in four of them at a strong track for Team Penske overall.
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
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5. Martin Truex Jr. (--)
Season-high: 2nd
Season-low: 10th
Comment: Truex was derailed by a rookie driver at the Roval and wound up with his third 29th-place finish of the season, but still moves on and is in good shape. The veteran and longtime intermediate wizard surprisingly has no Texas wins in 31 starts, but does have a trio of runner-ups there from 2013-on, including this race last year.
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4. Kyle Busch (+5)
Season-high: 2nd
Season-low: 14th
Comment: Looking at Busch's finishes — with showings of 34th, 35th, 21st, 27th shuffled into the last seven races — you'd think he was eliminated, but guess again. With a Round of 8 ahead that favors him tremendously — he has eight wins at the next three tracks — he could be a shoe-in for the Championship 4 after a somewhat up-and-down season.
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
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3. Joey Logano (--)
Season-high: 2nd
Season-low: 11th
Comment: There's no question: Logano has raced like a Championship 4 driver in these playoffs (7.5 average finish) after a dismal late-summer swoon (21.43 average finish in last seven regular-season races). A 2014 winner at Texas, it's been an overall super strong track for him since joining Team Penske in 2013 -- he has 13 top 10s in 16 races for the organization.
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2. Denny Hamlin (-1)
Season-high: 1st
Season-low: 6th
Comment: Hamlin has been an absolute stud this season and has somehow driven even better (8.2 average finish) than his seven-win season last year (career-best 9.3). With three Texas wins to date — including one in 2019 — there's a strong chance he whittles that number down a bit more on Sunday.
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1. Kyle Larson (+1)
Season-high: 1st
Season-low: 14th
Comment: That didn't take long. After a two-week stint at No. 2, Larson showed Sunday why he deserves to be the top dog and title favorite at the moment. Texas offers a nice test for him, having no points starts there since 2019 and an overall average finish of 19.8. Unrelated, anybody know who won this year's All-Star Race?
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