NASCAR Cup Series: Driver Power Rankings after 2018 O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas

Seven races of the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series season have been complete, and 29 remain on the schedule. How do the driver power rankings look?

Kyle Busch took the checkered flag in front of the rest of the field for the first time in the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series season, and he did so at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500, which was the seventh race of the 36-race season.

Busch’s win may be his first of the season, but he has clearly been the top driver over the last several weeks as a whole in his #18 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing. Over the course of the last five races, he has finished no lower than 3rd place. He now has one win, three 2nd place finishes and one 3rd place finish in his last five Cup Series starts.

Meanwhile, Kevin Harvick, the driver of the #4 Ford for Stewart-Haas Racing who Busch had to hold off to win at Texas, has experienced similar recent success. Since wrecking out of the Daytona 500 to start the season, Harvick has finished outside of the top 5 just once in six races. In the five races he has finished in the top 5, he has three wins, one 2nd place finish and one 5th place finish.

Where do these two perennial championship contenders stack up in the NASCAR Cup Series Driver Power Rankings relative to other drivers who have performed at a high level as of late, such as Team Penske teammates Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano and defending Cup Seires champion Martin Truex Jr. of Furniture Row Racing?

To see how these rankings are calculated, click here.

Here are the formulated NASCAR Cup Series Driver Power Rankings and the non-formulated NASCAR Cup Series Driver Power Rankings following the 2018 O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.