The 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season opener, the Daytona 500, is in the books. How do the sport’s 32 full-time drivers stack up against one another?
For the second time in the last four years, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin opened up a NASCAR Cup Series season by getting to victory lane at Daytona International Speedway.
Hamlin won the 61st annual Daytona 500, which was scheduled to be 200-lap race but became a 207-lap race as a result of several late caution flag periods, around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) high-banked Daytona International Speedway oval in Daytona Beach, Florida in his #11 Toyota. In the last 10 years, he is the only driver to win this race twice.
By winning this race, Hamlin became the first driver to lock himself into this season’s playoffs, which are not scheduled to get underway until the 27th race of the season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in mid-September.
How do the NASCAR Cup Series Driver Power Rankings look following the 2019 Daytona 500? Here are the non-formulated NASCAR Cup Series Driver Power Rankings with the first of 36 races on this year’s schedule in the books.
NOTE: The “trend” column of these non-formulated NASCAR Cup Series Driver Power Rankings reflects driver movement since the preseason NASCAR Cup Series Driver Power Rankings, which you can see here. Tanner Berryhill was removed from these rankings from the time these preseason rankings were released until now because of the fact that he did not compete in the Daytona 500 and is therefore not considered a full-time driver at this point.
Non-formulated NASCAR Cup Series Driver Power Rankings
Rank – Driver – Car, Team, Manufacturer – [Last Rank (Trend)]
1st – Denny Hamlin – #11, Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota – [12th (+11)]
2nd – Kyle Busch – #18, Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota – [1st (-1)]
3rd – Erik Jones – #20, Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota – [10th (+7)]
4th – Joey Logano – #22, Team Penske, Ford – [4th (0)]
5th – Kyle Larson – #42, Chip Ganassi Racing, Chevrolet – [8th (+3)]
6th – Jimmie Johnson – #48, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet – [15th (+9)]
7th – Alex Bowman – #88, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet – [14th (+7)]
8th – Brad Keselowski – #2, Team Penske, Ford – [6th (-2)]
9th – Chase Elliott – #9, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet – [3rd (-6)]
10th – Kevin Harvick – #4, Stewart-Haas Racing, Ford – [2nd (-8)]
11th – Martin Truex Jr. – #19, Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota – [5th (-6)]
12th – Clint Bowyer – #14, Stewart-Haas Racing, Ford – [13th (+1)]
13th – William Byron – #24, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet – [16th (+3)]
14th – Aric Almirola – #10, Stewart-Haas Racing, Ford – [7th (-7)]
15th – Ryan Blaney – #12, Team Penske, Ford – [9th (-6)]
16th – Kurt Busch – #1, Chip Ganassi Racing, Chevrolet – [11th (-5)]
17th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – #17, Roush Fenway Racing, Ford – [20th (+3)]
18th – Ryan Newman – #6, Roush Fenway Racing, Ford – [19th (+1)]
19th – Austin Dillon – #3, Richard Childress Racing, Chevrolet – [18th (-1)]
20th – Daniel Suarez – #41, Stewart-Haas Racing, Ford – [17th (-3)]
21st – Michael McDowell – #34, Front Row Motorsports, Ford – [28th (+7)]
22nd – Ty Dillon – #13, Germain Racing, Chevrolet – [26th (+4)]
23rd – Ryan Preece – #47, JTG Daugherty Racing, Chevrolet – [25th (+2)]
24th – Matt DiBenedetto – #95, Leavine Family Racing, Toyota – [21st (-3)]
25th – Paul Menard – #21, Wood Brothers Racing, Ford – [22nd (-3)]
26th – David Ragan – #38, Front Row Motorsports, Ford – [27th (+1)]
27th – Daniel Hemric – #8, Richard Childress Racing, Chevrolet – [23rd (-4)]
28th – Chris Buescher – #37, JTG Daugherty Racing, Chevrolet – [24th (-4)]
29th – Corey LaJoie – #32, Go Fas Racing, Ford – [31st (+2)]
30th – Landon Cassill – #00, StarCom Racing, Chevrolet – [32nd (+2)]
31st – Darrell Wallace Jr. – #43, Richard Petty Motorsports, Chevrolet – [29th (-2)]
32nd – Matt Tifft – #36, Front Row Motorsports, Ford – [30th (-2)]
Biggest Movers
Up: Denny Hamlin (+11)
Down: Kevin Harvick (-8)
Here are the formulated NASCAR Cup Series Driver Power Rankings following the 2019 season opener. To see how the formulated NASCAR Cup Series Driver Power Rankings are calculated, click here.