NASCAR Cup Series: Early 2020 power rankings

#20 and #19

Tyler Reddick is set to replace Daniel Hemric at Richard Childress Racing behind the wheel of the #8 Chevrolet after winning two Xfinity Series championships in his two seasons at NASCAR’s second highest level, including the 2019 title driving for Richard Childress Racing after Hemric was promoted to the Cup Series. Richard Childress Racing have had decent speed, albeit not great speed in recent years, but they haven’t been the best at turning that speed into results. In 2019, they secured four pole positions but just one top five finish as a team. Can Reddick take them to that next level? He finished in ninth place at Kansas Speedway driving for the team in his first and only intermediate track start last season, so he and the team have good upside.

After a breakout year in 2018 that featured two victories and a berth in the round of 8 of the playoffs, Clint Bowyer struggled just to make the playoffs in 2019, clinching his spot in the 26th and final race of the regular season. Stewart-Haas Racing did have somewhat of a down year, especially coming off their best season in team history in 2018, but Kevin Harvick still managed to advance to the Championship 4 like he usually does. Bowyer’s ninth place finish in the championship standings, meanwhile, isn’t an accurate illustration of his season as a whole, and unless he can find victory lane in 2020, he will likely be in another tight battle to qualify for the playoffs on points — and possibly to secure another contract extension.