NASCAR Power Rankings: Team Penske on the rise after strong showing in St. Louis

 For much of their history in the Cup Series, Team Penske has relied on a stable of steady, solid veteran drivers. Entering this season, however, Penske decided to change things up a bit by introducing a young driver to the Captain's stable.

For the first time since Ryan Newman in 2002 (Sam Hornish Jr. ran as a rookie under the Penske banner in 2008, but was already an IndyCar champion with a wealth of experience by the time he made the move to stock cars) Team Penske put a true rookie in one of their cars for 2022, promoting Austin Cindric from the Xfinity Series to the big show in Cup. The idea was for Cindric to grow and develop in his first full Cup season, with veteran teammates Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney helping to shepherd their young teammate along.

As he nears the halfway point of his rookie year, Cindric is beginning to catch up to his teammates and ride a wave of elevated Penske performance. With two wins by Joey Logano in the last four races and an All-Star win for Ryan Blaney, Team Penske has arguably become the hottest overall organization in NASCAR. That's reflected in this week's NASCAR Power Rankings.

Other drivers who gained spots included Aric Almirola (+6), Kurt Busch (+4), and Erik Jones (+4). Meanwhile, among the drivers falling back after Gateway were William Byron (-4), Kevin Harvick (-4), Daniel Suarez (-4), and Bubba Wallace (-5).

Here's a look at our updated rankings in their entirety:

RANK	DRIVER	CHANGE	COMMENT
1	Ross Chastain	--	You don't get to the front without making a few enemies, a lesson Ross Chastain already knows from his days trying to claw his way to the front in lesser cars. Trouble is, the stakes are much higher when you make enemies at the front of the pack.
2	Kyle Busch	--	The Cup Series seems to be on the verge of a real Rowdy revival. Kyle Busch has three-straight top threes and two-straight second place finishes, which will turn into wins if he keeps up like this.
3	Chase Elliott	--	Chase Elliott's once commanding lead in the regular season standings has disappeared. After a spin at Gateway, he now has just a nine point lead on Kyle Busch.
4	Christopher Bell		Christopher Bell continues to be Mr. Consistency, as he now has five-straight top 10 finishes. A win will put Bell over the top as a legitimate championship contender.
5	Ryan Blaney		There were times in the final 25 laps where Ryan Blaney appeared clearly faster than Joey Logano or Kyle Busch. If his All-Star win is any indication, Blaney's first points race win of 2022 could be coming soon.
6	Kyle Larson	--	Kyle Larson was among the drivers in Sunday's field who had never once been in a race at Gateway. With that considered, 12th place was a respectable result for the defending Cup champ.
7	Joey Logano		The way Joey Logano won at Gateway had to feel vindicating. After what happened at Darlington, Logano raced Kyle Busch hard, but raced him when a win was on the line.
8	William Byron		William Byron has been in a funk even before his run-in with Joey Logano at Darlington. He hasn't had a top 10 finish since his win at Martinsville, and only two inside the top 15.
9	Alex Bowman		Alex Bowman hasn't made a lot of noise the past three races, but he still has an average finish of 10.6 in that stretch. He could really sneak up on the field in the summer months.
10	Martin Truex Jr.		Martin Truex turned the clock back to 2004 at Gateway, leading 42 laps for a stretch midway through the race. We'll see if he chooses to make more memories at Gateway next year.
11	Denny Hamlin		Between Ross Chastain and Ricky Stenhouse on Sunday, Denny Hamlin seems to really fancy himself as an Enforcer. For more on that, look up what happened between him and Brad Keselowski in 2009.
12	Chase Briscoe		Chase Briscoe looks to be reclaiming his early season form, as he won the pole at Gateway and led the opening 27 laps. But a cut tire set him back, and he never truly recovered.
13	Kevin Harvick		Once upon a time, Gateway was a much kinder place to Kevin Harvick. The track was the site of Harvick's very first Busch Series win in 2000, but it had nothing to offer him Sunday but a hard hit into the Turn 3 wall.
14	Kurt Busch		When Kurt Busch has been right as of late, he's been really right. The elder of the Busch brothers ran at the front all day at Gateway, finishing third.
15	Austin Dillon		His missed opportunity in the Coke 600 nonwithstanding, Austin Dillon has been going through a nice, solid stretch. At Gateway, Dillon scored his third top 15 finish in the past four races.
16	Erik Jones		Erik Jones scored another top 10 finish at Gateway, which allowed him to improve to 15th in points. The last driver of the Petty No. 43 to finish in the top 15 in points? AJ Allmendinger in 2011.
17	Tyler Reddick		RCR could do with Tyler Reddick's feast or famine results being more like they were at Gateway. His 16th place finish was the first time he'd either finished inside the top 10 or 30th or worse since Martinsville.
18	Austin Cindric		Austin Cindric's Daytona 500 win threw the bar for his rookie season out of whack, but Gateway showed real signs of growth. Cindric led a career-high 26 laps, won a stage, and finished 11th.
19	Aric Almirola		Aric Almirola was a legitimate threat to win at Gateway, running in the top five all day and finishing 5th. That matches his season-high he set in the Daytona 500.
20	Michael McDowell		As a journeyman driver, Michael McDowell has finally shown the talent he long had later in his career. His 34 laps led gave him a new personal best for laps led in a single race and laps led in a single season.
21	Daniel Suarez		Crew miscues have been a stumbling block for Daniel Suarez throughout the year, as a jack failure cost him a top 10 finish at Gateway. Next comes a major opportunity at Sonoma, as Suarez was the class of the field early in the race at COTA in March.
22	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.		"Oh no! Not Ricky!" -- Whoever made that T-Shirt got terrific advertising on Sunday, as Stenhouse spun one driver and then spun out himself to snap his top 10 streak from May.
23	Justin Haley		On the surface, a 14th place finish for Justin Haley isn't much. But when you consider his mad tear from 28th with less than 20 to go, it becomes a very impressive charge by the young driver.
24	Bubba Wallace		Bubba Wallace won a Truck race at Gateway in 2014, but the track wasn't kind to him this time around. Wallace got spun on two occasions and whimpered home 26th.
25	Cole Custer		Cole Custer did get a top ten finish in Stage 2, but he wound up 29th at the finish after getting turned by Todd Gilliland late in the race. Fortunately for Custer, he avoided a fourth DNF in the last six races.
26	Ty Dillon		Two 27th place finishes at Dover and Gateway bookend what had been a nice three race stretch for Ty Dillon. In between, he had three top 20 finishes and two finishes inside the top 15.
27	Brad Keselowski		This week, Brad Keselowski gets a bit of a car owner's boost: Not only did he finish 20th, but he made a good call tabbing Zane Smith as the substitute driver for Chris Buescher.
28	Harrison Burton		Though he wasn't able to capitalize on it and found trouble, Harrison Burton qualified inside the top 10 and had a demonstrably fast car. Next up in Burton's development is taking advantage of a fast car when he has one.
29	A.J. Allmendinger		How about The Dinger? He won a wild race at Portland in the Xfinity Series despite all kinds of issues, then got in a car that was wrecked in practice and finished top 10. What a weekend he had.
30	Todd Gilliland		Todd Gilliland makes his way back into the Power Rankings this week, as he earned a solid 22nd place finish at Gateway. He replaces Cody Ware, who dropped out after 166 laps with a power issue.