Todd Gilliland didn’t enter Sunday’s race at Talladega as a championship contender. However, he left the track with a career-best finish after he finished as the runner-up behind race winner Chase Briscoe, who is now in the Championship 4.

Briscoe joined teammate Denny Hamlin in the championship field, with the final two slots to be filled this Sunday at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia. Christopher Bell, the final JGR driver still eligible to race for the title, holds a one-point edge over Kyle Larson for the final two spots in the winner-take-all decider.

Only two races remain in the NASCAR Cup Series season and this will be the final Power Rankings of the season. After next week, we will rank the drivers who make the Championship 4 and go into detail on Phoenix race weekend.

Martinsville will act as a do-or-die for a myriad of NASCAR Cup Series drivers to make it into the championship showdown in Phoenix.

Connor Zilisch’s run of near-perfect finishes in NASCAR Xfinity came to a sudden halt Saturday at the United Rentals 250. The 19-year-old JR Motorsports rookie was caught up in a chaotic Stage 2 wreck that left his car damaged and riding on a flat.