March NASCAR Cup rankings: Christopher Bell climbs to top spot

Here is a look at who was the best in March and some key moments in a month that had five NASCAR Cup races.

March Power Rankings

1. Christopher Bell (Last month: 5th)

He was the only driver to win multiple races in March. Bell won at the beginning of the month at Circuit of the Americas and followed it the next week with a victory at Phoenix.

Bell also placed second at Martinsville, meaning he had finishes of first or second at tracks that will host the final two races of the season —Martinsville and Phoenix.

He was the only driver to have an average running position better than seventh in three of the month's five races.

2. William Byron (3)

Did not win in March but scored the most points (184) and ranked second in stage points scored with 45 (Ryan Blaney had 50 stage points in March).

Byron's best finish of the month was second at COTA. He also had a top-five finish at Las Vegas, placing fourth. Byron added a sixth-place finish at Phoenix.

Byron had an average running position of better than eighth in four on the month's five races.

3. Kyle Larson (NR)

He ranked second in points scored with 182 and in stage points with 42 for the month.

Larson won at Homestead-Miami Speedway, one of three top-five finishes he had in March. He was third at Phoenix and fifth at Martinsville. Larson scored points in all but one stage in March.

4. Chase Elliott (NR)

Elliott had four top-10 finishes to match his Hendrick Motorsports teammates Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman. Elliott's 171 points tied Christopher Bell for third most in March.

Elliott's best finish of March was fourth, which he accomplished at COTA and Martinsville. He also placed 10th at both Phoenix and Las Vegas.

5. Denny Hamlin (NR)

Hamlin's Martinsville win moved him into the top five for March. He finished the month with three top-five finishes, placing second at Phoenix and fifth at Homestead to go along with his Martinsville victory.

Just like his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Christopher Bell, Hamlin had a first or second at Martinsville and Phoenix, the tracks that will host the final two Cup races of the season.

Those just missing the top five

Alex Bowman — He had four top 10s in March, including a runner-up result at Homestead and ended the month fifth in points.

Bubba Wallace — Finished the month with back-to-back third-place finishes, scoring those at Homestead and Martinsville. He scored 41 stage points in March, ranking fourth for the month.

Ryan Preece — Scored three consecutive top-10 finishes to end March. He was third at Las Vegas, ninth at Homestead and seventh at Martinsville.

A preview of the playoffs?

Las Vegas and Martinsville are in the third round of the playoffs and Phoenix hosts the Cup title race. This month gave an indication of what could happen later in the year in the playoffs.

Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott were the only drivers to finish in the top 10 in all three of those races in March. Larson was third at Phoenix, ninth at Las Vegas and fifth at Martinsville. Elliott was 10th at Phoenix and Las Vegas and fourth at Martinsville.

Christopher Bell won Phoenix and finished second at Martinsville. Denny Hamlin won Martinsville and finished second at Phoenix.

There's still plenty of time until those playoff races but the early sign is that Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing will be among the favorites. That's a step forward for JGR, which failed to win any of the last 18 races of the season. JGR already has won four of the first seven this year, led by Bell's three victories.

An up-and-down month

Team Penske drivers Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney and Austin Cindric combined to lead 23.1% of the laps in March but they had no wins, no top-five finishes and two top-10 finishes in those five races.

Joey Logano was the first reigning Cup champion to not score a top-10 finish through the first six races of the season. He snapped the drought with an eighth-place result at Martinsville.

The team's only other top 10 in March was a sixth-place finish by Cindric at Las Vegas.

Blaney failed to finish three consecutive races. He suffered blown engines at Phoenix and Homestead. He crashed at Las Vegas.

Stat of the month

It had been 3,654 days since Denny Hamlin's last victory at Martinsville Speedway before he won Sunday's race.

Hamlin last won there in March 2015, a race that marked the Cup debut for Chase Elliott.

The top-five finishers that day were: Hamlin (first), Brad Keselowski (second), Joey Logano (third), Matt Kenneth (fourth) and David Ragan (fifth).

Quote of the month

"We have high expectations and high hopes and goals for this year. Frankly, the last couple of years being at Joe Gibbs Racing in this No. 20 car, I haven't been living up to the standards that I hold for myself. Our goal going into 2025 is to do that, or my goal is to do that for myself. I know, Adam Stevens, he feels the same way. He feels that we're capable of a lot of great things. We haven't done that yet in the NASCAR Cup Series season. Maybe 2025 will be the year."

— Christopher Bell after his victory at COTA.

Social media moment of the month

RFK Racing posted this picture of Chris Buescher with a little pig the morning of the COTA race.

Looking ahead to April

There are three Cup races on the schedule:

April 6 — Darlington

April 13 — Bristol

April 20 — Easter (no Cup race)

April 27 — Talladega

The Easter break marks the final weekend off for the Cup Series through its season finale Nov. 2 at Phoenix.

When the month ends, teams will have competed at six of the 10 playoff tracks. Darlington and Bristol are both in the first round with Bristol the cutoff race. Talladega is in the third round. When the series races at Talladega, it will have competed at the final four tracks in the playoffs — Las Vegas, Talladega, Martinsville and Phoenix.