Contenders and Pretenders - Spring Phoenix

Hello everyone! One of your three proud leaders of Nascar Amino, Tanor Campos, here and welcome to the fourth installment of Contenders and Pretenders! The first road course race of the 2025 Nascar Cup Series season is officially in the books, and Christopher Bell continues his winning ways by becoming the first multi-time winner after capturing the flag in Austin, TX! Phoenix Raceway will the trend of first-time races so far in 2025 as the Nascar Cup Series will be tackling their first short track race of the year which will see 37 drivers trying to punch their ticket into the postseason with victory in Arizona so anyways let's get started with the fourth installment of Contenders and Pretenders!

Major Pretender

78 Katherine Legge - Nascar Cup Series Debut

51 Cody Ware - 2 Straight Finishes Outside The Top 30

10 Ty Dillon - 2 Straight Finishes Outside The Top 25

42 John Hunter Nemechek - +9 Above The Cutoff

34 Todd Gilliland - Scored His 1st Top 10 Of The Year

88 SVG - Leader Of The ROTY Standings

35 Riley Herbst - 3 Straight 17th Place Finishes

Slight Pretender

60 Ryan Preece - Winner Of Stage 2 At COTA

16 Aj Allmendinger - 30th or Worse In 2 Of The First 3

4 Noah Gragson - Scored His 1st Top 10 Of The Year

7 Justin Haley - Scored His Best Finish Of 2025 So Far

41 Cole Custer - 2 Top 25 Finishes In The First 3 Races

43 Erik Jones - 2 Straight Finishes Outside The Top 25

47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr - 13 Points Above The Cutoff

3 Austin Dillon - Scored His Worst Finish Of 2025

21 Josh Berry - 26th or Worse In 2 Of The First 3

38 Zane Smith - 29th or Worse In 2 Of The First 3

Possible Contender

54 Ty Gibbs - 2 Straight Finishes Outside The Top 30

6 Brad Keselowski - Scored His Best Finish Of 2025

71 Michael McDowell - 18 Points Above The Cutoff

11 Denny Hamlin - 1 Top 20 Finish In The First 3 Races

9 Chase Elliott - 28 Points Above The Cutoff

23 Bubba Wallace - Won Stage/27 Points Above

48 Alex Bowman - 20 Points Above The Cutoff

99 Daniel Suarez - 2 Straight Finishes Outside Top 30

19 Chase Briscoe - Regained 100 Pts/+5 Above

8 Kyle Busch - 14 Points Above The Cutoff

Major Contender

77 Carson Hocevar - 5 Points Above The Cutoff

2 Austin Cindric - Docked 50 Championship Points

20 Christopher Bell - Back-To-Back Wins

17 Chris Buescher - 10 Points Above The Cutoff

1 Ross Chastain - 2 Straight Top 15 Finishes

22 Joey Logano - Leader In Laps Led/10 Pts Above

5 Kyle Larson - Fastest Lap/+4 Above The Cutoff

45 Tyler Reddick - 44 Points Above The Cutoff

24 William Byron - Locked Into The Playoffs

Race Winner

Ryan Blaney

#CandP