Now that Saturday night’s Toyota Owners 400 is behind us, we head to our first week off of the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season. The next race will take place in 15 days at the Talladega Superspeedway.

So, as we head into the Easter break, here’s who’s hot and who’s not.

Who’s Hot

Kyle Busch

No, he didn’t have the best car last week but he won. Yes, he had a great car on Saturday in Richmond and finished eighth. That’s just how good of a season Busch is having. When he misses it, he can win. When he makes a mistake on pit road, he gets a top 10.

Busch, has yet to finish outside of the top 10 this season with finishes of second, sixth, third, first, first, third, 10th, first and eighth respectively. He’s the favorite for the title.

Denny Hamlin

Hamlin is still off to his best start to a season. He won the season opener at Daytona and has since scored a top 11 finish in all nine races. Heading into the off week, Hamlin has four straight top five finishes, three of which fifth place runs to go along with a finish in the top seven in each of the last six weeks.

Joey Logano

The Team Penske driver is looking good to back up to 2018 crown with another. Logano, finished runner-up in Saturday’s Toyota Owners 400 for his second straight top three finish. He has four top three’s in his last seven weeks.

Clint Bowyer

He may be as hot as anyone right now. Bowyer, started 2019 off with just one top 10 finish in the first five weeks. That was a fifth place run in Atlanta. In the four races since, he hasn’t finished worse than seventh.

Ryan Newman

Talk about a driver that’s overachieving. Newman, has brought RFR back to relevance. The Indiana native brought his No. 6 Ford home ninth on Saturday for his second consecutive ninth place finish. In fact, over his last three weeks, he hasn’t finished worse than 11th.

Who’s Warm

Martin Truex Jr. 

Truex,  may have just won, but his last two finishes keep him out of the “hot” list. Truex, was 12th in Texas and 17th in Bristol the last two races before Richmond. But, since he led 186 laps and won his first short track race in 81 tries, he’s moving back up. Truex, has six top eight finishes in his last eight starts on the year.

Brad Keselowski

Keselowski, like Truex, has one top 10 finish in the last three week, that’s why he’s on this list. But, he also hasn’t had a top five finish since his win in Martinsville. Overall, he has just two three 10’s in his last six starts on the year.

Kurt Busch

He’s either overachieving or Kyle Larson is underachieving. Busch, finished 11th on Saturday night for his eighth top 12 finishes in nine tries in 2019. The 2004 Cup Series champion also has three top fives, which if he had a few more, he’d be “hot.”

Paul Menard

The Wood Brothers driver is starting to heat up too. Menard, earned his second straight top 10 finish on Saturday night in Richmond and heads to one of his best chances of winning in two weeks at Talladega. He’s on the rise.

Austin Dillon

The Richard Childress Racing driver is shining too. Dillon, finished sixth on Saturday night for his fifth straight top 14 finish on the season.

Who’s Not

Kyle Larson

Talk about another driver with bad luck, Kyle Larson just can’t seem to get on track. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver got into the Turn 3 wall on Lap 115 and would have to pit for a tire that went down because of that after. Unfortunately, the team never cleared the fender out of the way which a few laps later cut a tire down again and sent him hard into the Turn 1 wall on Lap 127. His day ended with a last place 37th place effort.

Larson, has failed to finish in the top five all year and has just two top 10’s all season.

Richmond, was the site of his last win which was now 55 races ago. At the time of his win in the regular season finale in 2017, he had four wins and seven runner-up finish in the first 26 races to that season. Furthermore, he also had 11 top fives at that point. But, in the 55 races since, Larson has just 16 top fives with seven runner-ups.

His stats have declined and he needs to find a way to get back going again.

Ryan Blaney

For whatever reason, Richmond just isn’t Blaney’s track. Heading into Saturday, he had never led a lap there and his best finish was 18th. In this weekend’s race, he was never a factor. Blaney, was 22nd and 24th respectively in the two stages and brought his No. 12 Ford home 25th, two laps down.

He now has five finishes of 22nd or worse in nine starts this season.

Erik Jones

His teammates have now each won a race this season. With Jones having just one top five all year, that gets him on this list. Never mind the five finishes of 16th or worse in his last six starts on the year too.

Chase Elliott

The slump continues for NASCAR’s most popular driver. Elliott, now has just one top five and two top 10’s all year. He heads to the off week with no top 10 finishes in the last three weeks. While he does have seven straight top 15 finishes, only two of which were in the top 10.

Alex Bowman

Here’s another driver that struggling. Bowman, never was a factor on Saturday night and finished 17th. He has one top 15 finish over the last six weeks. That’s not going to cut it at Hendrick.