Power Rankings: Joey Logano and Jeff Gordon keep on trucking
Our Power Rankings are far from a scientific formula. In fact, it’s the perfect blend of analytics and bias against your favorite driver. And you think we dislike your favorite driver, so it makes sense, right? Direct all your complaints to us at [email protected].
1. Joey Logano (LW: 1): A fifth-place finish is good enough to keep the top spot in Power Rankings. Logano is doing to the Chase this year what Jimmie Johnson did to it last year. Scratch that, it’s better. Logano’s average finish through the first seven races is 4.29. Johnson’s was 5.43 through the first seven last year. But there’s a new format, so Logano’s advantage is not what it could be. Heck, it’s a deficit because he finished behind Jeff Gordon on Sunday. But still, we have to reward the driver who’s flat out kicking everyone’s butt this Chase.
2. Jeff Gordon (LW: 4): While it was more advantageous for Jeff Gordon to win Sunday at Martinsville than it was for Dale Earnhardt Jr., team orders simply weren’t going to happen. You can’t deny a driver something he’s always wanted, even if it’s for the betterment of the team. OK, yes, you can, but it doesn’t make it right. And besides, no one wants to start debating the nuance of the 100 percent rule, right?
3. Ryan Newman (LW: 5): Yes, Newman is second in the points standings. There’s now going to be two drivers advancing to the final round at Homestead on points because of Junior’s win and it benefits Newman and Matt Kenseth the most. They’ve been by far the two most consistent winless drivers, both in the Chase and in the entire season. Top 10s in each of the next two races will put both drivers in a very good position to advance.
4. Matt Kenseth (LW: 6): What a rebound for Kenseth. His day could have easily been over when he wheel-hopped the car into the corner, but fortunately for him, Kevin Harvick was there to serve as a buffer. It was like a pool shot. Lots of the momentum that Kenseth had was transferred to Harvick’s car and Harvick was the one that hit the wall violently. Kenseth simply had superficial damage thanks to some help from Tony Stewart and fought back to finish sixth.
5. Denny Hamlin (LW: 7): Hamlin had terrible case of circumstances on the final restart. He was the first car with four fresh tires on the outside line, which isn’t the preferred groove to have at Martinsville in the first place. Then, as David Ragan, on old tires in third, got washed up to the middle as Dale Earnhardt Jr. went to pass him, it caused a backlog that jammed up Hamlin even further. He fell back to eighth, which really wasn’t indicative of where he should have finished.
6. Kevin Harvick (LW: 2): Right place, wrong time. Harvick had one of the fastest cars throughout the early stages of the race on Sunday and (relatively) easily worked his way through the field after starting 33rd. However, once he was taken out by Matt Kenseth, he was toast. The good news for Harvick is that he’s heading to two tracks where he was exceptionally fast earlier this year. The bad news is that he may need to win at either to get to Homestead in title contention.
7. Brad Keselowski (LW: 3): Keselowski didn’t have an incredibly fast car on Sunday, but he was heading towards a possible top-10 finish when a driveline issue popped up and killed his chances for a win along with the hopes of five or six other cars who crashed behind him. It was a bear-wrestling kind of day for Kes even before the slowdown. He had fallen back because of a handling issue and then was caught speeding on pit road. Keselowski kept fighting, but the bear finally forced a submission.
8. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (LW: 12): Junior gets a four-spot leap because of the win. You could tell how much it meant to him to get the Martinsville grandfather clock he always wanted and when he got passed the three cars separating himself and Tony Stewart within the first lap, the pass of Stewart for the win was inevitable. And hell, if you somehow needed more proof of how much Junior wanted the win, just look at the way he passed Stewart.
9. Carl Edwards (LW: 9): Martinsville has never been Edwards’ best track, so this was simply a damage-limiting race in the third round. But the damage was pretty significant. He was never fast and lost a lap before he got it on the penultimate caution. Edwards finished 20th, which isn’t terrible, but it hurts when five of the other seven Chase drivers finished in the top eight.
10. Kyle Busch (LW: 10): Much like Edwards, Busch hasn’t had great success at Martinsville, so an 11th-place finish is a good way to get out of there and move on to Texas and Phoenix. But yeah, there’s that whole thing about Busch no longer being in the Chase that’s now an issue. If it wasn’t for Talladega, this thing is playing almost perfectly for Busch.
11. AJ Allmendinger (LW: NR): Allmendinger got a top 10 and finished ninth on Sunday. It’s his first top 10 of the Chase but he’s avoided bad finishes throughout; his lowest finish is 23rd. He’s not likely to be fast enough to be a factor in the vaunted (ignored?) battle for fifth, but unlike Aric Almirola and Kurt Busch, Allmendinger has avoided catastrophe.
12. Tony Stewart (LW: NR): Who else do you want to put here? We’re not going to start exclaiming that “Smoke’s back!” (whatever that means, anyway), but the fourth-place finish is a start of a return to pre-August 2013 normalcy for Stewart. Will Stewart keep his streak of years with a win intact? It seems unlikely, but like Kevin Harvick, he was really fast at Texas earlier this year.
Lucky Dog: David Ragan was one of the three of 22 cars on the lead lap to stay out during the final caution. He restarted third and fell to 10th, but it was his first top 10 of the year.
The DNF: Well, we can say for certain that new format or not, Jimmie Johnson wasn’t winning the title this year.
Dropped out: Johnson, Kyle Larson
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
