Power Rankings: How can Martin Truex Jr. move up?
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. Jimmie Johnson (LW: 1): Johnson keeps the top spot after he finished third at Pocono. Yeah, he didn’t have the race’s fastest car — hell, he didn’t lead any laps. But he was consistently in the top 10 throughout the race and moved towards the front as the race progressed. And you can bet we were expecting another strategy play by Chad Knaus if there was an opportunity. We wouldn’t have been surprised if Johnson’s car was exceptional in clean air.
2. Kevin Harvick (LW: 2): Was the third gear that was the bane of Kevin Harvick’s restarts the key to his long run speed? Harvick did have a faster car than Martin Truex Jr. over the course of a run, but when the two were matched head-to-head, the gap that Truex created off restarts was too much to overcome. We were slightly amused, however, as Fox was very concerned with the intervals between the two drivers as the laps wound down. Yes, Harvick was so going to get Truex in four laps by whittling a 1.7-second lead down by a tenth of a second per lap.
3. Martin Truex Jr. (LW: 3): Is it harsh to keep Truex third after his third career win? Possibly. But the dudes ahead of him finished second and third. We aren’t exactly keen to punish top-three finishes in these parts. And the reward for Truex is to maintain his position as the best driver without multiple wins. The win ties him with Regan Smith as the winningest driver in Furniture Row Racing history. How soon will Truex have that record to himself?
4. Joey Logano (LW: 5): Hey look, our fourth-place guy finished fourth. Just an FYI, this theme may continue for a little longer. Logano’s team changed a rear gear before the race and he started last. He then got a speeding penalty and had to restart at the back of the pack. But he overcame both of them thanks to a combination of speed and strategy. And what do you know, Logano is also fourth in the points standings too.
5. Kurt Busch (LW: 6): Busch finished fifth. Told you about the theme thing. Busch is currently 12th in the points standings and is averaging over 34 points per race. If you extrapolate that out to a full season to include the three races he missed, Busch would be third in the standings, just ahead of Jimmie Johnson. He’d still be almost two races behind teammate Harvick though.
6. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (LW: 4): Just like it’s possibly harsh to keep Truex in third after his win, it’s not necessarily fair to drop Junior two spots after he finished 11th. But when five of last week’s top six finish in the top five, well, we have to penalize the outlier. His day could have been much worse too if the contact he had with Brad Keselowski on the backstretch cut a tire and sent him into the wall.
7. Matt Kenseth (LW: 9): Kenseth moves up two spots after finishing sixth, which may feel like a top-two finish at Pocono. Sunday was his best finish at the track since the spring race in 2006, when he finished fifth. The winner of that race was Denny Hamlin. Scott Riggs finished eighth. J.J. Yeley finished 15th. Tony Raines was 16th. Chad Chaffin finished 33rd. Mike Garvey finished 41st. We’ll stop naming random drivers of the 2000s now.
8. Kasey Kahne (LW: 8): Kahne probably had a better car than his 13th-place finish showed. However, he too didn’t have great restarts and the cluster of them at the end of the race didn’t play in his favor. He’s still eighth in the points standings and is six points ahead of teammate Jeff Gordon, currently the Hendrick Motorsports caboose. It’s not crazy to think that all four Hendrick drivers are in the top 10 in points, though it’s just a bit crazy to think Gordon is the fourth of four drivers.
9. Jamie McMurray (LW: 11): McMurray is quietly having an exceptional season and he’s doing it by avoiding bad finishes. He finished seventh at Pocono on Sunday and is, you guessed it, seventh in the points standings. McMurray has two top-five finishes so far in 2015, which puts him on pace for five or six for a full season, depending on which way you want to round. Last year, he had seven. But he was 18th in the standings. Bad finishes are bad.
10. Brad Keselowski (LW: 7): Speaking of bad finishes, Keselowski got one when he couldn’t avoid the sliding car of Brett Moffitt. He ended up 17th, a finish that’s become his norm lately. While a top 20 isn’t terrible, it’s bad given that Keselowski could have finished around the top five if he didn’t have the incident. Through the first seven races of the year, Keselowski’s average finish was 10th. Through the most recent seven, his average finish has been, yep, 17th.
11. Denny Hamlin (LW: NR): After qualifying eighth, Hamlin finished 10th. And the eighth-place qualifying effort was simply because of Hamlin’s speed in the second round of time trials. He spun near the end of the third round, preventing five cars (including himself) from making a lap. Believe it or not, he’s in a three-way tie with Kurt Busch and Aric Almirola for 12th in the standings. Yes, Almirola is still in the top 12 after finishing last at Pocono.
12. Carl Edwards (LW: 10): After qualifying second, Edwards didn’t really stay there. He finished 15th. He’s 16th in the standings, so we’re fully admitting that Edwards is here riding the coattails of his Coca-Cola 600 win. Another mediocre finish and we’re going to jump him with Gordon, Almirola or even Paul Menard, who had the day from hell on Sunday and is 11th.
Lucky Dog: Kyle Busch is back on the right points track after finishing 9th.
The DNF: Ryan Newman, who apparently is the Hammurabi of NASCAR. Newman said after the race that AJ Allmendinger “ran out of talent” and that he has retribution coming to him. Gotta love drivers promising payback for wrecks they know aren’t intentional.
Dropped Out: Newman
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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!
