Power Rankings: It’s all Joey Logano all the time
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] and we’ll try to have some fun.
1. Joey Logano (LW: 1): Six wins including the Daytona 500. The first driver to win three-straight Chase races since Jimmie Johnson. Not a bad season, eh? But with the way that Joey Logano is performing right now, it’s title or bust. He was the best overall driver through the Chase’s 10 races last year. He is once again this year. One more win gets him automatically to Homestead, where he hopes to avoid late-pit stop disaster.
2. Everyone else, err, uh, Carl Edwards (LW: 5): Seriously, who would you put at No. 2 right now? You could argue that it should be Dale Earnhardt Jr. based off the strength of his Talladega performance. Instead we’ll go with Edwards, who successfully orchestrated a “ride in the back and finish in the top five” strategy for part of the race. A lot of times the patience doesn’t pay off. It worked for Edwards and he’s in the next round.
3. Brad Keselowski (LW: 8): Logano had a choice on the final restart(s). He could have taken the bottom lane and had Keselowski behind him or he could have taken the top side and separated Junior and Jeff Gordon. He chose the latter option. We’ll never know how it would have worked out — Junior said he was happy to have the bottom lane — but it’s easy to understand Logano’s line of thinking.
4. Kyle Busch (LW: 3): Hey, Kyle Busch is still alive in the Chase! Given his performance this season it’s not a surprise. But given his historical Chase performance, it’s a bit of one. Busch was lamenting his Chase predicament after Charlotte. And while those words were largely out of frustration, one has to wonder how much of a confidence boost it is that he’s still around. We think he’ll get to the final round too.
5. Kurt Busch (LW: 6): How much of an upset would it be if Busch was in the final round of the Chase while his teammate Kevin Harvick was not? His points-per-race pace is only two points off Harvick’s throughout the entirety of the season. So, not much. Busch’s car will have a different look this weekend too. It’ll be sponsored by Monster Energy for the first time. The company will be on his car’s hood for half of the season next year.
6. Kevin Harvick (LW: 4): NASCAR’s announcement that it didn’t find anything to penalize at Talladega won’t calm those who feel Harvick acted purposefully on the final restart of the race. And again, we say that if he did, he was doing so to help his own self-interests and advance in the Chase. Perhaps nothing signifies the survival instinct necessary in the Chase than purposefully causing a crash or moving a driver for your own personal advancement. It’s kind of like the circus, really. We watch for people to survive the crazy tricks and avoid mistakes.
7. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (LW: 11): If it wasn’t for the wild ending Sunday, the overwhelming story would be Junior’s drive. Not only did he lead 61 laps he was back to the front in a blink after he was at the back of the pack because of a pit road penalty. His average finish at the four restrictor plate races this year is a whopping 1.75. How nutty is that? It’d be 1.5 if he had won the race.
8. Jeff Gordon (LW: 10): Speaking of survival, here’s a guy doing just that in his final Sprint Cup Series season? Is Gordon a title threat? Sure. Ryan Newman was at Homestead when he was chasing Kevin Harvick, right? While Gordon winning the championship would be a great storyline to cap his career, NASCAR better hope he wins a race over these next four. Otherwise it’s going to be bigger than Newman.
9. Martin Truex Jr. (LW: 9): Martinsville is going to be a good barometer of Truex’s title chances. His average finish of 22.2 there is second-worst among all tracks on the schedule. He did get his fifth top 10 in 19 starts in the spring there, so there’s reason for optimism. A repeat of that, and he’s sitting pretty. If he finishes 28th like he did last fall, well…
10. Matt Kenseth (LW: 7): First Kenseth was threatening to kick Logano’s butt after the two made contact while heading to pit road and then he was saying this after the race: “Well, at the end, [Harvick] knew he was blew up and we had the first attempt, but I guess they said it wasn’t an attempt … So then they tried it again and the 4 knew he was blew up, so he said he was going to stay in his lane, so the [Trevor Bayne] then went up and outside and he clipped him and caused a wreck because he knew he’d make the Chase that way, so it’s – I got wrecked out two weeks in a row from people doing what they had to do to make the Chase, but call it what you want. But I just feel like they lost total control of this whole thing. It’s not what racing is all about. [Logano] last week wrecks us for the win to get in, to keep us out and get him in and then today we’ve got a chance, he’s lined up behind, he’s dragging the brakes, he’s trying not to go. He’s doing everything he can to make it worse for you, so he’s standing there in victory lane and he’s happy, but the racing is just – it’s just kind of out of control.”
11. Denny Hamlin (LW: 2): Hamlin seemed set to overcome the roof hatch craziness he had during the race to sneak into the Chase. And then the final crash happened. Hamlin was out of the Chase. How crazy is it that Hamlin has had issues with his hood flying up and his roof hatch popping open in the same year? At least with the hood at Indianapolis it didn’t happen during the race.
12. Ryan Newman (LW: 12): Goodbye, sweet Newman. We will miss your relentless borderline top-10ing for Chase advancement. Newman finished 12th at Talladega but it wasn’t enough after Harvick finished 15th. Had NASCAR found intent and penalized Harvick, Newman would have been the beneficiary. How weird would it have been if he had gotten in/advanced in the Chase twice because of penalties to others?
Lucky Dog: Well done Paul Menard.
The DNF: The race itself.
Dropped out: No one. We’re going to start having fun with the four non-Chase spots next week.
– – – – – – –
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!
