Power Rankings: Kyle Busch at No. 1

1. Kyle Busch (LW: 3): Joey Logano keeps the top spot no more. Busch gets it because he finished fourth on Sunday and is poised to make the final round of the Chase barring a disaster at Phoenix. Busch has been pretty good at Phoenix since the repave; he has four top 10-finishes. But the three other races he’s finished 36th, 23rd and 34th. Anything in the 30s is going to open the door for teammate Carl Edwards on Sunday.

2. Kevin Harvick (LW: 5): Fun fact: the top four finishers in Sunday’s race were the top four finishers in the 2014 fall race at Texas. Last year, Johnson won, Harvick was second, Keselowski was third and Busch was fourth. Harvick and Keselowski simply swapped spots this year. Kyle Busch also had this to say about Phoenix, where Harvick has been dominant: “I do not think it’s a winnable race until Kevin Harvick gets beat. He’s shown that he’s certainly go the stranglehold on the Phoenix racetrack.”

3. Jeff Gordon (LW: 3): Gordon said they were going to use the race at Texas as a bit of a test session for Homestead given his guaranteed spot in the final round. He finished ninth on Sunday, so for Gordon’s sake, hopefully the No. 24 team got a lot of valuable data from the race. It would be a shame if Gordon had a terrible race at Jeff Gordon Raceway on Sunday, wouldn’t it? And we hope those ponies Gordon got at Texas Motor Speedway made it back to North Carolina safely.

4. Martin Truex Jr. (LW: 4): Did anyone else have flashbacks to last year when Truex and Keselowski made contact while racing for the lead? We’ll admit that the words “Not again” might have floated through our brains. But Truex and Keselowski shook hands after the race and all was good. They were racing for the lead; “quintessential NASCAR” if you will. It’s just that the sport’s increased reliance on aerodynamics have exponentially heightened the consequences of contact.

5. Brad Keselowski (LW: 9): Keselowski had no shot of holding Jimmie Johnson off. He did everything he could and the chess match between the two entering each corner was fascinating. He was especially wrestling his car off turn 2, where the pavement falls off sharply. Keselowski was letting his car push to the wall as hard as possible to keep speed. Ultimately it didn’t work as the run Johnson got down the backstretch to make the winning pass was all too much.

6. Jimmie Johnson (LW: NR): Jimmie Johnson is back. Eh, he never left. Johnson has won a couple of races like he did Sunday in 2015 and it speaks to the talent of his team and crew chief Chad Knaus. He’s had speed to start but with every pit stop the car gets better and better and before you know it, Johnson is at the front of the field. This time, there was no tire strategy involved.

7. Joey Logano (LW: 1): Is this the most abrupt change in Cup Series fortune since … ? Not long after it looked like he was heading to a fourth-straight win, Logano must win a race to make the final round. And he has to do it at a track that has been owned by his main nemesis (outside of Matt Kenseth, of course). It’s a fascinating subplot to a race that could be a tad underwhelming. Age Phoenix pavement, age!

8. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (LW: 6): That was one hell of a comeback by Junior. We’d like to have him higher in the rankings but the guys that vaulted above him finished first and second respectively. He smacked the wall so hard while racing up front that the right rear of the car separated from the decklid. The team got the damage taped up and his car had speed again. Junior ended up finishing sixth and is, along with Johnson, the favorite among non-Chasers to win at Homestead.

9. Carl Edwards (LW: 8): Edwards finished fifth and he was open about his team’s desire to have Jimmie Johnson win on Sunday. “My guys never cheered so hard for Jimmie (Johnson), we needed that for the points going to Homestead,” Edwards said. Why? Because if Keselowski had won, there are only two spots available on points at Phoenix. One if Kurt Busch or Logano wins Sunday.

10. Kurt Busch (LW: 10): Busch is in pretty much the same situation Logano is now. He finished seventh at Texas but because of his Martinsville accident he’s on the outside looking in. Maybe we should be bullish on Busch’s chances? He can always commandeer Harvick’s car and crew and drive it to the win. Unless Harvick is a key part of that Phoenix magic. If so, Busch may need a bit of a miracle.

11. Jamie McMurray (LW: NR): McMurray finished 10th, the third-highest non-Chaser in the field. And really, we aren’t sure who else to give 11th to at this point. After two good weeks, McMurray gets the nod. He attempted to hold off Harvick last year at Phoenix so maybe he’ll be in position to do it again. McMurray is currently 13th in the standings, a place below where he would be if there was no Chase.

12. Erik Jones (LW: NR): We’ll give Jones some love after finishing 12th in Kenseth’s car. Jones ran all three races at Texas over the weekend and the Cup Series race was his lowest finish. Not bad for a 19-year-old. He’s got a bright future ahead of him, the only question is where it will be. An easily-guessable scenario sees Furniture Row expanding to two cars in 2017 with Jones behind the wheel of one of them. That’s just our idea, however.