Power Rankings: Famous Daytona 500 finishes

Welcome to the 2016 season’s Power Rankings. As always, Power Rankings are far from a scientific formula. In fact, it’s the perfect blend of analytics and bias against your favorite driver. Direct all your complaints to us at [email protected] and we’ll try to have some fun.

We’re taking a bit of a detour this week. Since we only have a race to go on for Power Rankings, we’re going to attempt to figure out where Sunday’s race falls among great Daytona 500 finishes. Then we’ll get to an abbreviated version of our traditional Power Rankings that will begin in earnest after Atlanta. Let’s get to it.

BEST DAYTONA 500 FINISHES

1. 1979: Yeah, Sunday’s finish was great, but it can’t usurp the 1979 Daytona 500 from the top spot. You don’t need us to explain the greatness of the finish – if you’re a NASCAR fan you know all about it – so we’ll simply leave the video of it below. If you’re not a NASCAR fan, you’ll understand why this is No. 1 after watching the side-by-side racing, bumping and subsequent fighting.

2. 1976: The two-car battle for the lead at the end of the race between David Pearson and Richard Petty was great without a crash. When they crashed off turn 4 on the final lap it became epic.

Petty passed Pearson – who blocked significantly in the corner – through turn 4 and then the two cars went spinning.

Petty’s car crashed the furthest forward as it came to rest near the finish line. Pearson’s car was still stuck in the entrance of the tri-oval. However, Petty was unable to quickly refire his car. Pearson was and he drove his mangled car across the finish line before Petty did.

3. 2016: Sunday’s race is perhaps elevated in its greatness because the finish was so unexpected. With Toyota’s Joe Gibbs Racing cars lined up five deep on the preferred low line as the last lap began, it was tough to envision the teammates going after each other for the win in order to ensure the manufacturer’s first win.

And if you believe winner Denny Hamlin, his move to the top line on the backstretch was initially an attempt to make sure his team won the race. Hamlin moved up in front of Kevin Harvick – to block, Hamlin said – and Harvick bumped the hell out of Hamlin’s bumper to push him ahead of third-place Kyle Busch. Hamlin then got around the perhaps ill-advised block of Matt Kenseth and snuck past Martin Truex Jr. for the closest finish (0.01 seconds) in Daytona 500 history.

4. 2007: Sunday beat out the 2007 for the closest electronically-timed finish in 500 history and had the potential to be incredibly similar to the 2007 checkered flag.

Harvick beat Mark Martin by 0.02 seconds as the two cars dueled by themselves for a win. A crash in turn 4 on the final lap had eliminated all the cars behind them from contention. Sunday, we were perilously close to a crash too. Had Matt Kenseth not saved his car from spinning, much of the entire field behind Truex and Kenseth would have been junked.

5. 1959: This is the original Daytona 500 finish. The 1959 race was the first at Daytona International Speedway. Johnny Beauchamp was declared the winner after he crossed the line side-by-side with Lee Petty. However, after the finish was reviewed over the week, Petty was declared the winner three days later despite Beauchamp celebrating in victory lane after the race.

Fun fact: the 1959 500 went caution-free throughout the entire event.

POST-DAYTONA 500 POWER RANKINGS

1. Denny Hamlin: Enough said.

2. Matt Kenseth: While we’ll always focus on Hamlin’s move to the front and his side-by-side finish when we look back on this race, we need to always remember Kenseth’s save. Yeah, he probably made the wrong decision moving up ahead of Hamlin. But damn, that save kept millions of dollars worth of race cars intact and showed why he’s considered one of the best in NASCAR.

3. Martin Truex Jr.: Truex said after the race that he’d likely be remembered similarly to Martin after the 2007 finish. If you ask us, there are many, many worse drivers to be compared to.

4. Kyle Busch: While Truex and Kenseth are playing the what-if game, so is Busch. He said he thought about moving ahead of Hamlin on the final lap, but by the time the thought crossed his mind it was too late.

5. Carl Edwards: Edwards made contact with Chase Elliott when Elliott spun earlier in the race and was subsequently involved in another crash. And he was somehow in the picture for the win at the end.

6. Kevin Harvick: How far would Harvick have gotten towards the front had Hamlin not moved in front of him?

7. Joey Logano: The defending champion didn’t like the handling on his car all day. He still finished sixth.

8. Kyle Larson: Larson ran a sneaky-great race. He was up near the front all day and was one of the best non-Joe Gibbs Racing cars.

9. Jimmie Johnson: Johnson led 18 laps in a backup car. Those 18 laps led were the most of any non-JGR driver.

10. Regan Smith: Smith finished eighth in his second-straight Daytona 500. This time he was driving a car he’s scheduled to be in all year.

11. Austin Dillon: The driver of the No. 3 finished ninth after he lost the draft early in the race.

12. Michael McDowell: McDowell was in a second entry for Circle Sport-Levine Family Racing and was not guaranteed to make the race. He qualified via his qualifying time and ended up 15th on Sunday.