Power Rankings: Kyle Busch inherits the top spot
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.
1. Kyle Busch (LW: 2): When you’re leading Power Rankings after four weeks while winless and the four drivers behind you each have a win, you know you’ve been really good. Busch is the deserved points leader after finishing fourth at Phoenix. It was his fourth-straight finish inside the top five. And his streak goes deeper than that. Busch hasn’t finished outside the top five since last year’s fall race at Talladega. He ended his 2015 title run with finishes of fifth, fourth, fourth and first.
2. Kevin Harvick (LW: 4): But Busch’s eight-race stretch over two seasons isn’t the best one of the past two years. From Texas in 2014 to California in 2015, Harvick didn’t finish outside the top two. He won the title in 2014, of course, too. Sunday, Harvick led 139 laps and ended up playing a winning strategy (barely) by not taking any tires. Had Harvick and team chosen to pit, the rest of the field likely would have stayed out and he wouldn’t have won.
3. Jimmie Johnson (LW: 1): Taking a backup car to an 11th-place finish is a victory for many teams. Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 team aren’t many teams. Johnson had a top-10 car for most of the day, so a finish four or five spots ahead of where he ended up probably wuld have been more indicative of his entire race performance. Alas, Johnson finished outside the top 10 and is now a whopping 14 points behind Busch for the points lead.
4. Denny Hamlin (LW: 5): Hey, Sunday was Hamlin’s best race since the Daytona 500. After poor showings at Atlanta and Las Vegas, Hamlin charged to third at the end of the race on Sunday. He said he felt he had a winning car after the race, but was the only driver inside the top five that didn’t have any laps led.
5. Brad Keselowski (LW: 3): It was a rough second act for the Las Vegas winner. He struggled with an ill-handling car for most of the race and then cut a right-rear tire. The tire issue led to the loss of laps on pit road and Keselowski ended up finishing 29th, six laps down.
6. Kurt Busch (LW: 7): Let’s nickname the Busch brothers the Consistency brothers. OK, let’s not. That’s a horrible suggestion. But while Kyle is racking up the top five finishes, Kurt is racking up the top 10s. Kurt has finished inside the top 10 for the past seven races. Remember, he was involved in the incident that helped spur Matt Kenseth’s piledrive of Joey Logano.
7. Carl Edwards (LW: 11): We had to really think about Edwards’ position this week. How far does he move up after losing by inches to Harvick? Four spots seemed right, because Edwards has finished inside the top five three times this season. We’re thinking Edwards will win Sunday at Auto Club.
8. Austin Dillon (LW: 8): Dillon lost six spots over the final two laps but ended up finishing ninth. He lost those spots because he stayed out on the final caution; the second-straight time a track position play resulted in a top 10. Dilon’s got a top-10 rate of 75 percent this season and if he gets three more top 10s he’ll set a career high.
9. Joey Logano (LW: 6): A bad final pit stop ruined what could have been a top-five run for Logano. The team didn’t get the wrench in the back windshield to make a final adjustment and the car also didn’t get full of fuel, forcing Logano to pit before the final caution before he ran out of gas. He wound up 18th.
10. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (LW: 10): Junior restarted on the front row on the final restart but was overtaken by the shark that was Carl Edwards on two fresh tires. He then lost out to the other Joe Gibbs cars with fresh tires too and ended up fifth. With three top 10s, Junior is 10th in the points standings. That’s the power of one poor finish.
11. Martin Truex Jr. (LW: 9): Truex drops two spots after finishing 14th at Phoenix. Oh how we can all be so lucky to have a bad day inside the top 15. He hasn’t finished outside the top 15 since he finished 32nd at Richmond before last season’s Chase began.
12. Matt Kenseth (LW: NR): Welcome to Power Rankings, Matt. Have you been here before? Kenseth finally scored a top 10 after having one of the best cars throughout the entire season. Maybe Kenseth’s bad luck is over.
Lucky Dog: Chase Elliott
The DNF: Paul Menard and Ryan Newman brought up the rear of the field
Dropped out: Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
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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!
