Power Rankings: Was Sunday’s race at Dover or Talladega?
Welcome to 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. Matt Kenseth (LW: 11): Yes, Matt Kenseth gets to move up 10 spots this week. If you ever – inexplicably –- questioned Kenseth’s championship credentials, just watch the final 35 laps of Sunday’s race. It was about as perfect of a run as you can have. But we’ll also admit that Kenseth is also No. 1 partially because there’s no one else to have here. Eight of the top 10 drivers in last week’s rankings crashed.
2. Kurt Busch (LW: 4): Busch looked like he was going to be a contender for the win late in the race. But he smacked the wall on the backstretch while running in third. As has become typical for Busch’s 2016, he kept it near the front of the field and finished fifth. Thanks to the struggles of his brother and his teammate Harvick, Busch is the first driver in the Cup Series to have 10 top-10 finishes.
3 (tie). Kyle Busch (LW: 1): Busch wasn’t having the best of days on Sunday. He was battling some handling issues and a possible broken part and was mired in the back half of the top 20 when the giant restart crash happened. But, as Busch noted following the accident, had he been up front when the crash happened, he still probably would have been involved in it.
3 (tie). Chase Elliott (LW: 5): Here’s one of the two drivers from last week’s top 10 who didn’t have an accident. And yes, we did have a fleeting moment of thought where we wondered if Elliott should be the rightful owner of the top spot in Power Rankings this week. Instead, a tie for second seems about right. If he gets a win soon, we’ll have no problem putting him at No. 1.
3 (tie). Kevin Harvick (LW: 2): Harvick had the fastest car throughout the first half of the race. Had the competition caution not happened, who knows how many cars Harvick would have lapped before the first caution of the race. Instead, Harvick’s lead got wiped out and he never established that type of dominance again the rest of the race. He finished 15th after he got caught in the 18-car pileup.
6. Martin Truex Jr. (LW: 3): Oh man, what can go wrong will go wrong for Truex. Just before the restart that ended in an 18-car pileup, Truex slowed on pit road to guarantee a spot restarting on the outside. Of course, that meant Truex started behind Jimmie Johnson and as Truex pushed Johnson’s car, Johnson was stuck in gear. You know what happened next.
7. Brad Keselowski (LW: 6): Keselowski’s race was saved by that big crash. While running second, he ran into the damaged car of Austin Dillon on the backstretch and punched a huge hole in the right-front fender of his car. The team fixed up the damage on the ensuing caution – which mysteriously came multiple laps later for the debris from Keselowski’s car – and ended up finishing sixth.
8. Carl Edwards (LW: 7): We think Edwards would have won the race had he not crashed. Alas, he crashed. So our thoughts were irrelevant. Edwards got loose, spun off Kyle Larson’s bumper and hit head-on into the SAFER barrier on the inside of the backstretch. Congratulations to Dover for having SAFER barrier in that spot, but we also realize how empty those kudos feel.
9. Jimmie Johnson (LW: 8): Here’s what Johnson said happened on that restart.
“I got a great start in second gear,” Johnson said. “As I went to put it in third (gear) and came across the shifting gate it never went into third. It actually got locked in the neutral area of the transmission.”
Yikes. Crazily enough, Johnson’s car didn’t have a ton of damage because the melee started as everyone piled into each other trying to avoid him. But with a messed up transmission, Johnson didn’t exactly have a car that could race again.
The transmission issue also overshadows what could have been a spin-and-win comeback for the No. 48 team after Johnson spun in fluid dropped by Reed Sorenson’s car earlier in the race.
10. Kyle Larson (LW: NR): Can you imagine the debate this week if Larson would have put a bumper to Matt Kenseth and moved Kenseth out of the way for the win? The debate would be merciless on its own, but within the context of Kenseth’s feud with Joey Logano in 2015, it would be almost unbearable.
Thankfully for the sanity of most of those who follow NASCAR, Larson kept it clean. Yeah, he didn’t get the win, but if Chip Ganassi Racing has consistent speed, Dover won’t be an anomoly.
11. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (LW: 10): Junior was oh-so-close to avoiding the pileup but got slammed by Casey Mears’ sliding car after he avoided the initial crash. Junior finished 32nd as a result and is now 11th in the points standings. Oh no, Junior is going to fall out of the top 16 and it’s time for everyone to panic.
That previous sentence was heavy sarcasm. Everything’s going to be just fine, Junior Nation.
12. Ryan Blaney (LW: 12): Blaney finished eighth on Sunday. He also avoided Edwards’ wrecked car by keeping his car pointed straight down the backstretch. Blaney said after the race he felt he could have finished better but the car was slower on the final run.
Lucky Dog: Kasey Kahne is now 16th in the points standings after finishing fourth. Though his car failed post-race laser inspection after the race. We’ll find out what the penalties are this week.
The DNF: Matt DiBenedetto was 40th.
Dropped Out: Austin Dillon
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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!
