Power Rankings: Truex has to be No. 1 after the 600
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. Martin Truex Jr. (LW: 6): You can’t not be No. 1 after you lead 588 of 600 miles. It’s just not possible. OK, we’re making this rule up because we didn’t think it needed to exist. So you can say our Power Rankings guidelines are a bit like NASCAR’s All-Star Race officiating.
On a serious note, what Truex and his Furniture Row team did to everyone else Sunday night was pretty damn impressive. But this is NASCAR, a sport where secrets aren’t secret for very long. And keep in mind that the Chase has five 1.5-mile tracks.
2. Kevin Harvick (LW: 3): First runner-up to Truex isn’t an embarrassing finish. And Harvick said he was happy with the way his team bounced back to grab best in the non-78 class after having what he believed as a 10th-place car for the first two-thirds of the race. The finish also allowed Harvick to extend his regular season points lead over the driver who …
3. Kurt Busch (LW: 2): … is a spot lower in Power Rankings. Another race, another top 10 for Kurt Busch. Big whoop. Busch’s remarkable consistency continued again on Sunday with his circuit-leading 11th top-10 finish in 13 races. In case you were wondering, Busch had 11 top-10 finishes in his first season at Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014 and had 10 top 10s in 2008 with Team Penske.
4. Jimmie Johnson (LW: 9): Johnson finished third and is third in the points standings. He was the only guy that really gave Truex a run for the lead, and even then it wasn’t a fair fight when Johnson couldn’t clear Truex. If Johnson would have gotten the extra few feet to clear Truex after the final restart, there’s a chance Truex may not have been able to get by him. But Truex’s car was so good that Johnson couldn’t clear him, so it didn’t matter.
5. Matt Kenseth (LW: 1): Dropping Kenseth four spots after finishing seventh seems really harsh. But the guy now No. 1 was crazy-good and the other four drivers ahead of him in this week’s rankings also finished ahead of him at the 600. Sometimes it’s not about what you do but more about what people around you have done.
6. Brad Keselowski (LW: 7): Keselowski finished fifth after starting fifth. Unlike Truex, he didn’t stay in the same position the entire night, but was a mainstay within the top 10 for the entire race. It was his third-straight top-10 finish at Charlotte and the fifth in his last six races there.
7. Chase Elliott (LW: 3): Because of all the focus on the 2016 rookie class, is it possible that Elliott’s excellence has gone a little underappreciated? It feels like Elliott’s always viewed in a rookie prism along with Ryan Blaney, Chris Buescher and Brian Scott. While we should be viewing Elliott along with the Sprint Cup Series’ best. He finished eighth on Sunday and is eighth in the points standings, seven spots ahead of his nearest rookie competitor.
8. Kyle Busch (LW: 3): Busch smashed into the wall so hard with less than 10 laps to go that he took his car directly to the garage. Before he hit the wall, Busch wasn’t in the same zip code as the main people chasing Truex.
9. Carl Edwards (LW: 8): The defending champion of the 600 finished 18th after he sped on pit road. Twice. Edwards was caught for speeding entering the pits on lap 297, and as he came back to serve the pass-through penalty, he got caught speeding again. The second penalty resulted in a stop-and-go penalty and Edwards finished a lap down.
10. Denny Hamlin (LW: NR): Hamlin finished fourth on Sunday, his first top-five finish since he finished third at Auto Club Speedway in March. He was fourth in the standings after that race and entered Charlotte 13th in the standings, a drop of nine spots in seven races. Three finishes worse than 30th will do that.
11. Kyle Larson (LW: 10): Larson finished 13th on Sunday night. It was his fifth-best finish of the first 13 races, yet perhaps a bit disappointing given how well he ran at Dover and in the All-Star Race. We know Larson is capable of top-five finishes, now we need to find out if he’s capable of consistency. The Dover/Charlotte streak was the first time all year he’s recorded two-straight top-15 finishes.
12. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (LW: 11): Junior hasn’t recorded a top-10 finish since he was second at Bristol five races ago. In that stretch, he’s gone 13th, 40th, 15th, 32nd and 14th. The two poor finishes were crashes, so Junior isn’t too far off. And Pocono is next. We all know how good he’s been at Pocono recently. Perhaps it’s the elixir Junior needs.
Lucky Dog: Uh, this one is tough. The top 20 was pretty chalk. We’ll go with Joey Logano, who rebounded from three-straight points races of crashes to finish ninth.
The DNF: Reed Sorenson’s Hauling Bass car was not, well, hauling (b)ass. He only completed half the laps because of what was termed a clutch issue.
Dropped Out: Ryan Blaney
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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!
