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Power Rankings: Kyle Busch ascends to No. 1 after Indy win
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 happyhourmailbag@yahoo.com and we’ll try to have some fun.
1. Kyle Busch (LW: 5): When you lead 149 of 170 laps and no one can come close to passing you for the lead on the track, then there’s no argument against being atop Power Rankings. It was a performance as dominant as Martin Truex Jr.’s at Charlotte; there’s clearly something the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas have hit on when it comes to the combination of deft handling and outright speed. Busch also became the first driver to win Xfinity and Cup Series races from the pole in the same weekend.
2. Kevin Harvick (LW: 2): While Busch’s ass-kicking made the race boring for many, here’s a fun hypothetical. Who had the second-best car throughout the course of Sunday’s race? The argument can be made for many, including Harvick, who finished sixth. Harvick had to make his way through the field after he was forced to pit under green for what he thought was a flat tire. He ended up finishing sixth.
3. Joey Logano (LW: 3): Continuing with the hypothetical scenario of a race without Busch, we’d love to see what Logano’s three-stop strategy would have been like had he been the leader on those late-race restarts. Knowing that Team Penske was beat on speed, Logano and crew chief Todd Gordon were the only team in the entire field to pit three times (everyone else pitted more). And it almost worked out, though Logano faded to seventh on the overtime restart.
4. Brad Keselowski (LW: 1): Keselowski was on a very similar strategy; his (what would have been a) fourth pit stop was a two-tire stop that was designed for track position. He ended up getting caught up in the multi-car crash with Carl Edwards and other drivers and the damage meant a total of eight pit stops. Keselowski ended up finishing 17th, but he had the distinct honor of leading the second-most laps on Sunday (15).
5. Matt Kenseth (LW: 8): Kenseth ended up finishing second even though he qualified the lowest of all Joe Gibbs Racing drivers (18th). Only Austin Dillon (23rd) came from a lower starting position to finish in the top 10. Kenseth ended up making the biggest jump of anyone through the field and captured the win in the “non-Kyle Busch” class.
6. Jimmie Johnson (LW: 10): Not a bad rebound for a guy that once got lapped during the race. OK, Johnson wasn’t lapped because of a lack of outright speed, he was lapped because of a pit road penalty. Johnson was able to unlap himself and worked his way around the crashes to finish third.
7. Kurt Busch (LW: 5): Busch finished 16th, so we don’t get to cite his top-10 statistic this week. But he’s at least heading to Pocono, where he won in June. Busch is now 44 points behind teammate Kevin Harvick, and given Harvick’s performance this season, Busch is going to need a poor race or two from Harvick if he wants a chance at getting the regular season points title.
8. Martin Truex Jr. (LW: 7): There was one point late in the race where Truex checked out from the rest of the field along with Busch. But he wasn’t able to get within a second of Busch and wasn’t going to win the race without something happening to the No. 18. Truex also avoided a late-race calamity, though he’s probably wishing he finished better than eighth.
9. Denny Hamlin (LW: 10): Hamlin finished fourth after starting fourth. OK, so it wasn’t that simple, but Hamlin had a top-five car for most of the day but got a pit-road penalty and, like Harvick, had to drive his way through the field. Did Hamlin potentially have the second-best car of the race?
10. Tony Stewart (LW: 6): Stewart’s three-wide move for second on the first lap would be replayed for the rest of the season if it was part of a race-winning effort. Unfortunately for Stewart, things went south after that pass. The handling on his car disappeared and he dropped to 10th before the first round of pit stops. And then he lost a lap after he sped on pit road. Stewart probably could have finished fifth or sixth without the penalty and despite late crash damage, ended up 11th.
11. Kyle Larson (LW: NR): Thanks to Trevor Bayne’s late contact with Clint Bowyer, Larson is now in the top 15 in points after finishing fifth. Meanwhile, Bayne is three drivers outside the Chase in 18th. If Larson ends up pointing his way into the Chase, Indianapolis will end up being the moment where his season turned around. Or, at least, got a monstrous boost.
12. Austin Dillon (LW: NR): Three drivers ahead of Larson is Dillon in 12th. Dillon finished ninth on Sunday and is just five points behind Chase Elliott for the title of “most points for a driver without a win in 2016.” Dillon is following the vaunted Ryan Newman trajectory of getting into the Chase without a win and we’re confident that not only Dillon will make the Chase, he’ll also not win a race unless we get a crazy fuel-mileage finish. Richard Childress Racing still needs a bit more speed.
The Lucky Dog: Both Front Row Racing’s drivers (Chris Buescher, 14th, Landon Cassill, 20th) finished in the top 20.
The DNF: Man, this is not Greg Biffle’s year.
Dropped Out: Ryan Newman, Jamie McMurray
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
