Power Rankings: How far does Carl Edwards climb?

Our Power Rankings are far from a scientific formula. In fact, it's the perfect blend of analytics and bias against your favorite driver. And you think we dislike your favorite driver, so it makes sense, right? Direct all your complaints to us at happyhourmailbag@yahoo.com and we'll try to have some fun while keeping in mind the somber news of Monday night.

1. Kevin Harvick (LW: 1): Harvick keeps the top spot after he finished fifth. He had one of the race's fastest cars but wasn't able to make up any time on pit road. Remember, Carl Edwards got the win by going from third to first on pit road on the final stop. We're also going to go ahead and get this out of the way now: NASCAR could have easily not called a caution for Jeb Burton's slide to set up the finish. With the way Edwards, Harvick and Brad Keselowski were going after each other, we were in store for a great finish.

2. Joey Logano (LW: 2): Logano finished one spot ahead of Harvick and therefore gets to be one spot behind him again in Power Rankings. Yeah, we know. We make a lot of sense sometimes. Logano led 29 laps and came off pit road on the final restart in fourth. That's where he finished, but we kind of gave that away with the first sentence. He's now heading to Richmond, a track where both he and Harvick have been very good at lately.

3. Kyle Busch (LW: 3): Busch finished seventh Sunday night. But most importantly, he's guaranteed to be in the Chase no matter what because it's mathematically impossible for Busch to fall out of the top 30. As he went on his four wins in five races tear, the odds of Busch missing the Chase went down dramatically. But it wasn't guaranteed until Sunday. He's one of the favorites for the Chase, unless you believe the Chase still has a mind-hex on Busch and he'll flame out early (again).

4. Carl Edwards (LW: 10): It was a perfect night for Edwards. One of the low-downforce advocates won a low-downforce race and he had this to say after the race was over. "Pack racing" reference, anyone? "I really think we're at a bigger crossroads than most people realize," Edwards said. "I think this is an opportunity for the sport to go in one of two directions. They can go the direction of making the sport competitive because the cars are easy to drive and everyone's car is about the same and we can basically have Talladega every week, or they can go the direction of making the cars extremely hard to drive and showing the massive talent of the drivers, the crew chiefs and the pit crews, and I hope that they take the latter. I hope they really keep going this direction."

5. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (LW: 6): Add Junior to the list of drivers who said he was having fun Sunday night. He finished eighth and said "I love the package" (get your mind out of the gutter) and "The car was a lot of fun to drive all night." He said that also with the caveat that his team wasn't very good when it arrived at Darlington and spent the weekend searching for the right balance. If drivers' silence after Michigan said something, their compliments should speak even louder.

6. Brad Keselowski (LW: 8): How about this. Instead of a late caution to set up drama during the final 10 Chase races, we hope that we don't have any cautions at all within the last 40 laps and instead have the three best cars at the end of the race trade passing attempts over a long green flag run to see who wins. Anyone else in favor of this? Because man, the final laps could have been epic on old tires without that last caution. Keselowski finished second, by the way.

7. Martin Truex Jr. (LW: 7): Truex ended up finishing ninth. While we appreciated the teal-themed car that Truex ran in support of Ovarian cancer and his girlfriend Sherry Pollex, the teal words on his black car were a bit hard to read. It would have been awesome if he would have run a teal car. Because when you're running a teal car, everyone knows you're running a teal car.

8. Jimmie Johnson (LW: 5): Anyone else surprised Johnson didn't have a good night? After spinning and dropping back in the pack, Johnson ended up finishing 19th. But if you look at it from the wide view, does a bad finish at Darlington really mean anything when it comes to the Chase? No, it doesn't. These rules aren't going to be used for the next 11 weeks. So don't go saying Johnson isn't a contender because of what you saw on Sunday night.

9. Matt Kenseth (LW: 4): Kenseth had a fast car. Well, it looked like had a fast car in the early laps of the race. There really wasn't much time to make a judgment until he got loose off the corner and smacked into the wall. He hit at such an angle that it completely demolished the right-rear quarterpanel and knocked the decklid off the car too. He had to pit under green but since the incident came so early in the race, his team was able to get back on the lead lap for a 21st-place finish.

10. Denny Hamlin (LW: 9): Bumping Hamlin down a spot after finishing third seems cruel. But the two drivers ahead of him already had fallen three and five spots respectively and everyone else in the top 10 also finished in the top 10. Sorry, Denny. We're also wondering what the odds are going to be of the four Gibbs cars making it to the final round of the Chase. They're not going to be large by any means, but they're going to exist.

11. Kurt Busch (LW: 11): Here's another guy who went for a slide during Sunday night's race. He fought back to finish sixth, one spot ahead of his brother. Busch said his car was a race-winning car and also said that he could still feel the difference between clean and dirty air with the lower spoilers on the cars. “Definitely still where you struggle is in dirty air," Busch said. "There needs to be less differential between clean air and dirty air. I ran second most of the race, third, when we did get to the lead it was like the car found another gear.  The package in general is a nice balance of slip sliding around and being on the edge."

12. Ryan Newman (LW: 12): We were looking for another candidate for the final spot, but Newman quickly ended that search. Kyle Larson, Aric Almirola and Kasey Kahne finished 10th-12th and were options for this spot. But Newman was 13th. Sorry guys, Newman gets to stay here. He's also pretty much guaranteed into the Chase, barring a catastrophe or tire manipulation penalty at Richmond. KEEP THOSE TIRES PRISTINE, RCR.

Lucky Dog: Let's give it to Landon Cassill, who got his third top-20 of the season.

The DNF: Danica Patrick finished 42nd.

Dropped Out: None

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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!

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