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Power Rankings: A win vaults Jimmie Johnson to No. 1
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. Jimmie Johnson (LW: 8): Let’s get wild in this week’s set of Power Rankings. The wackiness of Sunday’s race along with the points reset following Dover makes it easy to shuffle the deck, so we’re going to vault Jimmie Johnson to the top spot. The win is exceptionally important for Johnson because of his luck at Talladega over the past few years. Since he won the spring race in 2011 he’s gotten two top-five finishes and his average finish is 18.5.
Past performance is especially not an indicator of future results at Talladega, but now the strategy plays are wide open. Johnson can drive to avoid a crash, run for the win to deny another driver an opportunity to move on in the Chase or work with Chase Elliott in the hopes of getting the No. 24 to the round of eight.
2. Matt Kenseth (LW: 5): Kenseth finished second to Johnson and gave the No. 48 a run after the race’s final restart. But Kenseth couldn’t keep Johnson pinched down to the bottom of the track and Johnson scooted away for the win.
A year ago Kenseth finished 42nd at Charlotte after hitting the wall. That finish is why Kenseth was so livid after getting spun by Joey Logano at Kansas and ultimately finishing 14th. If Kenseth finishes 14th on Sunday he’s going to be in pretty good shape heading to Talladega.
3. Kyle Busch (LW: 3): If Kyle Busch advances out of the second round of the Chase, Charlotte is why. The left front of his car was trashed after he made contact with Chase Elliott during the restart melee.
The team was able to get the car patched up after the wreck and Busch still had enough speed to finish sixth. Oh, and that restart clog came after Busch had been forced to pit earlier in the race because of a tire issue. This could be the No. 18 team’s signature Chase moment of 2016.
4. Brad Keselowski (LW: 2): Keselowski finished a spot behind Busch in seventh. And that’s about where Keselowski’s car stacked up with everyone else’s throughout the course of the day. He qualified 21st and worked his way into the top ten in the race’s early stages though he never became a fixture in the top five.
But Keselowski has a 25-point lead over ninth. With another top-10 finish at Kansas, he’s got to be the most comfortable driver (without a round two win) heading to Talladega.
5. Martin Truex Jr. (LW: 1): If this was, say, Chicago, a driver’s car stalling on pit road during the final pit stop of the day would big a big story. Charlotte was not anything like Chicago.
Truex rebounded and finished 13th, the lowest of any Chaser who didn’t have a (big) problem on Sunday. He’s 19 points ahead of Elliott, the driver in ninth.
6. Kurt Busch (LW: 12): Busch finished eighth but we’re keeping him behind Truex because the No. 78 showed race-winning speed. Busch had top-10 speed, which is perfectly acceptable in the context of this race given the calamity below him in the standings.
7. Kevin Harvick (LW: 4): Anyone going to doubt that Harvick can or will win at Kansas or Talladega? Thought so.
Kansas has been very good to Harvick recently. Since he won the fall race in 2013 (his last race at the track with Richard Childress Racing, he’s finished second three times and 12th and 16th. Though it’s worth noting that the three second-place finishes have all come in the spring.
We’re picking the No. 4 car for the win on Sunday and will be surprised if he finishes outside the top five.
8. Denny Hamlin (LW: 6): Hamlin was in position to have a massive points lead on ninth-place when his engine expired. It’s hard to drop a driver when he and his team have done everything they can to be in a great spot and get derailed by a mechanical failure.
While Hamlin has every right to lament his luck at Charlotte, he’s at least in a position where he’s in the best spot among the five Chasers now in the vicinity of the final spot in the third round.
9. Carl Edwards (LW: 11): Edwards’ 12th-place finish could have been a lot worse. He said something came apart in the exhaust — an issue that can lead to a terminal failure — and he also sustained damage in the restart melee.
Edwards has made no secret of his desire to win at Kansas, a track just two hours from his hometown. A win on Sunday may be the most important of his career.
10. Chase Elliott (LW: 7): The intermediate track speed Hendrick Motorsports is showing in the Chase (for the Sprint Cup, not Elliott) is no fluke. Elliott was going to be a contender for the win until he was taken out when Austin Dillon’s car didn’t accelerate with the rest of the field.
Elliott has led 342 laps in 2016. 179 have come in the Chase. The No. 24 team is stepping it up and don’t be surprised if he leads more laps at Kansas.
11. Joey Logano (LW: 9): The guy who swept the second round in 2015 is in a dicey spot thanks to two tire issues at Charlotte. The first was fixable … the second was not. The first tire issue was a left-front failure. The second was a right-front failure, possibly because of the damage sustained when Logano’s car first hit the wall.
12. Austin Dillon (LW: 10): We applaud the aggressiveness the No. 3 team showed to restart on the front row on lap 260. A two-tire pit stop put the No. 3 there alongside Jimmie Johnson.
And then things went horribly wrong. It was nearly a first-to-worst accident as Dillon’s car slammed into the inside wall and 11 other drivers were collected after Martin Truex Jr. bumped into Dillon.
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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!
