Power Rankings: Brad Keselowski gets 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. Brad Keselowski (LW: 5): Keselowski now has five restrictor plate wins since 2009, the most of any driver in that timeframe. You’ve probably seen that statistic by now, so it’s not news to you. Does that statistic make him the best restrictor plate driver in recent years?

We’re inclined to say yes, especially if we’re talking about this type of restrictor plate racing that’s increasingly influenced by the side draft. Dale Earnhardt’s 2000 charge at Talladega would be impossible with the 2016 rules — no driver, no matter how good he is at restrictor plate racing, can make up those spots in such a short timeframe with the current setup.

Keselowski’s greatest strength as a driver may be his adaptability. While many fans may not like him or agree with what he says at times, you can’t deny that his uniqueness has helped make him one of the most successful drivers in the Cup Series.

2. Joey Logano (LW: 2): Logano finished fourth and didn’t make Kurt Busch too happy after Busch went spinning off his bumper on the final lap. Team owner Roger Penske said following Saturday night’s race that he felt Logano has taken some “undue criticism.”

“But quite honestly, I think he’s one of the best drivers on the racetrack out there day in and day out, and sure, people make mistakes,” Penske said. “A lot of these drivers can knock somebody off the track, and they say, hey, I’m sorry, you follow me, and they move on. They don’t let Logano do that. As far as I’m concerned, I’m behind him 300 percent, and I’ll talk to Kurt, he didn’t do it on purpose. It could have been a big mess down there tonight, too, and at the end of the day, that’s racing as far as I’m concerned.”

3. Kurt Busch (LW: 1): While we’re inclined to agree that Logano has been villainized unfairly in the past, Busch had every right to be frustrated with what happened on Saturday. Logano’s mistake ruined a potential top-five finish. Had he finished third, Busch could have also left the race tied with teammate Kevin Harvick for the points lead. Instead he finished 23rd.

For what it’s worth, Logano said Monday that he understood Busch’s frustration.

4. Kyle Larson (LW: 10): Here’s where it starts to get messy. We already had a driver finish 23rd a spot above, and with most of last week’s top 10 crashing out at Daytona, it’s a bit of a struggle. Enter Larson, who finished sixth and has quietly also become a pretty good restrictor plate racer. His stats aren’t great, especially at Daytona. But crash avoidance is more luck that skill at plate tracks and Larson finished seventh in the Daytona 500.

5. Kyle Busch (LW: NR): Busch makes a jump from outside the rankings into the top five with a second-place finish. He also finished second to Keselowski at Talladega and has the best average finish of any driver at restrictor plate races this season because he finished third in the Daytona 500. With a win at Talladega in the fall, his plate track average finish will be just 0.25 spots worse than Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s in 2015.

6. Kevin Harvick (LW: 3): Harvick still has the points lead after he was caught in that massive 22-car pileup. But it’s down to 14 points over Keselowski and 20 points over Kurt Busch. Harvick had planned to run at the back of the pack with teammate Tony Stewart for most of the evening and it backfired when he had nowhere to go when the crash happened. Well, OK, he did have somewhere to go. That somewhere was under Brian Scott’s car. Yikes.

7. Martin Truex Jr. (LW: 4): Ah, yes, we’re in the “caught in the pileup” part of the Power Rankings program. Truex was also involved in that accident. He was one of three cars on three different teams (Stewart and Austin Dillon the other two) who were sponsored by Bass Pro Shops during Saturday night’s race. That’s a fact that may only interest us, but there’s only so many things you can say about a crash.

8. Chase Elliott (LW: 6): And instead of rehashing the crash in this space, we’ll use it to comment on the hideousness of Elliott’s paint scheme Saturday night. That car was horrific.

Elliott has three finishes below 30th this season. They all have come because of crashes and two of them have come at Daytona.

9. Denny Hamlin (LW: 12): The Daytona 500 champion couldn’t recreate the magic. Hamlin finished 17th and led seven laps. And we’ve also got to compliment Hamlin’s paint scheme Saturday night. He designed the FedEx scheme and we wouldn’t complain if it became the full-time design.

10. Carl Edwards (LW: 7): Edwards got caught up in the final two crashes of the night. The first was when he had nowhere to go when Tony Stewart spun, the second was the final caution of the night that involved AJ Allmendinger, Ryan Blaney and others. Despite finishing five laps down and officially out of the race due to a crash, Edwards finished 25th.

11. Jimmie Johnson (LW: 9): Johnson had nowhere to go after Jamie McMurray made door-to-door contact with Kyle Larson. Directly behind McMurray and with a car right behind him, Johnson couldn’t do anything as that 22-car pileup started. Perhaps no one is more indicative of the randomness of plate racing than Johnson. His highest finish in the three plate races this year is 16th. Last year, his average finish was 6.75. In 2014, his average finish was 23.5.

12. Tony Stewart (LW: 8): Stewart barely hangs on to a spot in Power Rankings thanks to everyone else’s crashiness. And his presence in the top 30. We have no doubts that Stewart will outrun Brian Scott and Regan Smith over the next nine races of the regular season. But don’t expect Stewart to charge into the top 20 either. He’s 31 points out of 29th and 178 points out of Kyle Larson in 20th. As an idea of how large that 10-spot deficit is, Larson is just 175 points behind Harvick.

Lucky Dog: How about Michael McDowell and his third-career top 10?

The DNF: It’s too hard to pick just one.

Dropped Out: Matt Kenseth

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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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