Power Rankings: Jimmie Johnson ascends 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 nickbromberg@yahoo.com and we’ll try to have some fun.

1. Jimmie Johnson (LW: 3): Johnson’s second win of 2017 was just his second win in 31 starts at Bristol. He said in victory lane that he and crew chief Chad Knaus found something during Saturday’s practices. We of course don’t know the details of what that exact something is, but Knaus said after the race that it helped that other teams were struggling for setup edges because of the sticky stuff Bristol laid down in the bottom groove.

“Now, the thing that’s difficult is he drives a race car way different than other people do, and what he likes to feel in the race car is significantly different than what a lot of other drivers like to have,” Knaus said. “The track surface being the way that it was I think is exactly what we needed because everybody was searching, people were sliding all over the racetrack, they were complaining and nobody was really in a comfortable state of mind, and that’s when I think the 48 team excels is when there’s chaos. I think between Jimmie’s experience, his driving ability and what we can do with the race car, that’s what we excel.”

Knaus — like always — is likely on to something with that. Teams were very unfamiliar with the tricky new surface at Texas and look what the No. 48 team pulled off there.

2. Kyle Larson (LW: 2): Larson threw away his chances at winning the race when he sped on pit road with 77 laps to go. If you were watching the Fox broadcast, you would have thought he sped leaving the pits despite having the final pit stall on pit road. After Larson’s penalty, Fox broadcaster Mike Joy tried to explain to fans that Larson got caught speeding because he went “straight out” of his pit stall and he got “caught speeding in this last 50 lap segment that is pie-shaped,” whatever the hell that actually means.

Anyway, Larson was not penalized for speeding after he pitted. He was caught speeding on pit entry. Once again, take everything that Fox tells you with a grain of salt. Their broadcasts can have a very hard time getting basic facts right.

Larson finished sixth after a two-tire pit stop gave him some track position after the speeding penalty. It’s fair to wonder if he would have had something for Johnson at the end of the race if he had four fresh tires.

3. Brad Keselowski (LW: 1): Keselowski wasn’t very fast all day and had to take his car behind the wall for rear brake and steering issues. He finished 34th.

4. Clint Bowyer (LW: 8): Bowyer got past Larson and teammate Kevin Harvick for second in the final laps but had nothing for Johnson, who coasted to victory.

“It was one of those deals where I gained on him a little bit in the first few laps that I got in second, and I was really hard on my stuff, and then you start doing stupid stuff, trying to free it up, putting more rear brake in it and stuff that you know is probably not going to work, but you’re just desperate and trying anything you can possibly do,” Bowyer said. “Started getting loose in, and I just kind of had to protect the ride. It is frustrating, you could see him out there, but dammit, you’d think he’d get tired of winning all these races.”

Bowyer, who hasn’t won in over four years, will get to victory lane soon enough if the performance of his No. 14 team stays where it is.

5. Kevin Harvick (LW: 7): Harvick had a revealing quote about the speed of his car at the end of Monday’s race. He stayed out on old tires to gain track position on the final set of pit stops and inherited the lead. But because he had old tires he was no match for the drivers who had fresh tires behind him.

“I thought our Jimmy Johns Ford was the fastest car, we just needed track position. I think we showed how fast it was there on no tires and kind of able to hold our own. You just never know where you’re going to come out on those restarts.”

6. Chase Elliott (LW: 4): Elliott finished seventh, his sixth top-10 finish in eight races. He’s having a start to the season that would get a lot more attention if it wasn’t for Larson, the driver ahead of him in the points standings.

In true Elliott form, he called his seventh-place finish and his race that led to it “alright.” It’s a description that Elliott may end up using for his first career win whenever it happens.

“It was alright we just kind of got behind through those mid-stages and fought back a little bit, just not enough.”

7. Joey Logano (LW: 5): The sport’s forgotten young gun — he’s never mentioned as one of its young drivers despite being a month younger than Austin Dillon — finished fifth. Logano hasn’t had the right combination of speed and luck yet in 2017 but he’s fourth in the points standings.

He was passed for the lead by Johnson after a restart with just over 100 laps to go and said it was because his car wasn’t effective immediately after restarts.

“Yeah, we weren’t a restarter today,” Logano said. “Kind of non-typical for the 22. It’s usually a short-run speed car. I started out hitting the splitter, up the race track, I was all over the place. I couldn’t even retain the lead when we had it. That probably cost us the race when we lost the lead to the 48. Good long run car, just didn’t have enough long runs.”

8. Martin Truex Jr. (LW: 6): Truex beat Johnson off pit road after the final pit stops of the race. But he sped leaving his pit stall and had to restart at the end of the field.

That allowed Johnson to be the first car restarting on four fresh tires and also cost Truex any shot at the win. He worked his way through the field to finish eighth.

“This is the best run we’ve had here in a long time,” Truex said. “It’s bittersweet, I wish we could have seen if we could have beat the 48 (Jimmie Johnson). We were close there before that last caution, but it is what it is and you try to get what you can get and sometimes you cross the line and today we crossed the line. All in all, it was an awesome day and a lot of fun. Had the VHT not worn out quite as bad then we would have really killed them.”

9. Jamie McMurray (LW: 11): That sneaky McMurray is tied for sixth with Jimmie Johnson in the points standings. He finished 12th on Monday.

10. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (LW: NR): Another Bristol race, another good finish for Stenhouse, who finished ninth. The trick for Stenhouse over the last few years has been to get the same results at other tracks that he’s been getting at Bristol. And he’s well on his way to doing that this year. After six top-10 finishes in 36 races last season, Stenhouse has three already in 2017.

11. Trevor Bayne (LW: NR): Bayne is four spots ahead of Stenhouse in the standings and finished two spots behind Stenhouse at Bristol. Bayne’s best finish of the season is a 10th at Daytona; but his worst has been a 23rd at Auto Club. That’s very Paul Menardish and we all saw how that type of performance got Menard into the playoffs before.

12. Kyle Busch (LW: 9): Busch had one of the fastest cars on Monday but he also had one of the more incident-prone cars too. Two right-front tire issues led to two smacks of the wall and ultimately, a retirement from the race.

Lucky Dog: Denny Hamlin finished 10th and it seems only a matter of time before he’s contending for a win regularly.

The DNF: Chris Buescher’s day ended after Kurt Busch spun.

Dropped Out: Ryan Blaney, Dale Earnhardt Jr.