A constant through the opening months of the season saw Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano and Martin Truex Jr. finish in the top-10 in all seven races. Not surprisingly due to Bristol Motor Speedway’s propensity for chewing up cars, the respective streaks of Harvick, Logano and Truex came to a crashing halt -- literally -- Sunday night in the Food City 500.
Despite Bristol setback, Kevin Harvick still atop NASCAR power rankings
He may have posted his worst finish of the season, but that’s no reason to drop Kevin Harvick out of the No. 1 slot in the weekly rankings.
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1. Kevin Harvick (Last week: 1)
Not since Martinsville last October has Harvick finished outside the top 10; a 10-race span that includes four wins and five runner-ups. And though he finished 38th Sunday, he’s more than deserving to maintain the No. 1 ranking, as he led a race-high 184 laps at Bristol.
2. Jimmie Johnson (LW: 3)
Could Jimmie Johnson have exercised greater patience working around Jeb Burton, a rookie who had been off pace all night? Absolutely, but Bristol is renowned for testing a drivers nerves, and don’t forget Johnson had been victimized 20 laps before when Kurt Busch broke loose and pushed the 48 car into the wall. And if you’re going to criticize Johnson, you also need to praise him for coming back from a lap down with a busted car to finish second.
3. Joey Logano (LW: 2)
One day you’re the dog, the next you’re the tree. Witness Logano being untouchable during Saturday’s Xfinity Series race where he led all 300 lap. Then on Sunday, just minutes after the green flag fell, any chance of going back-to-back ended when teammate Brad Keselowski spun, leaving Logano nowhere to escape. He finished 40th.
4. Jeff Gordon (LW: 7)
Bristol mixed a lot of good and bad for Jeff Gordon. The good: His two young children gave a very sweet command to start the race. The bad: Although he had a potential race-winning car, Gordon dropped two laps due to a loose wheel. The good: He recovered to finish third, his fifth consecutive top-10 after a rough start to the season.
5. Brad Keselowski (LW: 4)
An expected contender, Keselowski never got to show his car’s capability. Just 19 laps in, the No. 2 machine veered sideways -- either because Keselowski lost control or hit a wet patch, it was never determined exactly -- where he was then clobbered by Logano. The contact effectively ruined both the Team Penske cars and turned a once promising day into anything but.
6. Martin Truex Jr. (LW: 5)
Bristol just wasn’t meant to be for Truex, who suffered a litany of issues. First a loose wheel required an unscheduled pit stop, costing him several laps. Then he pancaked the wall, and topping off the night was getting a piece of the multicar incident triggered when Tony Stewart bumped Kasey Kahne.
7. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (LW: 6)
Ill-fastened wheels have been widespread this season, with teams adjusting to officials no longer policing whether all the lug nuts are on during a pit stop. This is an issue Dale Earnhardt Jr. knows more about than most, because for the third time in four races he had to make an unscheduled stop to correct the problem. A week ago at Texas, he rallied to finish third. But despite a very fast car, there would be no comeback with Earnhardt trapped multiple laps down, which relegated him to 16th.
8. Matt Kenseth (LW: Unranked)
Joe Gibbs Racing may be lacking on intermediate speedways, but it certainly has its Toyotas primed for the half-miles. As Matt Kenseth’s victory Sunday made JGR 2-for-2 on short tracks this season, and wouldn’t you know it, another such kind of oval awaits Saturday night at Richmond.
9. Kasey Kahne (LW: 9)
A strong run was negated when Stewart, enjoying his best race of the season, tagged Kahne 18 laps from the scheduled finish, sending him into the inside wall. If any good came out of the incident, it was the gem of a quote Kahne offered surmising what happened: “He’s running better than he usually does; maybe he’s just excited.”
10. Denny Hamlin (LW: 8)
With a victory already registered, it would’ve been a mistake for Joe Gibbs Racing to put Denny Hamlin back on the track with neck spasms where he couldn’t rotate without severe discomfort. And it speaks to the depth of JGR that the team has 18-year-old Erik Jones, a future Cup star, on its bench. Hamlin says he’ll be 100 percent for Richmond, his home track where he owns a pair of wins.
11. Ryan Newman (LW: 11)
A fifth-place finish is a nice way to ease the sting of knowing your crew chief is going to be suspended six weeks (barring an unexpected reversal of his final appeal). And the result bumped Ryan Newman up to 16th in the standings, giving him hope he could theoretically make the Chase on points -- not have to win a race.
12. Kurt Busch (LW: 10)
The call to pit out of the lead with 23 laps to go was curious and directly contributed to Busch piling into a spinning Carl Edwards shortly thereafter. But Busch supported the decision post-race, saying he needed fresh tires to win and winning, not points, is all he and his team care about. That is the correct mindset, considering Busch missed three races and won’t likely be high enough in the standings to earn a Chase for the Sprint Cup berth.
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