Pit Road Week 4: Bristol

Weekly Review and Power Rankings

Week 4

By Richard Tix

Rain, rain, and more rain. That's how Sunday went at Bristol, but eventually NASCAR and the Air Titan threw the knock out punch to mother nature.  Fan's waited around 6 hours to finally get the race in, but the wait was well worth it.  After a morning shower that originally started the race behind schedule, rain came back into play and set NASCAR even further behind. Talk's of a Monday day race started swirling.

Finally NASCAR found a window and got back to racing. Once back the on track performance was fun, exciting, and a little strange. Throughout the race it seemed like a lot of the strong cars continually went down. Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, Jimmie Johnson, Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Jamie McMurray, and Dale Earnhardt Jr to name a few. 

In the end, fans still got some good racing even though there favorite driver may have been out or limping around the track. Carl Edwards came on late and when he did he came on strong and got his first win of 2014. Young guys Ricky Stenhouse, Aric Almilrola,  Kyle Larson, and Austin Dillon all ended with good days (nights). 

NASCAR will leave that on strange spring night in Bristol behind and head to Auto Club Speedway where things got turned up a notch in 2013. If you missed it, here are the full race results. Also, check out the Bristol preview.


Pit Road: Power Rankings Week 4 (Week 3 Power Rankings)

1. Brad Keselowski (LW-2)- Just like in the points standings, he moves up because of everyone else's huge fall down. He had a late run in with oil on the track and the rear end of Jamie McMurray that hurt his chances of winning, but he still limped it around for a 14th place finish
2. Jeff Gordon (LW-4)- Gordon starts the season out with 4 top 10's for the first time in his career. Just think about that for a moment....Some were writing him off a bit to start the year, maybe he still has it in him for another title run?
3. Dale Earnhardt Jr (LW-1)- A long day for Jr turned into a long night. He looked to have a strong car early though. He is safe for the Chase, so this wont hurt him much. Another strong finish next week will move him right back up these rankings.
4. Carl Edwards (LW-6)- One can make a case for Carl anywhere on this list. He has three straight top 10's and back to back top 5's (Bristol being a win). The scary part, it doesn't even seem like this team is clicking yet. He was really good late at Bristol, but he didn't seem dominant. Look out if they get it going late in this season.
5. Matt Kenseth (LW-7)- Kenseth moves up two spots after finishing 13th? Well, so many around him are dropping like flies and Kesneth might have had the best car for 75% of the race, even after Timmy Hill got in the back of him. Still a strong run on the day and the kind of finish a champion will need.
6. Jimmie Johnson LW-3)- Rough day. That about sums it up. He had a tire issue early on and never could recover. JJ made it back to a lap down, but that was the closest he got the rest of the day.
7. Denny Hamlin (LW-10)- Good finish, but was it a great day? After starting on the pole it seemed like DH vanished. He never had enough to push to the front but still managed a 6th place finish.
8. Kasey Kahne (LW-NR)- Back to back 8th place finishes for Kasey Kahne has him 11th in the points standings. He ran up front a lot on Sunday, even leading a few laps (16). Auto Club will be a track that Kasey could push for the win at.
9. Joey Logano (LW-5)- Big drop for JoLo after he lost his power steering, and also a drop in the rankings. With so many guys getting pushed down the rankings its going to happen. He ran very strong at Auto Club last year before the incident, so look for the same this year.
10. Ryan Newman (LW-8)- Newman was just about everywhere on Sunday. He was towards the front, then the back, and then he settled into a 16th place finish. But he salvaged it enough to stay in the rankings for another week.
11. Greg Biffle (LW-NR)- The Biff still only has one top 10 on the season (Daytona) but he hasn't has a crippling finish either. A 12th place finish at Bristol also has him 12th in the points standings. Biffle is a Ford that still hasn't seemed to come around.
12. Ricky Stenhouse Jr (LW-NR)- Gets the nod over Austin Dillons consistency because he ran up front a lot on Sunday. In his last 15 races he has 5 top 10's (that is all 5 career top 10's). 

Dropped Out: Kyle Busch (LW-9), Kevin Harvick (LW-10), and Jamie McMurray (LW-12)

Just Missed: Austin Dillon

Honorable Mention (Good run at Bristol): Brian Vickers, Kyle Larson, Marcus Ambrose, Tony Stewart, and Aric Almirola

Didn't have a lot of responses to my question "Who will win at Bristol?" this week. Might have been due to the rain, but either way no one predicted Carl Edwards to me at @NASCARBTW. For the record the leading vote getter was Brad Keselowski. Need early fantasy advice for Auto Club? Check out ThisSportz for a Fantasy Preview and then check back often as they do updates!