Pit Road Week 14: Pocono

Weekly Review and Power Rankings

Week 14

By Richard Tix

In racing, sometimes the guy with the best car does not always win. On Sunday, Dale Earnhardt Jr finally got the better end of that deal for once.  A hand full of times in recent years Jr has come up with the short end of the stick when he has had a great car and been the guy to beat. This time Brad Keselowski got to find out how that feels.

Keselowski had arguably the best car all day Sunday. BK ended up leading 95 laps on Sunday but not the one that counted. After the last restart BK picked up some debris on his grill and his temp's started to run hot. After a failed attempt at getting behind Danica (making Ricky really jealous) he lost his spot to Jr who was in the perfect place to pounce.

Jr was also running hot but never looked back on the way to his second win of 2014 and first since the Daytona 500. If you missed it or just need a refresher, here are the full race results of the Pocono 400. 

Pit Road: Power Rankings Week 14 (Week 13)

1. Jimmie Johnson (LW-2)- Well, JJ could have been #1 last week, but I held off and gave it to one of the most consistent guys so far in 2014 (Kenseth). One week later and Kenseth has a rough last restart and finishes 25th. So Kenseth fooled me. JJ has had a long road back to #1, but other drivers should be worried that he might stay there now.
2. Dale Earnhardt Jr (LW-6)- Sometimes you have to be in the right place at the right time. Don't get me wrong, Jr had a good car and deserved the win at Pocono, but no trash on BK's grill and Jr would have had another tough luck runner up finish. So far so good on his 2014 season.
3. Jeff Gordon (LW-3)- Another week and another top 10 for Gordon. The last few races he hasn't run as well as his first 11-12, but he is still getting it done.
4. Brad Keselowski (LW-8)- Man, had to hit BK hard when he watched Jr take advantage of his move behind Danica. BK thought he had to do something or he would blow up, unfortunately he lost the top spot and he never blew. This is all in hindsight, so a tough one for BK as he had the car to be beat. (I am also upset because they still haven't made a Redd's Die-Cast, and if he would have won they would have made a race win die cast, oh well).
5. Matt Kenseth (LW-1)- Rough last restart for Kenseth. He got shuffled way back and ended up finishing 25th. The 25th place finish is his worst finish since Talladega (37th) and only his second finish of worse than 13th.
6. Denny Hamlin (LW-12)- Denny Hamlin is finally coming around in 2014. He notched his second straight top 5 at Pocono (4th). DH never really had a bad "points day" to start the season, and now that he is contending he could get hot for the Summer run.
7. Kevin Harvick (LW-4)- Where do you put Harvick? When he is hot, he is hot. But then he has these bad luck outings. This time around Harvick salvaged his bad luck with a 14th place finish, but so many other guys around him are moving up. Only 3 guys win every 3 Chase races and get to automatically move on, so he will need to find some consistency by then.
8. Jamie McMurray (LW-NR)- Even with some bad luck at Dover (Miles the Monster throwing concrete) McMurray still has a nice three race stretch going (5th, 11th, and 10th this week). You wouldn't know it by where he is in the points (21st) but McMurray has had a bunch of fast cars this year.
9. Kyle Busch (LW-7)- Kyle finished 12th on Sunday but it was just that, and average day. He has been all over the charts this year, but he has the talent and car speed to contend, he just needs to find some consistency. 
10. Carl Edwards (LW-5)- Im not sure what to think of Carl Edwards right now. This week he ran into an accident, but he has not been a threat at almost every track on the season. He has found some nice finishes (1 win, 3 top 5's, and 7 top 10's) but not once have I thought, wow he is fast he could be a title contender. Carl can do it, but that team needs to get it together.
11. Joey Logano (LW-9)- See #9 Kyle Busch. JoLo has been fast, but his finishes have been all over. He and Penske Teammate Keselowski are 1 and 2 in starting position (BK- 6.1 and JoLo- 8.4) but sometimes he falls off during races and has to make huge adjustments. He had a problem on the last restart and went from the front to a 40th place finish.
12. Kyle Larson (LW-NR)- Back in the standings, Larson picked up another top 5 at Pocono, his 3rd of 2014. If his learning curve keeps up like this, he could find a win in 2014. I still think its a long shot to happen before the Chase starts though.

Dropping Out: Paul Menard and Aric Almirola

Just Missed: Tony Stewart, Martin Truex Jr, and Clint Bowyer

Honorable Mention: Kurt Busch

As always, here are some followers on Twitter who predicted that Dale Jr would win at Pocono.

Thanks for the Tweets folks. As always, thanks for reading and checking out the Blog. So who do you think should be number one? What did you think of the race?