Pit Road Week 31: Charlotte

Weekly Review and Power Rankings

Week 31

By Richard Tix

Well, NASCAR has to be smiling this week. Yes, they have a mess to handle with a few drivers (cough, cough, Brad Keselowski), but you can not tell me that the excitement didn't bring some extra spotlight to the Chase? You know what they say, and publicity is good publicity. No matter who's side you are on (or who your favorite driver is) you can not deny the post race fireworks were exciting!

I've admitted before, I am a BK fan (I try and keep it unbiased on here, and if you think its biased feel free to call me out!), but he overreacted a bit on Saturday. I do believe him that there was more to the story than what ESPN showed, but it still seemed over the top. But hey, this new format is getting under drivers skin. BK entered the Chase as one of the fastest cars on the season, and some bad luck (tire issue at Kansas) and the poor finish Saturday has him on the outside looking in. So, before completely cursing him out, think of what you would do as a competitor that may have just lost his bid at a Championship in a season where it was him and a handful of others. 

As I said, still an overreaction. Denny Hamlin also acted like he didn't play a part (which is smart by him because he knows more people hate BK then him). Yet, he brake checked BK before a lot of this happened. The best, is the quiet guy from Wisconsin who is always level headed charged at BK between the haulers! It made for some great TV. So, no matter who you hate and why, just think about how much spotlight that night, and this Chase format brought to the sport. 

You maybe and old school guy and hated the Chase changes, but the sport needed something to get it going again. It couldn't keep struggling or it would eventually be a thing of the past. This could just be the thing the sport needed, an added spark plug. 

The greatest thing about the after race activities? Nothing was scripted. Everything was real. Real anger, real frustration, real emotion. This is something the sport needs. We need a villain. We need emotion. We need to see when drivers are upset. Saturday night was on the brink of out of control, so don't get me wrong, it can't go to much farther or NASCAR would have a real problem on there hand. The one issue I did see (which was hilarious, yet still concerning) is when Smoke backed into BK. I thought the response by Smoke was funny, yet I couldn't help but think he really should have stayed composed at a time like this. He has been under a lot of fire lately and it just seemed to be the not smart thing to do. 

So, just like Saturday night, everyone has forgotten to give Kevin Harvick his due. All season he has been fast, yet he hadn't had a win in 20 races. Can you believe that? It was 20 races in between wins, even though it seems like he should win every week. By now Harvick seems like he should have 10 wins. But, all that matters is he locked in a win into the next round and doesnt have to worry about Talladega. So he may only have 3 win's on the season, yet he got one of the most important ones (other then Miami when we get there).

So, Joey Logano and Kevin Harvick move on, lets take a look at the power rankings before Talladega.

Pit Road Power Rankings Week 31 (Week 30)

1. Kevin Harvick (LW-3)- I did mention after Kansas he should bounce back at Charlotte in the last rankings. I didn't know it was going to be in a huge win though. Harvick gets to sit back and enjoy Talladega this time around. 
2. Joey Logano (LW-1)- So far this Chase JoLo either finishes first or fourth. Not bad, right? He lost his top spot only because of how huge and pressure packed Harvick's win was. No shot at either of these two, they really are 1A and 1B.
3. Kyle Busch (LW-2)- Check out Rowdy's last 6 races of the regular season and then this first 5 of the Chase. Boy, was he fooling us! Maybe JGR was truly saving something for the Chase, all I know is Kyle Busch has turned it around (and he was my preseason pick to win, so Im still alive).
4. Jeff Gordon (LW-5)- Gordon finished second on Saturday but really got lost in the commotion of the after race activities. He also lead 74 laps on the night. He struggled on some restarts again, but he came up big on the last restart that helped him finish second.
5. Carl Edwards (LW-4)- Carl was quiet all night. Then, you look at the finishing order and realize he finished 8th. That's how you move onto the next round. After struggling in round one (avg three race finish of 16) he has finishes of 5th and 8th this round.
6. Ryan Newman (LW-7)- I have mentioned a few times in my blog that Newman could make some noise and advance for awhile with consistent finishes (which goes with my idea I first mentioned when the new Chase format came out, that consistency will still be huge in the Chase). Well, Newman has been proving that point, as he should move on to the final 8. But, it only gets harder the further along. Newman just keeps watching people drop by bad luck and mistakes.
7. Denny Hamlin (LW-6)- DH didn't have a quiet night at Charlotte, but most of that was due to the post race antics. He did finish 9th which some may have not noticed in the action. He has put himself in good position to move on.
8. Kasey Kahne (LW-12)- Kahne finished 10th on Saturday out of no where, but he is still 7th in points and needs to avoid the big one at Dega. If he does that, he should move on.
9. Matt Kenseth (LW-8)- Kenseth is in the same boat at Kahne, stay away from the big one. Yet, he is one point out of 8th, so he will need to beat Kahne. Any decent finish should help Kenseth (the Wisconsin Ninja) move on. Maybe he can finally get a win in 2014? I still can't believe it hasn't happened yet.
10. Brad Keselowski (LW-9)- Wow, was he making enemies on Saturday. He wasn't the only one in these incidents, as others were not angels in the situation, but he sure did overact a bit. I don't blame him one bit for trying to block Kenseth on a restart (Kenseth didn't have much room there anyways), but brushing him on the cool down doing 50 was too much. Hit him doing the slow down speed, not coming in like a bat outa hell. Either way you look at it, BK will need a quality finish and hope for some other drivers bad luck (or he needs to win).
11. Jimmie Johnson (LW-10)- JJ and Jr both look like they need to win at Dega (or a few drivers have bad luck early). 26 point behind can be made up at a track like Dega, but it wont be with a whole lot of luck.
12. Dale Earnhardt Jr (LW-11)- See JJ. ^ Jr's best chance (well everyone's best chance) is to win at Talladega. If he doesn't get the win he will need tons of luck on his side. Once a season favorite, Jr is on the outside looking in (26 back of 8th).
13. Kyle Larson (LW-13)- Each week this spot dwindles, yet Larson keeps the spot remaining. After Dega the spots 9-12 will open up and Larson will most likely jump into one of those spots. His Chase run has been remarkable for a rookie. 

I have to say, the racing was good at Charlotte and the action after was even more exciting. If for only one race, NASCAR got the drama it wanted with this new Chase format (and you cant script that). Now everyone's worst thoughts come true (except JoLo and Harvick). Everyone goes into Dega with a whole lot of uncertainty and a lot of stress. 

Who was right on Twitter this week and predicted the correct winner of the Bank of America 500?

William who writes some Fantasy Football articles on TimersSports (unrelated blog, but good guys) was my lone correct pick (about 25 tweeted me this week).

However, I have a few extras to add. Found this hilarious since ESPN delayed the coverage of the start of the race. (This one came in first).

(This one came in right after the first). This one was actually the correct of the two! Baylor did win. And I am sure some of you want to forget about this part of your NASCAR evening, it did happen so I had to highlight these two tweets (which in the moment were pretty funny). 

Thanks again for following and participating on Twitter! As always, thanks for checking out NASCAR Behind the Wall! Check back as all the Talladega information you need will be posted throughout the week.