Pit Road Week 36: Homestead-Miami

Weekly Review and Power Rankings

Week 36

By Richard Tix

"This new format is unfair." "I love the excitement the Chase brings." "How can a guy with 6 wins not be in the final race for the title?" "Every race down the stretch has drama, I love it!" 

Just a few quotes from fans down the stretch of the 2014 NASCAR season. The opinions were all over the board at the end of the season. But, it has people talking about NASCAR again. No matter where you stand, Kevin Harvick won the last two races when he most needed a win and deserved to be the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion.

When you mention the fastest drivers of 2014 you would include two Chase drivers (Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano) and two guys who were eliminated the round before (Jeff Gordon and Brad Keselowski). So, for some fans it may not have gave them the results they wanted to, but in the end one of the fastest of 2014 did win. (For the record, Dale Earnhardt Jr would be on the nest list of fastest guys of 2014)

I'm still a fan of this Chase format. Everyone can have there opinion, and I expect that considering NASCAR has a diverse fan base. But, you can't deny it has injected NASCAR with some needed excitement down the stretch run of the season (when fighting the NFL, NBA, and NHL for ratings). Its the hardest time to have a Championship for a sport fighting with the US's most popular sport. But, having a Chase format that breeds drama will help a bit.

NASCAR will need the ratings to run over into the 2015 season and run with it, though. No matter how you slice it 2014 was a fin season and is unfortunately over.

In the end Kevin Harvick is your 2014 Sprint Cup Champion. He road the up's and downs of the season and fought through the adversity to come up with a strong finish and win his first Championship. 

Before we get to the last power rankings of the 2014 season I was to give a huge thanks to all the fans that check out NASCAR behind the Wall. All season long you guys have been great and I can't wait until the 2015 season to do it all again! I will be updating some offseason news until the Daytona 500 and also be updating the 2015 Paint Scheme Page when we get more scheme's released. So, do continue to come back to get any NASCAR news you may have missed!

Pit Road Power Rankings Week 36 (Week 35)

1. Kevin Harvick (LW-1)- 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion. That's really all that needs to be said. He locked in his spot at Miami by winning at Phoenix (4th time in the last 5 races there) and then locked in his first Sprint Cup Championship by winning at Homestead. Congrats Kevin Harvick and that whole #4 team!
2. Denny Hamlin (LW-3)- Hamlin didn't have a great season, but he put himself in a position to win the Championship on Sunday. Homestead is actually a really good track for Hamlin and he proved that by leading 50 laps, but he came up just short when he had a rough restart down the stretch.
3. Brad Keselowski (LW- BK won the most races in 2014 (6), had the most top 5's (17), tied for the third most top 10's (20), lead the second most laps (1,540), and had the second most Pole awards (5). If you talk about guys who didn't make the final, he and Gordon had some of the best season's in 2014. He finished the season with finishes of 3rd, 4th, and 3rd.
4. Ryan Newman (LW-4)- For all the knocks fans gave Newman during the Chase he sure did try and give Harvick a run for his money while finishing 2nd at Homestead. Sure, you can argue some other guys should have been in the final four instead of a zero win Newman, but let me tell you this: Newman had the 5th best Average finish in 2014 with zero wins (ahead of season Champ Harvick). He did what he had to at the time he needed to, hard to knock that.
5. Jeff Gordon (LW-5)- Jeff Gordon had a great season in 2014. It's crazy to think how many rumors were going around to start the season about retirement. What did him in was 3 finishes in the Chase of 26th and higher. He finished 15th or higher four times in ten races, which will make it tough under any system (except points only) to win. I hope he comes back just as strong ad 2014 next year, its always good to see the stars do well. 
6. Matt Kenseth (LW-8)- One season after winning 7 races Matt Kenseth couldn't find VL. Now, I knew he wasn't going to match 7, and I figured it would be way down from that, but not many people would have predicted zero. Kenseth did still finish the season off with four top 10's in his last five races.
7. Joey Logano (LW-2)- Season high's in wins, top 5's, top 10's, average start, and average finish. 2014 was the true coming out party for JoLo. He seems to have found a comfort zone at Team Penske in just two short years. He was in the hunt for a Championship until his team had trouble with a jack late in the race. Remember, Joey is just 24 years old.
8. Dale Earnhardt Jr (LW-7)- Jr got off to a really strong start in 2014. Overall he had a great year but some seem to look past the let down the last part of the season was. In his last 15 races he finished outside the top 10 a total of 10 times and five of those finishes were 17th or higher. To put that in perspective, he only finished outside the top ten 6 times in the first 21 races. But, enough negative since this was still a very good season for Jr. His early season was so strong he still ended up with his highest win total (4) and top 5's (12) since 2004.
9. Kurt Busch (LW-9)- 2014 isn't going to be the best season Kurt looks back on and it certainly couldn't be what he was expecting. He did finish the last five races on a strong note, though. It's interesting to note that he was better in almost every category in 2013 with Furniture Row (other than his win with SHR this season).
10. Kyle Larson (LW-NR)- The next few years of NASCAR should be fun with all the new young talent coming in. Larson is just another example of that talent. He just missed the Chase in his rookie season, but pulled off 6 top 10's in the ten Chase races. It will be fun to see him develop over the next few seasons. 
11. Jimmie Johnson (LW-NR)- No matter how you look at it, JJ had a rough season. His average finish of 15.3 was his worst of his career (full season). His top 10 finishes (20) are tied for his worst ever (full time, 2003) and his top 5's were his worst since his rookie year. Yet, he still won four races in 2014 bringing his career total to 70. 
12. Jamie McMurray (LW-NR)- J Mac finished the season with two top 5's in the last three races. He had his highest top 5 total (7) since 2010 and his highest top 10 total (13) since 2004. He just seemed to be missing luck on his side in 2014, as he seemed to be involved in bunch of wrecks to start the season. Overall it was one of his best season's since 2010.

Maybe 5/36, but finishing strong!

I will add in Sarah's, the race winner was wrong but the faith in Harvick was correct!

Also, check out some fans votes on who would win the Championship back at the beginning of the Eliminator Round! It has been a fun season! Next year I am thinking about trying to keep a running tally on who tweets me the most correct winners of races. I thought about that idea too late this season, but many of you have made the review more than once.

Thank you all for participating and also checking out NASCAR Behind the Wall. I created this blog because of my love for racing, but it wouldn't be worth doing without the fan interaction and you guys checking out my material! 

Congrats Kevin Harvick and the entire #4 team from NASCAR Behind the Wall!!