2015 Pit Road Week 2: Atlanta

Weekly Review and Power Rankings

Week 2 Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500

By Richard Tix

All weekend talk was that some weather might play a factor in the Sunday Cup race at Atlanta. When Sunday rolled around it looked early like forecasters were right. The AirTitans worked all morning to dry the track off while it was still misting on a dreary day. The schedule start time was set back, but the cars finally rolled onto the track around 1:50 ET. 

NASCAR let drivers know in the drivers meeting that we would have a lap 25 competition caution. With teams and drivers knowing they had a competition caution on lap 25 and with many top drivers starting in the back because of Fridays Qualifying mess, the first 25 were an exciting event not to miss.

Most of those drivers including Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, and Matt Kenseth quickly cut through the field leaving nothing but warn out Goodyears in there path. Joey Logano held the lead early and often during the race and retained the lead after the first set of pit stops under yellow.

The same trend continued for the next two cautions (Debris lap 46 and Austin Dillon spin with tire down lap 61). Each time Joey kept the lead out of yellow flag pits and took it back on restart. The whole time Kevin Harvick was hard charging to the front. Logano lead the first 83 laps when Harvick finally took the lead over on lap 84. Lap 94 Landon Cassill's engine blew up and gave us our fourth Caution of the day. 

Harvick won the race of pit road and NASCAR restarted on lap 100. Harvick started low with JoLo on the high side. Most of the restarts on the day are where we saw the most movement in track position as teams were constantly taking four tires during pits, so it was key to gain spots early before everyone settled in on a run. 

Lap 139 gave us our first green flag pit stops when Kenseth short pitted with tire issues. The rest of the field eventually followed and Kenseth was left in the lead until lap 148 when Kevin Harvick took it back and left Kenseth falling off fast. Kenseth again had to pit on lap 169 because of tire wear while everyone else stays out. 

After another caution for debris Denny Hamlin won the race off pit road for the first time on the day. He took the green on lap 181 and the next caution flag flew right after on lap 182 for more debirs (6th caution of the day). On the restarts Hamlin and Harvick brought the field to green and shortly after the restart Harvick took the lead (lap 190). 

Jimmie Johnson came on strong and took the lead from Harvick on lap 198. The story up front to this point was Joey early and Harvick after that, until JJ took the lead it didn't really give it back. With 70 to go we had another restart after the 7th caution of the day and this is when things started to really pick up. During that lap Denny Hamlin got loose while heading up the field and spun out. Gordon, McMurray, and Newman were all involved. Hamlin, McMurray and Gordon's day were all but done, but Newman made it back out still on the lead lap.

After the restart JJ once again took the lead and didn't look back. Around lap 51 Carl Edward had a tire go down but no caution was called. He was running around the top 6 all day up until that point and had to go a lap down.

More green flag pit stops came around 33 laps to go when BK and Harvick forced the issue by coming in. After the cycle was done we once again found JJ up front leading the field.  That all changed when with 28 to go Cole Whitt blew up. That was the 9th caution of the day and many of the leaders came in. However, Matt Kesneth stayed out and took the lead with tires that had a few laps already on them. On the restart JJ forced his way to the bottom and was taking over the lead from Kenseth. Before the lap finished Greg Biffle and Joe Nemechek got into it and caused a huge wreck. 

NASCAR threw the red flag with 20 left after the crash that involved the a bunch of cars including the 14, 15, 16, 17, 42, and 34 (plus more). JJ kept the lead for the restart with Kenseth high and Dale Jr low behind JJ.

The restart came with 14 to go. JJ on the bottom maintained the lead but not without Dale Jr giving it a shot. Jr shot a gap from the bottom to the top line in front of Kesneth to try and challange JJ on the high side, but it wasn't enough. Jimmie Johnson was just too strong on the day (leading 72 total laps) and taking off continually during late race restarts. Harvick eventually passed Jr for second but had no time to catch JJ on his way to victory lane. 

Pit Road Power Rankings Week 2 (Week 1)

1. Jimmie Johnson (LW-3)- Sunday was an unbelievable run by JJ and Chad. JJ was one of a handful of drivers starting in back after not qualifying (37th) and made his way up front. After a few key adjustments the came on strong around lap 198 and never looked back. Finish: 1st
2. Joey Logano (LW-1)- It looked like JoLo would keep his top spot early on, and you still could make a case for him at #1 after his full weekend (pole and XFINITY win). He still brought it home forth on the day. Finish: 4th
3. Kevin Harvick (LW-3)- The top three in the rankings are almost interchangeable. Harvick started in the back after his engine change and charged forward early on. He eventually looked like the guy to beat just before mid race. Harvick now has back to back second place finishes. Finish: 2nd
4. Dale Earnhardt Jr (LW-5)- Really, its been the tale of the top four drivers. Jr and company of all finished top 5 in both races so far. Jr only led a lap but was a front runner most of the day. Finish: 3rd
5. Martin Truex Jr (LW-8)- So far 2015 has been a turn around for Truex in the Furniture Row #78. He now has finishes of 8th and 6th, making him the only other guy with two top 10's other than my top 4 drivers (all top 5's). Finish: 6th
6. Kasey Kahne (LW-9)- After winning at Atlanta to lock in a spot in the 2014 Chase, Kahne made his presence up front early. He never seemed to have it like Jr and JJ did (neither did Gordon), but he made a good run. In the end he came up short of the top 10. Finish: 14th
7. Brad Keselowski (LW-10)- BK has fought through almost more adversity in 2015 then he did as a whole in 2014. At Daytona he had an engine go down and at Atlanta he seemed to be fighting the car all day. He still managed to bring it home in the top 10 by taking four tires late in the race. Finish: 9th
8. Matt Kenseth (LW-NR)- Kenseth is another guy who had a rough start at Daytona just to bounce back at ATL. Actually, after coming on strong early at ATL he dropped off late and looked to be in trouble when he went a lap down. After fighting back he was in position to win late (even though he knew he wouldn't with older tires). Finished: 5th
9. Denny Hamlin (LW-4)- After a top 5 at Daytona he had a bad finish to Atlanta. However, Hamlin had a good car towards the beginning of the race to compete. Thing went wrong when he seemingly spun out by himself when he had some ari taken out from him. Finish: 38th
10. Casey Mears (LW-11)- Staying in the spotlight and rankings back to back weeks is Mears, who fought all day to keep a 15th place finish. His average running position was 19th, but the overachieving Mears kept coming late. Note, he is now 6th in points which is pretty awesome for this one car team no matter how long it lasts. Finish: 15th
11. AJ Allmendinger (LW-NR)- AJ spent most of his day in Atlanta around 15th position, but he made a late run towards the front and finished a respectable 7th. Not a bad start to 2015 for JTG and company. Finish: 7th
12. Clint Bowyer (LW-7)- Bowyer had a finish much worse then how he ran all day, but sometimes that happens. 2015 has been a much better start for the MWR driver and maybe he can finally get out of his rut. Finish: 24th

Just Missed: Aric Almirola, Danica Patrick

Dropped Out: Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon

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That's it for week two of the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Looks like Joey Logano and Jimmie Johnson are all but locked into the Chase. Check back later for the Las Vegas TV/Race Schedule, Entry List, Race Preview, and this weeks NASCAR Hot Laps article. Thanks for checking out NASCAR Behind the Wall!