2018 NASCAR Pit Road Week 5: Auto Club

Weekly Review and Power Rankings

Auto Club Speedway

By Richard Tix

It's going to be a quick one this week folks! After missing last weeks Power Rankings and Race Preview for Auto Club I am hoping to get back at it this week. First up are the updated Power Rankings. These took into consideration the past two races since my last rankings. Enjoy!

Pit Road Power Rankings: Week 5 (Week 3)

1. Kevin Harvick (LW-1)- Harvick has won three of five races, collected 11 playoff points, and still sits eight in the standings....Rough. Harvick basically took himself out of the race Sunday, but after such a hot start gets a pass for one week.
2. Martin Truex Jr (LW-3)- He has four top 5's in five races so far and just put on a clinic in the final stage on Sunday to notch his first win of 2018.
3. Kyle Busch (LW-6)- Don't look now, but Kyle now has three straight top three finishes and four straight top tens. A late mistake by his pit crew adjusting the wedge really saw him fall off the pace from Truex, but it seemed like Martin was going to win either way.
4. Joey Logano (LW-2)- JoLo was strong once again at Auto Club finishing in the top five for the third straight year. He still hasn't managed a win in Fontana even after all these strong runs.
5. Denny Hamlin (LW-7)- Las Vegas and his pitting penalties are Hamlin's only blemish so far in 2018. He has been really steady week to week.
6. Brad Keselowski (LW-4)- Talking about steady, BK has been a car that normally is sitting in the top ten all day in 2018. Auto Club was more of the same and he brought the No. 2 home fourth behind some really fast cars.
7. Ryan Blaney (LW-5)- Blaney is locking in points every week and running up front a decent amount, but he still hasn't had a winning car most weeks.
8. Kyle Larson (LW-8)- Larson was predictably fast at Auto Club once again, but really needed a late restart to even have a small chance at Martin Truex. Still, it was a nice second place finish especially after his early run in with Harvick.
9. Erik Jones (LW-12)- Quietly Jones has three straight top tens and has been looking much stronger week to week. In all four races he has qualified in the top ten.
10. Clint Bowyer (LW-NR)- Bowyer finished sixth at Phoenix, but just missed the top ten this past Sunday (11th). All of SHR has shown more speed in 2018, but most of them not named Harvick still have a ways to go to win a race.
11. Austin Dillon (LW-10)- Dillon got his first top ten since his win at Daytona on Sunday, but that doesn't tell enough of the story. He has actually been having a decent season and if RCR can find a bit more speed he will be sitting in the top ten a bit more often.
12. Aric Almirola (LW-NR)- Aric is really impressing in his first season with SHR in the No. 10. He is already 1/3 of the way to his top tens from 2017, and is consistently hanging from 10-15th every week (which is a huge improvement from his time at RPM). 

Dropped Out: Paul Menard (LW-9) and Chase Elliott (LW-11)

Just Missed: Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, and William Byron