Pit Road Week 28: New Hampshire

Weekly Review and Power Rankings

Week 28

By Richard Tix

Two Chase races in and its been officially announced that Team Penske was ready for it. Both drivers (Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano) have won and advanced to the next round. Now, this is probably the least important round to win in because 12 guys move on anyways, but it does send a signal to other teams that Penske is still in fact fast.

That's after a full regular season of seeing these two cars run up front and take poles week in and week out. Going into the final race of the first segment Hamlin, Greg Biffle,  Kurt Busch, and Aric Almirola all sit outside the top 12 after AJ Allmendinger had a 13th place run. 

The final 10 spots are still wide open this coming Sunday when NASCAR heads to Dover so things should continue to heat up between some drivers. It's been a pretty eventful 2014 Chase so far, but one thing is disappointing to me, and that's that Kyle Larson didn't make the Chase. So far he has Chase race finishes of 3rd and 2nd which would pretty much lock him into the final 12. It is interesting to see if he will continue this and bring it with him into 2015. If he does he could start to be a true contender already.

2014 Sylvania 300 full results

Pit Road Power Rankings Week 28 (Week 27)

1. Brad Keselowski (LW-1)- He finished 7th after an up and down day (mostly up). He showed he could fight back from deep in the field and led a bunch of laps (78) on the day. All of this after taking the Pole.
2. Joey Logano (LW-4)- JoLo wins at his home track, pretty cool to get it in the Chase. He is part of the Penske Duo that has been fast to start the Chase (and most of the year). 
3. Kevin Harvick (LW-3)- If not for BK's run and JoLo's win Harvick would be #1 this week. He has two straight top 5's to start the Chase and has led 183 laps so far (Chicagoland and NHMS).
4. Jimmie Johnson (LW-5)- JJ was a bit off at Chicago (12th) but had a nice run at NHMS. Now NASCAR heads to Dover where 6-time has dominated lately. 
5. Dale Earnhardt Jr (LW-6)- Jr will be safe with 11th and 9th, heck those kinds of finishes should get him into the final 8 drivers, but he will have to find another gear if he wants to make Miami.
6. Jeff Gordon (LW-2)- Gordon was running towards the front on Sunday when he had a left front go down which ruined his day. He ended up limping around for a 26th place finish, but still is pretty safe to make the next round. No real harm done.
7. Kyle Busch (LW-9)- He has disappointing me in 2014 after I picked him to win this years Championship, but his run on Sunday started to redeem himself. He took a beat up car that looked like crap and turned it into an 8th place finish. 
8. Matt Kenseth (LW-7)- Kenseth is only up 2 points on 12th (-40 to -42) going into Dover. Having a beat up car on Sunday did not help (21st).
9. AJ Allmendinger (LW-14)- So far AJ has been the shocker of the first round. He finished an unimpressive 22nd at Chicago but turned it around for a 13th at NHMS. He is in 10th right now, but that is only a point up on 12th so he will still need a quality run at Dover. (21st earlier this season)
10. Kasey Kahne (LW-11)- 13th and 23rd place finishes aren't going to get anyone very far in this years Chase (or any Chase format). Kahne needs to get back what he found at Atlanta to turn this Chase around.
11. Ryan Newman (LW-12)- The Chase has seen Newman be, well, Newman. His 2014 season has been very average (yet, best in the RCR crew). His 2014 Chase has also been average (if not below) with finishes of 15th and 18th on Sunday.
12. Greg Biffle (LW-15)- Biffle just doesn't have it in 2014, or maybe it's RFR. Either way, something has been missing all season.
13. Carl Edwards (LW-13)- Not impressive so far in the Chase (20th and 17th) Carl can still move on to the next round. But runs like this will see him getting the boot soon if he doesn't turn it around. He also can afford a bad run at Dover or he might not advance.
14. Kurt Busch (LW-8)- Kurt was one of many victims to hit the wall on Sunday, but he never really found his way back up front like some (his brother for one). He finished 36th and is now in the bottom 4 drivers going into Dover.
15. Aric Almirola (LW-16)- His 6th place run was awesome to watch, sadly it still leaves him 10 points from 12th (Kasey Kahne). The nice thing about this first round is one bad race and you still have a chance (however small).
16. Denny Hamlin (LW-10)-Rough week for DH. He had an issue with his fuel tank/lines that set him back then got into an incident with a teammate. In the end he had too big of a hole and finished 37th.

No one picked Joey Logano this week. I had a lot of Harvick, Keselowski, and Gordon picks but no one picked Joey to win at his home track. Better luck next week.

However, we had this smart remark that I thought at least deserved a shout out. Technically correct.

Pit Road Week 19: New Hampshire

Weekly Review and Power Rankings

Week 19

By Richard Tix

This weeks review will not only be late, but also short. That's because this past week I missed the entire race at Loudon because I was at all the MLB All-Star activities. To some this is not an excuse, but I am not only a NASCAR fan but also a MLB fan. Also, as much as I try and get on here to get NASCAR fans as much info they need every weekend (and I hate missing it because I enjoy getting it out there) I also do not get paid to do this!

Now, if NASCAR wants to start paying me (or ESPN, Fox, Sporting News, etc) then I will make a way to catch everything and never miss a week.

I did check twitter from time to time and was glad to see Brad Keselowski won. Not just because I am a fan of his (because I try to leave some of that out of the blog and stay unbiased) but because he was driving the Redd's Apple Ale car. In my opinion it is one of the nicest looking paint schemes in the past two years but they have not made a die cast of it. Well, I not assume there will be a race win die-cast of the car that I will be able to add to my very small collection.

This week we head into a bye week on the NASCAR schedule, so I guess the mid-week Power Rankings can help hold you over for the time being. 

Camping World RV Sales 301 Results

Pit Road Power Rankings: Week 19 (Week 18)

1. Brad Keselowski (LW-3)- Two wins in three races rocketed BK past others this week. Since Richmond the #2 team has been on it for the most part (take out two restricter plate races and 22nd at Sonoma and he is on fire. He is leading all drivers with 9 top 5's (tied with Dale Jr) and also leading with 3 wins (tied with JJ).
2. Dale Earnhardt Jr (LW-2)- Jr is having a really good last run with CC Steve Letarte. He has 9 (tied with BK for most) top 5's so far this season. Last season in total Jr had 10 top 5's. He is also only 9 top 10's away from tying last years top 10 mark of 22 which was the most top 10's he has had in a single season.
3. Clint Bowyer (LW-4)- Check out his stats since Dover; other then Kentucky he has 5 top 10's, 1 top 5, and one 11th place finish. During that 7 race run he has an average finish of 10.43 which I would say is very under the radar. 
4. Jeff Gordon (LW-1)- A bit of a drop for a guy who was just #1 last week, JG had a dissapointing 26th place finish after leading 19 laps. He is still leading NASCAR in points and his only two finishes higher then 15th are Talladega and now Loudon.
5. Kyle Busch (LW-NR)- Yes I did move Kyle from not ranked all the way up to 4th. But take a look at some of the drivers on the rankings.... This win and your in thing has caused some roller coaster like seasons for normally consistent guys. Oh, and Kyle has two runner up finishes in his last 3 races.
6. Matt Kenseth (LW-12)- Kenseth hasn't been as consistent as he was when 2014 started but he has started to turn it back around. He now has two 4th place finishes in his last 3 (coincidentally the same two races Kyle finished 2nd). 
7. Ryan Newman (LW-NR)- Newman is 7th in points so far this year and the way it has been going I think he is a lock to get into the Chase on points, but I really thought he had a shot at winning Loudon to get in on a win. By his standard, he is having a very typical and normal season so it seems the move to RCR hasn't hurt him or helped him so far.
8. Jimmie Johnson (LW-5)- 3 bad finishes in 4 races (Texas-Talladega) then 7 awesome races including 3 wins (Kansas-Sonoma) and then two bad races from bad luck. This is JJ season in a nut shell. The good thing for the #48 team is they still have time to figure out the consistency thing. And if history tells us anything we know that JJ can do it and will get hot at the right time.
9. Denny Hamlin (LW-NR)- When fans talk about roller coaster seasons Denny Hamlin has to come to mind. From the "I'm Back" statement at Daytona, to early struggles, to a two race top 5 streak where it looked like he was going to get it going, things just haven't come in long streaks for DH. He has started a two race top 10 streak so maybe he can keep this one going?
10. Paul Menard (LW-6)- Menard has been having a pretty good season but as of late it has just been mediocre (15th, 16th, and 19th this past week at Loudon). Right now he would be in the Chase as he is the 4th highest driver in points after the 11 guys that won are in. Right now he has a 17 point lead over Austin Dillon who has the 5th most points by a non race winner.
11. Kasey Kahne (LW-10)- Kahne is on the need a win soon or panic list right now. Just two short races ago he was on a three race top 10 streak and it looked like he may find a win and get into the Chase. He got caught up in a wreck at Daytona but rebounded nicely with an 11th place finish at Loudon. Each race that he finishes without a win will bring another notch of pressure.
12. Austin Dillon (LW-NR)- He hasn't had the top 5 and top 10 finishes like fellow rookie Kyle Larson has had, but he has been consistent. He still has a better average finish then Larson by 0.1.

Dropped Out: Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick, and Marcus Ambrose

Just Missed: Kurt Busch

Honorable Mention: Kyle Larson (3rd), Ricky Stenhouse Jr (9th), and Martin Truex Jr (12th)

Lot's of changes in the power rankings this week. It was some time coming though, as teams and drivers have been up and down now for awhile. Some top drivers like JJ will go on a hot streak and then loose it. If the trend continues the hottest driver right now (Brad Keselowski) will go back on a cold streak soon. It is just the way it goes. The teams that have locked themselves in the Chase can try different things from week to week. I will stand by my point that the most consistent teams will have the best chance to make the final four so figuring it out by the last 10 races will be key (the last race is out the window though as any one of the four could have a good or bad race to seal there fate). 

This week we did have a handful of Twitter followers let me know that Brad Keselowski was going to win at New Hampshire. So here is a shout out to them! 

So far its a good year to pick BK every week. I think you are safe to keep the trend going Dave

That's it for this weeks (short) review and Power Rankings. As always thanks for checking out NASCAR Behind the Wall. Being I was out of commission on here for the All Star Weekend and now NASCAR has a week off I am not sure how many new articles will be up this week. NBTW will have all of your race weekend information for next weekend though!