MRN’s Pete Pistone unveils this week’s Power Rankings following the Bank of America Roval 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course.
Martin Truex Jr. – The Joe Gibbs Racing driver wasn’t able to pull off the opening round sweep but he was still strong at the Roval overcoming an engine change before the race that resulted in starting from the rear. Truex Jr. sliced his way through the field, did lead a lap and ended up with a seventh-place effort for a first round average finish of 3.0.
Driver Rating: 102.1
Point Standings: 2nd
Previous Ranking: 1st
2. Chase Elliott – His day looked to be over when a mistake from the lead sent Elliott into the wall on a Lap 65 restart. Not only was Elliott not done for the day, he charged to the front in short order and finally got back to the lead and a third victory of the season.
Driver Rating: 96.7
Point Standings: 6th
Previous Ranking: 8th
3. Kevin Harvick – The Stewart-Haas Racing driver led 34 laps at the Roval and was in position to challenge for the win until he gave up the top spot in the closing laps. Harvick knocked down a third-place finish when all was said and done to cap off a good opening round.
Driver Rating: 105.5
Point Standings: 5th
Previous Ranking: 5th
4. Brad Keselowski –A decent day for Keselowski included three laps at the front of the field and eventually a top-five performance. He’ll look to kick things up a notch in the Round of 12 after a decent opening three races of the playoffs.
Driver Rating: 98.4
Point Standings: 7th
Previous Ranking: 3rd
5. Kyle Busch – The first round of the playoffs was not kinds to the regular season champion Busch. His second-place Richmond performance was a mere memory for Busch who ended up in 37th place and 10 laps behind the winner thanks to a broken sway bar mount.
Driver Rating: 108.2
Point Standings: 1st
Previous Ranking: 2nd
6. Joey Logano –A great qualifying effort of third helped Logano lead four laps but he dropped back as the race wore on dealing with a number of challenges. Still another top-10 finish for the defending series champion who moves on to the Round of 12.
Driver Rating: 99.8
Point Standings: 4th
Previous Ranking: 6th
7. Kyle Larson – He led five laps and maintained a presence near the front of the field. Larson may not have been a strong candidate to win however the Chip Ganassi Racing driver brought home a decent if not spectacular 13th-place finish after coming back from a 1-lap penalty for pitting out of the assigned pit box on Lap 26.
Driver Rating: 88.8
Point Standings: 8th
Previous Ranking: 7th
8. Denny Hamlin – Rough Roval weekend for Hamlin who crashed his primary car in practice and started at the rear of the field. He worked his way to the front but was involved in a number of incidents to finally finish 19th.
Driver Rating: 94.5
Point Standings: 3rd
Previous Ranking: 4th
9. Ryan Blaney – The defending Roval winner looked like he would not be remotely near the top 10 when he suffered damage in an incident. But Blaney and company soldiered on and when the checkered flag flew he had a top-10 finish.
Driver Rating: 82.5
Point Standings: 10th
Previous Ranking: 10th
10. Alex Bowman – An eventful day to say the least for Bowman who qualified second, started at the rear of the field in a backup car, had an on and off track incident with Bubba Wallace and still was able to finish second at Charlotte and stay alive in the playoffs.
Driver Rating: 92.0
Point Standings: 9th
Previous Ranking: NR
Dropped Out: Kurt Busch
