NASCAR Power Rankings: Joey Logano takes the top spot after his Vegas win
Welcome back to the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season and the return of Power Rankings.
1. Joey Logano
Logano may not have the highest points total in the Cup Series, but he’s got a win at Las Vegas and was really fast at Daytona until the spate of late-race crashes ended his chances of winning.
Of course, it’s fair to say that Logano started that spate of late-race crashing with his push of Aric Almirola that ended up turning Brad Keselowski into the wall to trigger a 19-car pileup. But it’s also fair to say that Logano expertly executed the last restart on Sunday at Las Vegas to put himself in a position to win the race after he didn’t pit during the final caution.
It was Logano’s first win with new crew chief Paul Wolfe, who came over from Keselowski’s team in the offseason. And Team Penske had all three of its cars finish in the top seven.
“But this has been, I think, for Team Penske our best racetrack here in recent years,” Logano said of Las Vegas. “So not a surprise to see all those cars up front. You think about Blaney has led a ton of laps and has been close to winning for some time, I've won before with the team I had, and I've seen Brad win with Paul here before, as well.”
2. Ryan Blaney
Blaney is the points leader after finishing second in the Daytona 500 and 11th on Sunday. Had a caution not flown for Ross Chastain’s spin with six laps to go, Blaney probably wins the race. Instead, a four-tire pit call put him too far back in traffic to make any charge at a victory over the final two laps.
3. Kevin Harvick
Harvick survived the crashes at the Daytona 500 to finish fifth and was eighth at Las Vegas. He led a race-high 92 laps on Sunday and had a car that was exceptionally strong on short runs. But his chances at a win disappeared after he was passed for the lead on lap 200 and he never regained it.
4. Denny Hamlin
It was not a great weekend for Hamlin at Las Vegas. He lost 10 points before the race began because of pre-practice modifications made to his car and then had to start at the back of the pack. He had a hard time working his way through traffic and then ended up finishing 17th.
5. Kyle Larson
Two races, two top-10 finishes for Larson. He was 10th at Daytona and ninth at Las Vegas on Sunday. He had a car that ran in the top 10 for most of the race and gained seven spots over the final lap-plus of the race before the caution flag on the last lap.
6. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Stenhouse’s Daytona 500 didn’t go to plan after starting from the pole. But it’s safe to say that his team’s long-run strategy ultimately paid off on Sunday. Stenhouse finished third at Las Vegas after crew chief Brian Pattie’s idea to keep Stenhouse on the track as long as possible during green-flag runs and a decision to stay out on old tires at the end of the race.
“We got track position, we lost it and we got it back there at the end with that caution, and stayed up there, which was nice,” Stenhouse said. “It wasn’t perfect, but we got some good points out of it, got a top-five finish out of it, and we’ll continue to learn what we need to work on with these cars to get better each week.”
7. Matt DiBenedetto
DiBenedetto was second to Logano after he pushed his way past William Byron on the penultimate lap. The move meant Byron ended up with a cut tire, but it also meant that DiBenedetto tied the best finish of his career.
8. Chris Buescher
Buescher was 14th on Sunday after finishing third at Daytona. He’s currently eighth in the standings and is even a point ahead of Hamlin.
9. Austin Dillon
A choice not to pit meant Dillon was fourth on Sunday after he finished 12th in the 500. Maybe the finish is the start of a better 2020 trend for Richard Childress Racing at intermediate tracks. The team was abysmal in 2019 despite some decent qualifying runs.
“We saw those guys hit pit road,” Dillon said. “We were running the same lap times at the beginning of the tires to the end, so that was our best move. Luckily, we got the outside. Our teammate was doomed on the bottom.”
10. Clint Bowyer
Bowyer was sixth at Daytona and 12th at Las Vegas. He’s 13th in the points standings, however, because of a lack of stage points in either of those two races. He’s already 29 points behind Ryan Blaney.
11. Jimmie Johnson
Johnson could have finished better than fifth had the race ended under green. He had a fast car with fresh tires and was one of the few guys able to make a move forward in the final laps.
12. Bubba Wallace
Wallace finished sixth on Sunday and is 12th in the points standings thanks to a 15th-place finish in the Daytona 500. Maybe Richard Petty Motorsports won’t be nearly as slow as it was in 2019.
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
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