2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Driver Rankings: Week 35 Chase Edition
Defending Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson won last Sunday's AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, but he already had been eliminated from the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
If that wasn't enough to reduce Johnson's win to a certain level of irrelevancy, post-race fireworks that erupted on pit road between Jeff Gordon and Brad Keselowski further and more completely did so.
Gordon was upset because he thought Keselowski unnecessarily cut his left rear tire while going for the lead on a late restart. Keselowski said he saw an opening and went for it and didn't think he did anything wrong.
Whichever side of the argument one comes down on, the question now is whether it will impact the Chase going forward—and, if so, how much? Gordon certainly seemed to indicate that it might.
"He beats to his own drum, gets himself into this position by himself and he's got to pay for the consequences," Gordon told FoxSports.com. "I'm going to race him the same way he races me, but that kind of stuff is uncalled for and I'm not going to stand for it."
So buckle up for the final race of the Eliminator Round at Phoenix, after which the current Chase field of eight drivers will be trimmed to four. And see how the Chase drivers stack up heading into the final two races, based not on who's throwing punches or taking them, but more on who has the greatest potential to come out on top in the end.
8. Carl Edwards
1 of 8
Previous Ranking: 6
Why He's Here: Carl Edwards scraped together a ninth-place finish at Texas and technically is tied for fifth with Matt Kenseth in the Eliminator Round standings, 13 points out of first and only one out of fourth. So he's certainly not out of it by any means. No driver is. But he's lacked the speed he needs to run up front all year, and that's not likely to change at Phoenix.
Key 2014 Chase Moments: He finished fifth at Kansas and eighth at Charlotte and generally has run just well enough to advance to the next round at each Chase elimination cutoff. But he also has four finishes of 17th or worse, which is hardly the stuff of which champions are made.
What's Next: Edwards owns two career wins at Phoenix and finished eighth there in the spring, so he could pull a surprise Sunday to advance to the Championship Round at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
7. Matt Kenseth
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Previous Ranking: 7
Why He's Here: Matt Kenseth finished 25th at Texas and seemed at times to drive a little tentatively, especially around Kevin Harvick after unintentionally wrecking Harvick a week earlier at Martinsville. That, combined with the fact that he hasn't won a race all season, makes him an underdog to get to the final four at this point.
Key 2014 Chase Moments: He finished second at Talladega in the final race of the Contender Round, remarkably pushing Brad Keselowski to victory just one week after he chased Keselowski down and put his fellow driver in a headlock following the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He also finished fifth at Dover earlier in the Chase and was sixth at Martinsville after taking out Harvick.
What's Next: Harvick pledged after what happened at Martinsville that if he can't win the title, he'll make sure Kenseth doesn't, according to FoxSports.com. It will be interesting to see how that plays out at Phoenix and, possibly, at Homestead.
6. Ryan Newman
3 of 8
Previous Ranking: 8
Why He's Here: Despite a modest 15th-place finish at Texas, Ryan Newman is third in the Eliminator Round standings heading to Phoenix. In fact, he's only two points out of first. That's enough to keep him well inside the championship conversation, even though he hasn't won all year and has only four top-five finishes in the first 34 races.
Key 2014 Chase Moments: He's still in the title hunt because the finish at Texas snapped a string of five consecutive Chase finishes of eighth or better. That included a third at Martinsville that matched his best finish of the year.
What's Next: Newman has one career win at Phoenix and finished a respectable seventh at the track in the spring. A similar finish this time should be enough to get him into the finale at Homestead.
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5. Denny Hamlin
4 of 8
Previous Ranking: 5
Why He's Here: Denny Hamlin is right where he wants to be heading to Phoenix, technically tied for the points lead in the Eliminator Round standings with Joey Logano (although Logano owns the tiebreaker over him). He finished 10th at Texas.
Key 2014 Chase Moments: What has helped Hamlin immensely has been the fact that he's gotten off to a solid start in each Chase segment, finishing sixth at Chicagoland to open the first round, seventh at Kansas to open the second and eighth in the opening race of this Eliminator Round. That has helped lift a little of the pressure off of him, whereas others have been more stressed.
What's Next: Everyone remembers that Phoenix was the beginning of the end to his 2010 championship hopes (when he led a race-high 190 laps but was forced to settle for 12th because of a fuel-mileage issue, thus letting eventual champ Johnson back in the title picture). And his last two finishes at the track are 28th and 19th, the latter coming earlier this year. But Hamlin enters this race not necessarily needing to win and in seemingly a better, more relaxed frame of mind than in 2010, recently telling FoxSports.com that he learned his lesson from that debacle.
4. Brad Keselowski
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Previous Ranking: 2
Why He's Here: Forget for a moment all of the controversy that is swirling around Keselowski. He still owns a series-high six wins on the season and needs only to duplicate at Phoenix the Game 7-type moment he had in winning at Talladega in the final race of the Contender Round. If he can avoid being wrecked by one of several drivers who are ticked off at him, he has the skill and the speed in his No. 2 Team Penske Ford to get it done.
Key 2014 Chase Moments: Let's see, he angered Kenseth and Hamlin with some bizarre antics on the cool-down lap and on pit road immediately following the Chase race in Charlotte. Then Gordon came at him immediately after the drivers parked their cars on pit road following the race at Texas. But what really mattered at Texas was that BK finished third and made up a whole lot of ground in the Chase standings, putting him only five points behind Gordon for fourth heading into Phoenix.
What's Next: Despite all the chatter about folks possibly wrecking him, it's not likely to happen, because all his fellow Chasers are still in the title hunt, and they won't want to risk wrecking themselves in the process. He's never won at Phoenix in 10 career starts, but he has finished sixth or better in four of his last five races at the track (including a third in the spring after starting from the pole).
3. Kevin Harvick
6 of 8
Previous Ranking: 4
Why He's Here: Harvick loves Phoenix International Raceway, and why not? He won there in the spring, making it three wins in his last four outings at PIR. Getting wrecked by Kenseth at Martinsville put him in a big Chase hole, but his second-place finish at Texas got him right back in it. He's eighth in the Eliminator Round standings, but only six points out of all-important fourth.
Key 2014 Chase Moments: Harvick was angry with Kenseth after the Martinsville and got into the post-race mix at Texas a little by shoving Keselowski from behind. But his crew chief, Rodney Childers, keeps giving him fast race cars to drive, and despite his nickname of "Happy," Harvick actually seems to be one of those guys who drives a little better when he's mad. His Texas run was clutch too.
What's Next: He has five career wins at Phoenix overall. No doubt about it, he's the undisputed favorite heading into this Sunday's race. Knowing a win would clinch his spot in the Championship Round at Homestead is merely added incentive, so he and his entire team should be locked in with laser-like focus.
2. Jeff Gordon
7 of 8
Previous Ranking: 3
Why He's Here: In a flash, Gordon went from possibly winning at Texas and/or emerging with sole possession of the Chase points lead to finishing 29th and hanging on by a thread to one of the top four transfer spots into the Championship Round. He's still fast, and he's still a four-time champion who knows opportunities like these to win a title don't come around every year. So he should be able to put his anger toward Keselowski aside for at least this one Phoenix race.
Key 2014 Chase Moments: Nothing tops Texas for drama. But Gordon has performed well in this Chase, winning at Dover in the final race of the opening round and subsequently finishing second at both Charlotte and Martinsville.
What's Next: In 31 career starts at Phoenix, Gordon owns two wins, 11 top-five and 21 top-10 finishes. So if he can keep his head about him and not worry about Keselowski, he's in good shape to advance to the Championship Round at Homestead and make a final run at his first title since 2001.
1. Joey Logano
8 of 8
Previous Ranking: 1
Why He's Here: After all the smoke had cleared and all the punches had been thrown at Texas, Logano emerged with the points lead in the Eliminator Round standings. Even after finishing only a so-so 12th in the Lone Star State, his average finish is a sparkling 5.25 in the Chase.
Key 2014 Chase Moments: Logano owns two wins in this Chase (at New Hampshire and at Kansas), along with three fourth-place finishes and a fifth. No one has been more consistent, and only Keselowski, his Team Penske teammate, has been able to score two Chase wins. Unlike Keselowski, though, no one seems to be angry with Logano at the moment, and that could help him sail into Homestead without much trouble.
What's Next: He's never won in 11 career starts at Phoenix, but he likely won't have to in order to advance to the Championship Round. He just needs a strong finish, similar to the last two races he's had there, finishing ninth last fall and fourth earlier this spring after qualifying second.
Unless otherwise noted, all information was obtained firsthand.
Joe Menzer has written six books, including two about NASCAR, and now writes about it and other sports for Bleacher Report as well as covering NASCAR as a writer and editor for FoxSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @OneMenz.
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