2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Driver Rankings: Week 18 Edition
What could possibly mar a Dale Earnhardt Jr. victory at Daytona International Speedway in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series?
Only a ridiculously late starting time due to a lengthy rain delay—which meant many fans who might have watched on television were in bed when it ended early Monday morning at 2:41 a.m.—plus a nasty last-lap wreck that sent the No. 3 Chevrolet and driver Austin Dillon perilously close to soaring into the grandstands.
As it was, last Sunday night's victory at NASCAR's most prestigious track by its most popular driver still qualified as a statement that this might finally be the year Earnhardt Jr. sticks around until the end to contend for a championship. It was his second victory of the season, meaning he's already assured of making the Chase for the Sprint Cup, and it certainly improves his position in B/R's driver rankings.
Immediately afterward, though, even Earnhardt had a difficult time talking about anything but the wreck that unfolded right behind him as he took the checkered flag.
"That scared the hell out of me, I'll be honest with you," Earnhardt told reporters. "I saw the whole thing happen. ... That was terrifying to watch."
Thankfully, Dillon suffered only very minor injuries. Thirteen fans in the stands also suffered injuries, and of those, eight declined treatment, four were treated on-site and released and one was transported to a local hospital in stable condition, track president Joie Chitwood told CNN.
After all the mayhem, see where our top 10 drivers sit this week based on their latest on-track performances, chemistry with crew chiefs and pit crews, and the momentum they'll be carrying into their next series of left-hand turns at Kentucky Speedway and New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the next two tracks Sprint Cup is set to visit.
10. Kyle Busch
1 of 10
Previous ranking: Not ranked
Why he's here
Sure, he's still got loads of work to do to make the Chase. After missing the first 11 races, he remains 36th in points and needs to get inside the top 30 before the Chase cutoff after the September race at Richmond International Raceway. But now that he's got a win, which came at Sonoma Raceway, the hard part is done.
Key 2015 moments
Winning on the road course at Sonoma so soon after returning from leg and ankle injuries suffered in the season-opening Xfinity Series race at Daytona was a boost not only to Busch, but to the entire No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing team.
And while he finished only 17th in his latest effort at Daytona, Busch did so after slapping the wall early and falling all the way to 38th. It was yet another sign that this driver and his team can handle adversity and aren't giving up on his fight to make the Chase.
What's next
The bumpy 1.5-mile Kentucky Speedway is another place where Busch can win or at least contend. In four career starts there, he has never finished out of the top 10, including one win, a second- and a fifth-place finish. He can be pretty good at New Hampshire too, where he owns one win and has finished within the top 10 in half of his 20 career starts.
9. Brad Keselowski
2 of 10
Previous ranking: 8
Why he's here
Keselowski and his crew chief, Paul Wolfe, have struggled to find the speed in the No. 2 Team Penske Ford to keep up with their counterparts at Hendrick Motorsports and Stewart-Haas Racing. Despite one win and being seventh in the current points standings, their performance actually has fallen off rather dramatically over the last six weeks.
Key 2015 moments
He won the fifth race of the season at Fontana and finished second the very next week at Martinsville Speedway. But in his last five races, his average finish is just 16.6. That includes 19th at Sonoma and 29th at Daytona after getting involved in the tail end of the last-lap wreck when he already was two laps down to the leaders.
What's next
The good new for BK is that he loves Kentucky, where he is the defending race winner and has won half the Cup races held there (two of four). Furthermore, he usually runs well at New Hampshire too, owning one win, four top-five and seven top-10 finishes, as well as three poles, in just 11 career starts at the 1.058-mile track that is mostly flat.
8. Matt Kenseth
3 of 10
Previous ranking: 7
Why he's here
Since finishing fourth at Michigan, Kenseth has finished 21st at Sonoma and 23rd at Daytona in his last two races. He's also led a total of only four laps in his last five races, so something appears to be a little off with the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota team led by crew chief Jason Ratcliff.
Key 2015 moments
He won at Bristol Motor Speedway to secure a spot in the Chase but needs to pick it up if he intends to be a factor in it. With nine top-10 and five top-five finishes on the season, this team certainly has not been horrible. It just hasn't been as good as it had hoped and expected to be.
What's next
About the only two drivers who could argue they've been even close to as good as Kenseth at Kentucky are Kyle Busch and Keselowski, as Kenseth owns one win and has never finished worse than seventh at the track. And at New Hampshire, he's won once and finished at least in the top 10 in half of his 30 career starts, with seven top fives.
7. Joey Logano
4 of 10
Previous ranking: 6
Why he's here
While Logano has been the better of the two Team Penske Ford entries this season, he hasn't won since opening the season by going to Victory Lane in the Daytona 500. That gave him high hopes going into last Sunday's Coke Zero 400 at the superspeedway, but like lots of guys, Logano got caught up in a wreck and had to settle for a disappointing 22nd-place finish.
Key 2015 moments
Logano remains a solid fourth in the points, with Daytona breaking a string of three consecutive top-five runs. But after leading a total of 464 laps in the first 12 races of the season, he's led a total of just seven in the last five (and none at all in four of those).
That indicates a team heading in the wrong direction, and it is incumbent upon crew chief Todd Gordon and the capable engineers at Team Penske to try to find a way to turn it back in the other direction.
What's next
Although he has yet to win a Cup race at Kentucky, Logano has enjoyed great success there in what is now the Xfinity Series. Plus two of his nine career Cup wins have come at New Hampshire, so this could be a good two-race stretch to make a stand and show that his No. 22 team has what it takes to contend in the upcoming Chase.
6. Denny Hamlin
5 of 10
Previous ranking: 9
Why he's here
Despite Hamlin being the driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota that Kevin Harvick turned on the final lap of the Coke Zero 400—which began all the mayhem that led to Austin Dillon's car slamming into the catch fence—Hamlin was credited with a third-place finish. Anytime you can cross the finish line facing the wrong way and claim third, kudos to you.
Key 2015 moments
Hamlin has had an interesting up-and-down season that includes a win at Martinsville and four races where he's led 53 laps or more. But he's also had eight finishes of 18th or worse and needs to eliminate the bad finishes if he's going to contend in the Chase. Oddly, it's the same sort of inconsistency that used to plague Kyle Busch when Dave Rogers, who is now Hamlin's crew chief, sat atop Busch's pit box.
What's next
It seems he'll have a better shot to finish well at New Hampshire than at Kentucky, where he finished third in 2012 but has finished 35th and 42nd in the two races since. In contrast, he's stout at Loudon with two wins, seven top-five and 11 top-10 finishes in 18 career starts.
5. Martin Truex Jr.
6 of 10
Previous ranking: 4
Why he's here
Truex Jr.'s dream season has taken a couple of hard hits the last two races, with crashes knocking him out early on both occasions. He tangled with David Ragan and got turned into a tire barrier on the road course at Sonoma, and he was collateral damage at Daytona after Kenseth got together with Kasey Kahne.
Key 2015 moments
He may not have a more critical moment in his season than the next couple of weeks, when driver and team must bounce back from the disappointment of the last two races. Prior to finishing 42nd at Sonoma and 38th in the Coke Zero 400, Truex had finished in the top 10 in 14 of the first 15 races of the season (including winning at Pocono Raceway).
The back-to-back poor finishes dropped him from second to fifth in the points, but the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing team still has been one of the most consistent in the Sprint Cup garage on the whole this season.
What's next
Crew chief Cole Pearn and Truex simply need to forget the last two races and keep believing in themselves and what they've been doing all year. Truex has never won at either of the next two tracks but does own three top-five and six top-10 finishes at New Hampshire.
4. Kurt Busch
7 of 10
Previous ranking: 3
Why he's here
Kurt Busch was one of the few drivers in the middle of last Sunday's last-lap mess to escape unscathed, as he guided his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet just clear of the big wreck to earn a fifth-place finish. It was Busch's fourth consecutive top-five run, with them all coming at different-style tracks.
Key 2015 moments
Busch obviously has made the most of his season after missing the first three races under NASCAR suspension for alleged domestic abuse against his ex-girlfriend (NASCAR lifted the suspension when the state of Delaware elected not to pursue criminal charges).
In the 14 races since then, Busch has won twice (at Richmond and Michigan International Speedway), finished second at Sonoma and third at Fontana, respectively. His total of 708 laps led in three fewer races are more than 200 more than every other driver except Harvick, his SHR teammate.
What's next
He has yet to post even a single top-five finish at Kentucky, but he'll be among the ones to watch at New Hampshire, where he has piled up three wins, seven top-five and 11 top-10 finishes in 28 career starts.
The fact that he's been showing consistent speed at all different styles of tracks (including road courses, short tracks, superspeedways and intermediates) speaks to the strong chemistry he has with crew chief Tony Gibson and their strong potential to challenge for a championship.
3. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
8 of 10
Previous ranking: 5
Why he's here
With the latest win at Daytona, Earnhardt now has two for the season and 25 for his career. He's up to second in points and is one of only four drivers (Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson and Kurt Busch are the others) with multiple wins this season.
Key 2015 moments
In addition to dominating the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona, where he started from the pole and led a race-high 96 laps, he also won earlier this season at Talladega Superspeedway. Throw in his third-place finish in the Daytona 500, and that makes his average finish in this season's three restrictor-plate races an amazing 1.67.
It also will make him the prohibitive favorite to win the last such race at Talladega in the middle of the 10-race Chase. But Earnhardt has been good at all types of tracks this season too, finishing second at Michigan and third a total of five times.
What's next
Earnhardt is cooking with new crew chief Greg Ives. The key now will be for the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team to continue building momentum through the summer, which has frequently been a problem for Earnhardt during his career. The next two races will be a test, as he's never won at either place.
2. Kevin Harvick
9 of 10
Previous ranking: 2
Why he's here
Harvick still leads the points standings, and his total of 1,225 laps led is far and away tops in the Sprint Cup Series. The only reason he's still second in these rankings is because he has only two wins compared to Jimmie Johnson's series-leading four.
Key 2015 moments
Harvick's two wins this season came early and back-to-back at Las Vegas and Phoenix, respectively. He's also finished second a remarkable eight times and fourth twice—in each of the last two races at Sonoma and Daytona. And he's finished in the top 10 in 15 of the 17 races this season overall.
All in all, that's an absolutely staggering set of numbers that speaks volumes about his chemistry with crew chief Rodney Childers, who is challenging Johnson crew chief Chad Knaus these days for supremacy in the garage. So far this season, Childers has been more consistent at setting up the No. 4 Stewart-Haas cars so they're fast right off the truck and also has been more consistent at making in-race adjustments that keep Harvick running up front.
What's next
He's won once and finished in the top 10 in half of his 28 career starts at New Hampshire, but he doesn't even have a top five yet at Kentucky, which is the only Sprint Cup track to date where Harvick has ever raced without leading a single lap.
1. Jimmie Johnson
10 of 10
Previous ranking: 1
Why he's here
Four wins and his second consecutive runner-up finish at a restrictor-plate track in the Coke Zero 400 are enough to justify Johnson remaining at the top. Plus, if you go back to his second win of the season at Texas Motor Speedway and look at the body of work over the 11 races since then, he has amassed three wins, three seconds, two thirds and a sixth.
Key 2015 moments
The one facet of Sprint Cup racing where Johnson and Knaus remain the best in the business is at closing. When they're close at the end of a race or in the lead, they know how to get to Victory Lane more often than not and better than any other driver-crew chief combination, bar none.
Plus the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy pit crew rarely makes mistakes on money stops toward the end of races. That's why Johnson has twice as many wins as everyone else this season despite ranking just fifth in total laps led. This team knows which laps to lead. It has led the very last one not only at Texas, but also at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Kansas Speedway and Dover International Speedway already this season.
What's next
His fellow competitors may not want to hear this, but he's due to win at Kentucky, where he finished third in 2011, started from the pole and finished sixth in 2012, started third and led a race-high 182 laps before finishing ninth in 2013 and rallied to finish 10th last year. Meanwhile, at New Hampshire, he already has three wins, 10 top-five and 18 top-10 finishes in 28 career starts.
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 assisting in coverage of NASCAR for Fox Sports. Follow him on Twitter @OneMenz.
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