NASCAR Power Index – Kentucky
1. Jimmie Johnson (LW: 1) – Jimmie ran up front all night, something you don’t always see at venues like Daytona. But he couldn’t overtake his teammate at the line, finishing second. Johnson has finished five of the last six Daytona races in the Top 5.
2. Kevin Harvick (LW: 2) – After riding around for a while, the points leader pushed his way forward, finding himself in fourth position when the checkered flag waved. Harvick’s finished six of the last eight races in the Top 4.
3. Kurt Busch (LW: 5) – With 11 laps to go, Kurt was running 22nd; he ended up fifth. Since his season-worst 31st-place effort at Dover, all Kurt has done is rattle off four straight top-five results, including a victory.
4. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (LW: 6) – Junior led 96 laps in another dominating performance en route to his second consecutive win at a restrictor plate track. Advanced data shows that he was the only driver to spend 100% of his laps inside the Top 15.
5. Joey Logano (LW: 4) – Logano’s chance to pull of the Daytona sweep took a hit when his machine suffered damage on a Lap 3 “Big One” that was so bad, NASCAR black-flagged him. He did get back to 22nd by race’s end.
6. Martin Truex Jr. (LW: 3) – Truex made some runs at the front of the pack, until he got caught up in a big Lap 105 wreck, forcing him to park it for the night. After a historic run of top-10’s, Truex has been wrecked in the last two races.
7. Jeff Gordon (LW: 10) – Following a string of finishes outside the Top 10, Gordon came home sixth. This team is on pace to make the Chase, the only question becomes whether they get in via a victory or on points.
8. Matt Kenseth (LW: 7) – Kenseth started the third “Big One” of the night on Lap 105 when he got loose racing up near the front of the field. Cars stacked up from there, and it forced many cars to the garage. Kenseth was fortunate enough to rebound to 23rd, however.
9. Kasey Kahne (LW: 8) – Hendrick Motorsports brought fast cars to the track on Sunday night, and Kahne’s machine was no exception. Unfortunately, this is Daytona, and “The Big One” made Kahne another one of its victims. Two of Kahne’s three finishes outside the Top 30 in 2015 have come at restrictor-plate tracks.
10. Denny Hamlin (LW: 13) – Denny notched a third-place result in the Coke Zero 400, but it was his car getting loose and leading to the horrifying race-ending crash that most people were talking about afterwards. It marked his seventh top-10 in the last eight points races at Daytona or Talladega.
11. Brad Keselowski (LW: 9) – Early radio issues and later incidents on the track were just part of a difficult day all-around for the No. 2 team. The former Sprint Cup champion’s average finish over the last ten races is just 17.1.
12. Jamie McMurray (LW: 11) – McMurray came home 15th on Sunday night, narrowly escaping the spinning car of Sam Hornish Jr. with seven laps remaining. Jamie has not finished outside the Top 20 since Auto Club on March 22. No other driver in the series can say that.
13. Ryan Newman (LW: 14) – Newman opted to play it safe as long as possible. But he jumped from 16th to 8th in the last 11 laps to earn his second top-10 in a row. “Rocket Man” is right on the edge of Chase elgibility, as he’s the second-to-last driver currently in line to get in via points.
14. Kyle Busch (LW: 12) – Simply put, things could have been much worse than they turned out for Kyle Busch. After smacking the wall on Lap 17 and being forced to pit under green, cautions and wrecks helped him back up the leaderboard. But even with a 17th-place finish, he only gained eight points on Cole Whitt, who is 30th in the points standings.
15. Clint Bowyer (LW: NR) – After starting third, Bowyer rode around in the back for much of the race. But around Lap 100 he started to make his way back to the front, ending up tenth. That’s four top -10 finishes in his last five races for the MWR driver.
Dropped from Power Index – Carl Edwards (15)
