Power Rankings: Suspect roof likely to floor Truex
Updated July 7
Greg Biffle finished dead last. Jeff Burton finished 37th, his first finish outside the top 15 this season. Jeff Gordon finished 30th after starting second on a restart with two laps to go. Tony Stewart felt so sick that J.J. Yeley had to relieve him in the middle of the race.
But nobody probably feels worse leaving Daytona than Martin Truex Jr., who finished 17th.
|
|
| Martin Truex Jr. and crew chief Kevin Manion will likely face heavy sanctions. (US Presswire) |
After giving his No. 1 DEI team a chance to fix the issue, the car failed inspection again, and NASCAR immediately impounded it.
The infraction is likely going to severely damage Truex's chances of making the Chase for the second consecutive season. Barring a huge surprise, most everyone expects a major penalty to be handed down by NASCAR sometime Tuesday.
As of Monday afternoon, he's 14th, a mere 88 points behind Stewart for the 12th and final spot in the Chase, but come Tuesday, if history is any indication, that deficit could grow to well over 200.
When NASCAR first started taking away points as a form of punishment (in addition to fines and crew chief suspensions) for rules infractions, it usually ranged from 25 to 50. Last year, with the introduction of the new car, NASCAR said it would have zero tolerance and upped the ante to 100.
Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Michael Waltrip and Carl Edwards have all been hit with the 100-point penalty over the past two seasons.
And then came the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway in May.
After the cars of Haas CNC's Scott Riggs and Johnny Sauter were impounded because of illegal wing mounts, NASCAR doled out its heftiest penalty yet -- deducting 150 points from each driver.
Clearly, leniency is not NASCAR's forte.
"Somebody made a big mistake," Truex said shortly after learning of the infraction. "Shouldn't happen in this level of auto racing, but people make mistakes. We'll go on."
Power Rankings after Daytona:
| POWER RANKINGS | ||
| Current | Driver | Previous |
| 1 | Greg Biffle | 1 |
| Won the pole and led 74 laps on Saturday night but faded down the stretch to finish 12th. Still hanging on to the Sprint Cup Series points lead but by only a pair over Roush Fenway Racing teammate Matt Kenseth. | ||
| 2 | Matt Kenseth | 2 |
| Climbed to within a whisker of the points lead with a sixth-place finish on Saturday night. Now the world awaits the announcement regarding the potential change of Kenseth's car number. Relax Kenseth fans, the 17 isn't going anywhere. | ||
| 3 | Jimmie Johnson | 7 |
| Roared back up the rankings and the points standings with his first win since October of last season and in the process gave team owner Rick Hendrick historic Sprint Cup victory number 200. Johnson's history has been to bunch up wins once he gets to victory lane. | ||
| 4 | Kyle Busch | 3 |
| Was in the mix for a second Darlington win but wound up settling for a fourth-place finish. Like Johnson Busch has returned to form in recent weeks and delivered on the expectations most had for the No. 18 team this season. | ||
| 5 | Denny Hamlin | 5 |
| Was behind the wheel of one of the coolest looking cars in recent weeks with a Cale Yarborough-inspired retro paint scheme on the No. 11 Toyota. Looked almost Yarborough-like at Darlington for a while but didn't have enough mustard to run down Johnson for the win. | ||
| 6 | Martin Truex Jr. | 6 |
| Wasn't exactly pleased with his team for some suspect pit work at one point of the race but kept his composure and battled back for yet another finish inside the top five. | ||
| 7 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 4 |
| It was a struggle for Junior to just finish 17th. Had a decent car early in the night but handling issues plagued the No. 88 squad, and you can be sure crew chief Steve Letarte won't bring the same set-up back to Darlington next season. | ||
| 8 | Clint Bowyer | 8 |
| A rather quiet night for the Michael Waltrip Racing driver with an 11th-place finish. Still not bad when an "off night" can be within a hair of a top-10 run. | ||
| 9 | Tony Stewart | 12 |
| An interesting night for Smoke, who was very strong in spurts but had to fight through handling issues, a broken clutch and a fuel pressure problem during the 500 miles. Pretty solid performance to deal with all that and still come home third. | ||
| 10 | Carl Edwards | 11 |
| A seventh-place finish and another top 10, but now that Johnson's 17-race winless drought has ended will the questions mount for Edwards on his not visiting Victory Lane for more than a year? | ||
| 11 | Kevin Harvick | 10 |
| Was the focal point of Darlington's promotional campaign trying to capitalize on Harvick's tussle with Kyle Busch last season. But overall a very quiet night for the No. 29 Chevrolet driver who left Darlington with a rather mediocre 16th-place finish. | ||
| 12 | Brad Keselowski | 9 |
| Hasn't performed well at Darlington during his Sprint Cup career and that remained intact on Saturday with a 15th-place Southern 500 effort. A downer for the Blue Deuce after Keselowski's Talladega win last weekend. | ||
| 13 | Ryan Newman | 13 |
| Was headed for a better night than what the results show when Newman got caught up in the aftermath of Kurt Busch's spin late in the race when he got punted from behind. The frustration overflowed once the checkered flag flew with both teams getting involved in a scuffle as well as Newman and Busch exchanging harsh words. | ||
| 14 | Paul Menard | 15 |
| A decent day with a 13th-place finish for the Richard Childress Racing driver. Continues to hang around on the fringe of the top 10 in the points standings. | ||
| 15 | Kasey Kahne | NR |
| Has finally completed the turnaround from his dismal start to the season and is knocking down consistent finishes on a weekly basis. Kahne's eighth-place run was his fifth straight top-10 finish. | ||
