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Hendrick Motorsports
The first driver to three 2015 wins, Johnson has a great chance to pick up a fourth and a $1,000,000 check over the next two weeks at Charlotte, where he once won five of six straight races.
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Tough to fault Harvick for finishing second or better for the eighth time in 11 races, but Johnson’s three wins – all of which have come at 1.5-mile tracks – speak volumes. Either way, it’s a toss-up for No. 1 between these two this week, as it likely will be from here on out.
Hendrick Motorsports
Logano has earned four poles this season, finishing fourth (Atlanta), third (Martinsville), fifth (Richmond) and fifth (Kansas). The whole “start out front, stay out front” strategy seems to be working for him.
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Team Penske
RELATED: Logano talks Kansas struggles
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Truex’s race-high 95 laps led at Kansas were exactly 94 more than he led in all of 2014. That about sums up how things are going for the No. 78 driver this year as opposed to last year.
Junior came within just a few laps of winning consecutive races for the first time in his career. Still, that third-place finish, behind his Hendrick Motorsports teammate and JR Motorsports employee? He’ll take it.
Keselowski may get lucky if his first child is born over the next two weeks while the series is home at Charlotte – he presumably wouldn’t miss the All-Star Race or Coca-Cola 600. That said, despite his win at the 1.5-mile speedway in 2013, it historically hasn’t been a stellar track for him.
With Kevin Harvick the clear A+ driver at Stewart-Haas Racing right now, Busch isn’t too far off, hovering somewhere in A-/B+ territory. He once led nearly half of the Coca-Cola 600 (2010) — no small feat — so look for him to be strong over the next few weeks. Especially since he won’t be flying back and forth to Indianapolis.
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Joe Gibbs Racing
Gordon couldn’t quite match his Kansas feat of a year ago – i.e. picking up his first win of the season – but his fourth-place finish was still strong. As a four-time Sprint Cup All-Star Race winner and three-time Coca-Cola 600 winner, Gordon always does well at home, too.
As perhaps the lone bright spot of the Joe Gibbs Racing organization right now, Kenseth continues to rise both in the standings and Power Rankings. Now, he’ll head back to Charlotte to try to shake off the 19th-place finish the last time the series was there, along with the memory of his infamous run-in with Brad Keselowski.
RELATED: Kenseth spins, upsets Stewart
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Newman picked up his seventh top-10 of the season at Kansas, but with so many ahead of him also having strong runs, he gets the short end of the “Didn’t do anything wrong, but drops anyway” stick.
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RELATED: Newman reacts to final appeal ruling
Stewart-Haas Racing
Many pegged the No. 42 as the stronger Chip Ganassi Racing car heading into 2015, but take a look at the standings. McMurray is eighth, with Larson a disappointing 22nd.
Kahne continues to start well (front row last two races) but hasn’t quite put it together in 2015 yet. If we don’t see strong performances from him over the next two weeks (career-high four wins at Charlotte) it may be time for the No. 5 team to reassess where they’re at.
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Stewart-Haas Racing
Hamlin was the odd man out in a four-wide situation that only had room for two, maybe three, cars on Saturday, and wrecked his race car. Still, just four top-10s in 11 races for a Championship 4 driver in 2014 is concerning.