NASCAR Power Rankings: Kevin Harvick riding high heading into playoffs
By Asher Fair
With the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series regular season in the books following Kevin Harvick’s third victory of the year, how do the sport’s full-time drivers stack up?
Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick closed out the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series regular season by securing his third victory of the season and his third victory in the last seven races in the Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard, more commonly known as the Brickyard 400, at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
How did Harvick’s victory in this 160-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval in Speedway, Indiana affect the NASCAR Cup Series Power Rankings?
These NASCAR Cup Series Driver Power Rankings were calculated using a formula, which you can see here. But before they are revealed, take a look below at some of the highlights of this edition of these rankings.
Alternatively, click here to get started.
NASCAR Cup Series Driver Power Rankings Analysis
These NASCAR Cup Series Driver Power Rankings were somewhat shaken up this week because of the points reset for the 16 playoff drivers. While their official 2,000+ point totals are used in the “points” category, the point totals used in the “points in most recent race” category are the number of points they actually scored in the Brickyard 400.
One thing this didn’t do is prevent Kevin Harvick from shooting up the rankings, even though he is now officially in a fourth place tie in the championship standings after ending the regular season with the third highest point total.
Harvick has now won two of the last four and three of the last seven races, and he has finished lower than seventh place on one occasion during this seven-race span, and that poor result only took place as a result of a mechanical issue at Bristol Motor Speedway.
But was his Brickyard 400 victory enough to move him to #1 for the first time this season?
On the flip side, coming off of the second victory of his NASCAR Cup Series career at Darlington Raceway, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Erik Jones crashed out of this race and plummeted in the rankings.
He has now recorded three finishes of 18th place or worse in the last four races, and after having been ranked as high as fourth in these rankings in recent weeks, he is now one of the lowest ranking playoff drivers.