NASCAR Cup Series: Way-too-early 2021 power rankings

Way-too-early 2021 NASCAR Power Rankings: #2 and #1

The only thing missing from Kevin Harvick’s 2020 resume was a championship. He was the man to beat all season long, winning a career-high nine races and ending up with a career-best — and by far a series-best — average finish of 7.33. But a disappointing round of 8 that ended with a desperate attempt to pick up the one point he needed to advance left him out of the Championship 4 for the first time since 2016. But this is nothing new for Harvick. On points alone, he would be a four-time champion, sitting behind only seven-time champions Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon (not Jimmie Johnson), and he would have won his four championships in four seasons other than 2014, when he won his only actual title. Can “The Closer” right the ship and close out a season strong once more in 2021?

Chase Elliott had been to the round of 8 for three years in a row leading into the 2020 season without qualifying for the Championship 4, and it appeared as though he may extend that streak to four years in 2020.

But a late pass for the lead and the win on Martin Truex Jr. in the round of 8 finale at Martinsville Speedway earned him his first career Championship 4 appearance at Phoenix Raceway. Needing to win back-to-back races for the first time in his career, Elliott did just that to become the youngest champion since Jeff Gordon won the first of his four titles in 1995.

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Up until late in the season, closing out races had been a struggle for the #9 team, but the driver whom critics once dubbed “Chokin’ Chase Who Can’t Win A Race” performed at his best in the clutch and is now the reigning champion far earlier in his career than many had predicted, even those who fully expected him to become a star.

His title run was no fluke, either, despite the fact that he had only won three races entering the penultimate event. He led a career-high 1,247 laps in 2020, a total that is more than twice as high as his previous career-high of 601 from 2019 and a total that ranked second only to Kevin Harvick’s 1,531.

He is set to enter the 2021 season as the favorite, and it is worth noting that there are a whopping six road courses on the schedule. He has won four road course races in a row, something only Gordon had ever done.

The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season is scheduled to begin on Sunday, February 14 at Daytona International Speedway with the 63rd annual Daytona 500.