Week number three of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season is in the books. Alex Bowman added his name to the list of winners so far this year, dominating for the majority of the race and winning by a large margin. The three races have seen three different drivers win, but even so, a driver without a win stays perched atop the power rankings due to his consistency.
1. Kevin Harvick (Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4)
LW: 1
Auto Club 400 Finish: 9th
Three races, three top-ten finishes for Harvick, who came home a solid ninth at Auto Club. Stewart-Haas didn’t have a race-winning pace this weekend, and Harvick struggled at times, but he still did well to keep the car running relatively close to the front when it mattered. Harvick may still be searching for a win, but it’s been a clean start to the year.
2. Kyle Busch (Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18)
LW: 4
Auto Club 400 Finish: 2nd
Well, so much for the championship hangover. After two sub-par finishes for Kyle Busch, he broke out at Auto Club, finishing second. The weekend as a whole was middling for Busch and JGR, who still appears to be lacking some speed, but a runner-up finish was a big positive.
3. Denny Hamlin (Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11)
LW: 3
Auto Club 400 Finish: 7th
Like Busch one spot above him, Hamlin made the best out of a so-so car at Auto Club, grabbing a top ten finish after starting in the back half of the field. As his team figures out the car in the early stages of the season, finishes like this can be seen as successes. Hamlin already has a victory to his name and doesn’t have much to worry about at the moment.
4. Joey Logano (Team Penske No. 22)
LW: 2
Auto Club 400 Finish: 12th
It was a bit of an up and down race at Auto Club for Logano, who briefly appeared to have a car capable of contending for a win before falling out of the top ten and settling for a 12th place result. Penske hasn’t been lacking speed in any way this year, so it was a bit shocking to see such a dropoff in performance in-race, but this wasn’t a bad day for the 22 team.
5. Ryan Blaney (Team Penske No. 12)
LW: 5
Auto Club 400 Finish: 19th
I’m not sure what it is about Ryan Blaney and terrible breaks, but he’s certainly caught his share of them this season. Auto Club was no different, as he had to pit from second with just a couple of laps remaining due to a nearly flat tire. The tire cost him seventeen spots and a spot on the lead lap, but not yet the lead in the point standings. The emphasis on stage points is growing, and Blaney’s season to this point is evidence of that.
6. Alex Bowman (Hendrick Motorsports No. 88)
LW: 10
Auto Club 400 Finish: 1st
Bowman and the 88 car took the rest of the field to the woodshed in Fontana. He wasn’t able to complete the full race sweep, as Blaney took the middle stage, but the final 80 laps were a showcase of Bowman’s speed. Bowman’s car had incredible long-run speed that allowed him to run away to a win by nearly ten seconds. As an added bonus, he’s getting a tattoo now as well.
7. Chase Elliott (Hendrick Motorsports No. 9)
LW: 6
Auto Club 400 Finish: 4th
Flying under the radar a bit at Auto Club, Chase Elliott had a very good car and was able to finish in the top-five. Elliott was overshadowed by the outstanding race driven by teammate Alex Bowman and the serenading goodbye for another teammate Jimmie Johnson, but his speed early in this season is impossible to ignore. It hasn’t led to a win quite yet, but most indicators say that victory isn’t far off.
8. Brad Keselowski (Team Penske No. 2)
LW: 7
Auto Club 400 Finish: 5th
Keselowski ran pretty well at Auto Club; maybe not well enough to contend for the win, but he was certainly one of the better long-run cars on the track. His fifth-place finish is his best so far this season. He’s never won at Phoenix, next weekend’s track, but with the speed Penske has had so far this season, it’s as good a time as any to change that.
9. Martin Truex Jr. (Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19)
LW: 9
Auto Club 400 Finish: 14th
It’s been tough to decide what to make of Truex’s race. He looked like one of the fastest cars on the track but seemed to run out of speed down the stretch and ended up finishing as the worst Gibbs car, in 14th-place. Statistically, Phoenix hasn’t been a great track for Truex, but he needs a big race to jumpstart things right now.
10. Kyle Larson (Chip Ganassi Racing No. 42)
LW: 8
Auto Club 400 Finish: 21st
Getting put in the wall early in the race by Denny Hamlin essentially ended any chance Larson had to contend for the win, which was unfortunate, given that Larson is one of the series’ best drivers on two-mile tracks. It didn’t appear that he had a car capable of winning, but a top-ten finish seemed to at least be in the cards before the wreck. However, Larson is still in pretty good shape points-wise.
11. Matt DiBenedetto (Wood Brothers Racing No. 21)
LW: 11
Auto Club 400 Finish: 13th
It appeared early on during the Auto Club race that DiBenedetto was once again one of the fastest cars on the track. He was able to run in the top-ten for about the first half of the race before slowly beginning to drop off due to tire wear. Despite this, DiBenedetto was still able to get a solid top-15 finish out of the race, which keeps his position in the top-ten in the point standings.
12. Aric Almirola (Stewart-Haas Racing No. 10)
LW: 13
Auto Club 400 Finish: 8th
Unlike his teammates, Almirola appeared to have a pretty good long-run car on Sunday but didn’t appear to have the short-run speed to be able to get upfront. This led to him running the majority of the race around the back of the top-ten, and eventually to a solid eighth-place finish. After two poor finishes to start the year, race number three was pretty kind to the 10 team. By the average finish, Phoenix is Almirola’s best track, so look out for him next week.
13. Chris Buescher (Roush-Fenway Racing No. 17)
LW: 12
Auto Club 400 Finish: 16th
Buescher ran alright this weekend, hanging around the top-15 the entire race. He was one place away from picking up his third straight top-15 to start the season, but the race was clean and the car showed some decent speed. Buescher’s current spot in the playoff standings may not be a fluke when the season comes to Chase time.
14. Kurt Busch (Chip Ganassi Racing No. 1)
LW: 17
Auto Club 400 Finish: 3rd
Following two pretty awful results, Busch ran a tremendous race at Auto Club by finishing third. His Chip Ganassi Racing car showed speed all weekend, and Busch is hoping this is the start of a long positive run. It was nice to see Busch be able to finish a race issue-free to actually test out the performance of his car, and the early results were encouraging.
15. Jimmie Johnson (Hendrick Motorsports No. 48)
LW: 18
Auto Club 400 Finish: 7th
My preseason confidence in Jimmie Johnson was pretty low, but my mind is beginning to change. Not only has Hendrick Motorsports as a team shown pretty great speed early on, but Johnson has also shown the ability to run near the front on a consistent basis. He nearly took the pole at Auto Club and ran in the top ten for the entire race. Pretty great weekend overall for the 48.
16. William Byron (Hendrick Motorsports No. 24)
LW: 15
Auto Club 400 Finish: 15th
Compared to his three teammates, Byron had a bit of an underwhelming weekend. It wasn’t necessarily a bad race, but coming home 15th wasn’t what Byron had in mind coming in. It’s difficult to see Byron staying in his current position in the standings (20th) for too long of a period, but his early-season races haven’t achieved much.
17. Clint Bowyer (Stewart-Haas Racing No. 14)
LW: 14
Auto Club 400 Finish: 23rd
After winning the pole at Auto Club, the race almost immediately turned sour for Clint Bowyer. His car ran well when it was close to the front, but once it got back into traffic, there was no speed. Bowyer finished the race outside of the top-20 and off of the lead lap. Stewart-Haas hasn’t shown enough speed to win yet, and Bowyer hasn’t been able to make much out of the equipment early on.
18. Erik Jones (Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20)
LW: 19
Auto Club 400 Finish: 10th
Jones quietly drove himself to a top-ten finish at Auto Club after having a middling car for the majority of the weekend. It was a step up from how the Joe Gibbs cars had run last week at Las Vegas, but there still appears to be a good amount of work to do for Jones before he’ll be able to contend for a victory this year. It was crucial, however, for Jones to finish well this week, so while he isn’t there yet, he’s certainly closer than before.
19. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (JTG Daugherty Racing No. 47)
LW: 16
Auto Club 400 Finish: 20th
There were probably some unreasonably high expectations for Stenhouse this weekend after finishing third at Vegas and qualifying in the top-ten. Stenhouse’s penalty, which forced him to start at the back of the field and sacrifice ten points, definitely hurt, but all in all, a 20th-place finish could be seen as a solid race. He was able to stay on the lead lap for the majority of the race and raced fairly competitively. It wasn’t Vegas, but still a solid race for Ricky.
20. Tyler Reddick (Richard Childress Racing No. 8)
LW: 26
Auto Club 400 Finish: 12th
After his teammate Austin Dillon finished in the top-five last week, it was Reddick’s turn to shine this week. While his 12th place finish wasn’t quite the same, Reddick still had a good run in a car that hasn’t had 12th place-type speed in a while. It was good to see the two-time defending Xfinity champion finish a Cup race with no issues and run well.
BEST OF THE REST
21. Cole Custer (Stewart-Haas Racing #41) LW: 24
22. Austin Dillon (Richard Childress Racing #3) LW: 20
23. Corey LaJoie (GoFas Racing #32) LW: 21
24. Ross Chastain (Roush-Fenway Racing #6) LW: 28
25. Bubba Wallace (Richard Petty Motorsports #43) LW: 22
26. John Hunter Nemechek (Front Row Motorsports #38) LW: 29
27. Ty Dillon (Germain Racing #13) LW: 25
28. Michael McDowell (Front Row Motorsports #34) LW: NR
29. Ryan Preece (JTG Daugherty Racing #37) LW: 23
30. Christopher Bell (Leavine Family Racing #95) LW: 27
Dropped Out: Brennan Poole