Denny Hamlin is back on top in this week\u2019s Power Rankings following the NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond Raceway.<\/p>\n
1. Denny Hamlin:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hamlin had the car, but not the pit stops, to win at Richmond, and settled for 10th in the Cook Out 400.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were in line to challenge for the win,\u201d Hamlin said, \u201cbut I got a speeding penalty leaving the pits after a slow stop when the jack was dropped. Then, we had trouble with a tire on a subsequent pit stop. My pit team let me down. As you might also get at Sports Clips, I might be demanding a \u2018crew cut\u2019 to hold certain pit members accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n
2. Ryan Blaney:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Blaney finished third in the Cook Out 400 at Richmond.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were a lot of drivers looking for a win to get into the playoffs,\u201d Blaney said. \u201cAnd the anxiety was high with the regular season nearly over and the temperature pretty warm. On the track, things reeked of desperation. In the stands, things just reeked.\u201d<\/p>\n
3. Alex Bowman:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bowman took second in the Cook Out 400 and solidified his playoff standing.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout a year ago at this very race track,\u201d Bowman said, \u201cAustin Dillon plowed through Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin. Austin often gets a pass because he\u2019s the grandson of Richard Childress, but let\u2019s face it, the apple doesn\u2019t fall far from the tree, because Austin\u2019s also a \u2018Dick.’\u201d<\/p>\n
4. Austin Dillon:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dillon drove his way into the playoffs by winning the Cook Out 400 at Richmond.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very satisfying to win a race to put yourself in the playoffs,\u201d Dillon said. \u201cAnd doing it without putting two cars into the wall makes it doubly satisfying.\u201d<\/p>\n
5. William Byron:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Byron finished 12th at Richmond.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce again,\u201d Byron said, \u201cmy No. 24 featured Liberty University sponsorship. It seems like they\u2019re on my car a lot. It\u2019s like I\u2019m Jerry Falwell, Jr., because I can\u2019t escape the connection to Liberty U.\u201d<\/p>\n
6. Shane van Gisbergen:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Van Gisbergen finished 14th in the Cook Out 400.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still navigating my way to mastering oval track racing,\u201d van Gisbergen said. \u201cMy learning curve may not be steep, but it is often banked.\u201d<\/p>\n
7. Joey Logano:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Logano finished third at Richmond, posting his third top 10 of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI crashed in practice,\u201d Logano said, \u201cso I had to start from the back. So, much like my night last year at Richmond with Austin Dillon, I got \u2018rear-ended.’\u201d<\/p>\n
8. Christopher Bell:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bell came home 21st at Richmond.<\/p>\n
\u201cRyan Preece put his No. 60 RFK Ford on the pole,\u201d Bell said. \u201cThat car was really fast. And since it has Kleenex sponsorship, you would call that car a \u2018snot rocket.’\u201d<\/p>\n
9. Chase Elliott:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Elliott was knocked out of the race as collateral damage in a lap 199 accident that affected 12 cars. Elliott finished 38th and suffered his first DNF of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt looks like Kyle Busch triggered that pile-up,\u201d Elliott said. \u201cThen Kyle wrecked me and sent me into the wall. It\u2019s certainly not the first time Kyle has had two major traffic incidents in a short period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
10. Kyle Larson:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Larson finished sixth in the Cook Out 400.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t have a car good enough to win,\u201d Larson said, \u201cso I just had to concentrate on squeezing out the best possible finish. Sometimes, you\u2019ve just got to put your head down and shut your mouth. And I\u2019ve been advised to do that on many occasions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Denny Hamlin is back on top in this week\u2019s Power Rankings following the NASCAR Cup Series race at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-78251","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nascar","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}