1. Joey Logano (LW: 1): There's no way to drop Joey after finishing fourth. Yeah, three of his closest pursuers in Power Rankings all finished ahead of him, but after he got the pole and ran in the top five for most of the day, there's no point in dropping him from the top spot. Before the race, Logano also said he was going to donate all his winnings from it to the Folds of Honor, the program sponsoring the Atlanta race.
2 (Tie). Kevin Harvick (LW: 2): This is a cop out here. Similar to Logano, we can't bump a guy down from second in Power Rankings after his average finish through two races is ... second. So Harvick stays here, even if it's by virtue of a tie. He might have had something for Jimmie Johnson at the end of the race, but he didn't start close enough to the No. 48 to make it a race at the end.
2 (Tie). Jimmie Johnson (LW: 3): A symbolic bump! Johnson and Chad Knaus are back! But how can they be back if they never left? This was Johnson's 71st win in the Cup Series, which puts him five behind Dale Earnhardt. What if he won five or six more races this season and the final race was at Homestead, to not only tie or pass Earnhardt but to win his seventh Cup title? That'd be infuriating for the Johnson haters and a pretty cool moment.
4. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (LW: 5): Junior had a massive hole in the front end of his car thanks to a puncture from debris near the end of the race. The hole affected his car's downforce and it ruined every chance that Junior had of making a run at Johnson. He had a shot immediately off the restart, but had he passed Johnson, he probably wouldn't have been able to hold on to the lead for long anyway.
5. Martin Truex Jr. (LW: 8): MTJ to the top five. His opposite-from-2014 start continued at Atlanta where he was a top-10 car for most of the day and finished sixth. The absence of the Busch brothers for an extended period of time opens up two (presumed) Chase positions and don't be surprised if Truex ends up being a Chase driver. And also, don't be surprised if he is higher in the points standings than the three RCR cars. We're not leaping off the jump to conclusions mat here (we wondered if this was possible at the beginning of the season), just telling you to beware.
6. Casey Mears (LW: 7): Here's where it starts to get messy. If you watched the entire race at Atlanta, your only memory of Casey Mears may be the time he smashed the wall off turn four in front of the leaders. However, he did so pretty cleanly (well, as clean as one can hit the wall) and you'll notice that his car kept up with Johnson and Harvick fairly well in the immediate aftermath. Well, he finished 15th.
7. Kasey Kahne (LW: 9): Kahne was 15th at Atlanta. On Friday, he was asked, per the transcript "can you talk about the race in the fall?" Unfortunately, Kahne didn't go into descriptive detail of the day, or merely say "I won." While he did not finish in first place on Sunday, he was once again the third-highest-finishing Hendrick driver, ahead of Jeff Gordon. 5/24 shop bragging rights aren't moving across the hall.
8. Clint Bowyer (LW: 4): Can't fault Bowyer too much for getting caught up in the crash on lap 306. He had absolutely nowhere to go after Greg Biffle and Joe Nemechek made contact ahead of him and kablooie, the crash got bigger. It's probably also fair to wonder why Biffle and Nemechek were racing like they did; both were laps down. And for Biffle, it took him out of Power Rankings this week. He needs to be thinking of these things while he's in the car.
9. Denny Hamlin (LW: 6): Hamlin simply lost control of his car while racing near the front of the field and collected Ryan Newman, Jamie McMurray and Jeff Gordon. And while Gordon's impact against a non-SAFER wall is the focal point of the crash, let's not forget that McMurray and Hamlin hit non-SAFER walls too. Sorry if you don't like the beat of this drum, but it's going to continue to play until there are commitments from NASCAR and every track to do everything possible to outfit all (realistic) walls with SAFER barriers.
10. Matt Kenseth (LW: NR): Slick move by Kenseth and Jason Ratcliff to stay out on the final restart. Their reasoning was simple. They figured that by staying out they'd lose more spots than they'd gain by pitting and attacking on fresh tires. While we don't know how the latter option would have played out, they were likely right. Kenseth fell from the lead to fifth, and countered his forgettable Daytona 500.
11. AJ Allmendinger (LW: NR): Allmendinger finished seventh at Atlanta, a huge run if it's a sign for the rest of the season. JTG-Daugherty wasn't exactly exceptional on intermediate tracks in 2014 and to be anywhere close to a credible Chase threat, Allmendinger and team can't simply be a road-course-trick pony. While we're not as bullish on the No. 47 as we are with another team with an RCR alliance, Allmendinger could be a sleeper.
12. Brett Moffitt (LW: NR): This will likely be Moffitt's only turn in Power Rankings, so we'll give him his due now. In his one-race replacement duty for Brian Vickers, Moffitt took a car that was damaged in an early incident and drove it to an eighth-place finish. Hell, it was a performance so good that MWR co-owner Rob Kauffman issued a statement praising Moffitt and said the team would love to have him drive a third car if the opportunity ever arose.
Lucky Dog: Danica Patrick would make the Chase if it started this week, y'all. No word if NASCAR will institute a 34-race Chase to make this a reality, however.
The DNF: Per Lastcar, Landon Cassill is the first driver since 1949 to finish last in the first two races of the season.
Dropped out: Greg Biffle, David Gilliland, Sam Hornish Jr.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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