Hot 20 – Harvick hoping for some California heat

Four winners, three of whom sit atop our leader board. As important as victories are this season in determining the Chase contenders, it would be hard to include Kevin Harvick among the best under normal circumstances.

Harvick may have won at Phoenix, and his 13th at Daytona may have been acceptable. Even his runs at Las Vegas and Bristol were impressive for as long as they lasted, but when you are listed as 41st and 39th in the final results it does take the bloom off the rose. Turns it into stinkweed, to be honest.

Still, in determining our top performer over the course of a 36-race season, that win does keep Harvick six slots better than the official standings, with the 22 bonus points we hand out to winners. As we are not interested in a Chase or even the television ratings for Homestead, we can dwell on just who has been the best performer. Even with a string of three Top Threes broken up by a 14th at Bristol, that would still be Brad Keselowski to this point.

If you were wondering, as the action heads west to California this weekend, Regan Smith and Trevor Bayne remain our hot duo in the Nationwide series. I wonder if ESPN will have time to interview them after they are done gushing over Kyle Busch once again at Fontana?  The big boy visiting the little sandbox has won six of the past eight junior circuit events at this track.

Kyle won the Cup race at Fontana a year ago. Other recent winners include Tony Stewart, Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, and Carl Edwards. No one who isn’t already a someone will visit Victory Lane on Sunday.

 

Driver

Win

Points

1

  Brad Keselowski

1

185

2

  Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

1

175

3

  Carl Edwards

1

174

4

  Jeff Gordon

0

152

5

  Jimmie Johnson

0

143

6

  Joey Logano

0

141

7

  Denny Hamlin

0

140

8

  Matt Kenseth

0

138

9

  Ryan Newman

0

125

10

  Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.

0

122

11

  Kasey Kahne

0

120

12

  Greg Biffle

0

118

13

  Austin Dillon

0

117

14

  Kevin Harvick

1

111

15

  Kyle Busch

0

111

16

  Marcos Ambrose

0

108

17

  Jamie McMurray

0

100

18

  Paul Menard

0

99

19

  Brian Vickers

0

99

20

  Casey Mears

0

97

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of SpeedwayMedia.com

Ron Thornton
Ron Thornton
A former radio and television broadcaster, newspaper columnist, Little League baseball coach, Ron Thornton has been following NASCAR on this site since 2004. While his focus may have changed over recent years, he continues to make periodic appearances only when he has something to say. That makes him a rather unique journalist.

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