Couch Racer reached out to a handful of industry experts to gauge who had the momentum going into the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. The panel consisted of several team members, journalists, a former driver and a race director. We tallied the points of each individual ranking to compile the Couch Racer Power Ranking.
Some notes regarding the individual rankings:
Denny Hamlin was the only driver to steal a #1 vote from Chase Elliott. Maybe surprising to some, Kyle Larson failed to get any top votes from the panel.
The most polarized driver in the field was Joey Logano with rankings as high as #3 but as low as #12.
Kevin Harvick despite having the second highest average finish among the playoff drivers topped out at #7 for his highest ranking. Only Chase Elliott had a better average finish this season.
And our only unanimous pick was Austin Dillon coming in #16 on every submission from the panel.
