A new year means a new set of Power Rankings! After every race, we'll opine about who we think is at the top of the Sprint Cup heap and how and why they got there. Remember, this isn't scientific, as our formula is the perfect blend of analytics and bias against your favorite driver. So let's get on with it, shall we?

1. Jimmie Johnson. Well hello there, Mr. Vader. Have you ever been to the top before? It's quite nice, isn't it? Have a seat right there, we'll take you on a tour. That was some power move by JJ on the race's final restart, you guys. He was fortunate enough to be leading at the time the caution flag flew so that he had lane choice with six to go and held off the rest of the field. Side note: with the evidence that Johnson and team filed a "Harlem Shake" video on the Daytona infield after the race, it raises an important question: Will NASCAR ever NOT beat a pop culture trend into the ground long after the fad has passed?

2. Danica Patrick.

Random notes and observations after the Daytona 500.

Jeff Burton was not happy after crashing out of Sunday's race. He said the crash was precipitated by a block by one of the cars in front of him. Burton crashed in the tri-oval, and the two cars directly in front of him at the time of the crash were Michael McDowell and Travis Kvapil. However, it's unclear which driver Burton is specifically referring to.

"We were going around one of those cars and he just hung a right on me on the straightaway," Burton said. "Just hung a right. I had to turn right to keep from hitting him and the thing hugh a right, head-on into the wall. It's pathetic to race like that. You've got to be smarter than that. I understand it's plate racing, you've got to try to block, but you can't block somebody that is coming 20 miles an hour faster than you are. It's just completely uncalled for."

- What the heck happened to Jeff Gordon? After making an ill-fated move to the inside line in the middle of Sunday’s

Hey y'all, when we got done writing on Sunday night, yours truly and Geoffrey Miller headed over to everyone's favorite NASCAR broadcaster's radio booth to record our post-Daytona 500 edition of The Chrome Horn.

We talk about all about the storylines of the weekend, especially the most important topic: Chad Knaus's Instagram account. Click here to listen to the podcast in your browser and click here to download it. Enjoy!

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- As has become customary, Tony Stewart entered Sunday's Daytona 500 as one of the favorites. And why not? He has 19 victories at Daytona International Speedway, second only to Dale Earnhardt.

But as has also become customary, Stewart left Daytona Beach on Sunday night without the Harley J. Earl trophy. His 15th attempt at winning the Daytona 500 was effectively ended by a lap 34 crash.

Of Earnhardt's 34 victories, only one of them came in the Daytona 500. He went 18 years before winning his first 500 in 1998. Stewart's 15 year streak isn't there yet, but it's creeping so ever closer.

The crash started ahead of Stewart when Kasey Kahne went spinning towards the infield and Kevin Harvick hit the wall as the field checked up behind Kahne. Harvick's car spun to the inside, but when he was tagged by Juan Pablo Montoya it spun back up the track. The avenue that Stewart had to potentially get by on the high side was blocked and Harvick's car slammed into his.

[Related:

Matt Kenseth went from the lead to the garage after 149 laps. (Getty)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – As the Daytona 500 approached 50 laps to go, it was shaping up to be a familiar finish for Matt Kenseth.

The defending champion of the race was in his first race for his new team, Joe Gibbs Racing, and was back at the front of the field, as he and new teammates Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin were running 1-2-3 on lap 148.

Suddenly, smoke started coming out from underneath the front of his Toyota. It didn't stop. Earlier in the race, Kenseth felt a vibration in the back of his car, but this was a problem unrelated to that.

Kenseth pulled his car down to the inside from in front of the pack and then onto pit road. The smoke continued to come out from his car. His chance to win back-to-back 500s were effectively over with an engine issue.

[Related: Jimmie Johnson wins Daytona 500 with powerful late-race stand]

Busch assumed the lead. It was shaping up to be a familiar finish for Joe Gibbs Racing, and not one that involved victory lane. Less than two laps after Kenseth

Here's what the crash involving Kyle Larson and 11 other Nationwide drivers looked like from the grandstands.

Tyler Andersen, a resident of Jacksonville Beach, Fla., was at the Drive for COPD 300 on Saturday and was filming the final lap when Kyle Larson's car got turned into the catchfence just in front of him and debris from his car flew into the grandstands.

You can see the panic in the stands in the crash's aftermath and the tire that flew over the catchfence landed just feet from Anderson.

At least 28 fans were injured in the crash, two critically, which also damaged the catchfence. Daytona International Speedway President Joie Chitwood said that the fence would be repaired in time for Sunday's Daytona 500.

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – At least 28 fans sustained injuries, two critically, when parts of Kyle Larson's car flew into the stands at the conclusion of Saturday's Nationwide Series race at Daytona International Speedway. One of the critically injured fans suffered a "life-threatening" head injury and the other is a child according to a spokesman at Halifax Medical Center.

Daytona International Speedway President Joie Chitwood said that 14 people were transported to hospitals from the track and another 14 were treated at the track's onsite care center.

A track worker told Yahoo! Sports that one woman had a tourniquet on her leg, others suffered burns and a tire landed on one fan when a multiple-car accident unfolded as drivers raced for the finish line in the final lap of the Drive4COPD 300.

Tony Stewart missed the pileup and won the race as Larson's car was propelled into the catchfence separating the track from the grandstands on the Daytona International Speedway trioval.

[Also: Danica

Not sure we'll ever get tired of jet dryer jokes.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- At Daytona International Speedway, there are windows for fans to look into each driver's garage stall from the infield concourse. Not only are those windows a vehicle for those on the infield to catch an up-close glimpse of what teams are doing to their cars, but it's also become a way for fans to scribble messages to the teams and drivers on the windows.

Mostly, the messages are words of encouragement for the 500 and express a fan's love for his or her favorite driver. Sometimes they're funny. Sometimes they're incompetent. Or sometimes, drivers don't have any messages at all.

The scribbles on the window are a mishmash of proper grammar and slang. Some people have realized that writing backwards makes it easier for teams to read them.

On Friday, Danica Patrick said she was pretty sure there were some cool messages on her window and said she was going to have to take a look at all the writing. It's certainly the most cluttered window -- it's only rivaled by Tony