Jimmie Johnson hangs on to top spot in SceneDaily.com's power rankings
Kevin Harvick leads the Sprint Cup point standings heading into the first off week of the 2010 season. But Harvick is still chasing Jimmie Johnson in SceneDaily.com's power rankings. // Bambi Mattila, NASCAR Illustrated
A couple of new faces bumped their way into this week’s SceneDaily.com top-20 driver rankings, and the jury is still out on whether those moves were intentional or “just racing.” Rumor has it members of the esteemed SceneDaily panel were quickly escorted to the NASCAR hauler following the Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta to discuss the matter at length.
The top two spots remained unchanged however, as the end of Jimmie Johnson’s two-race win streak, and subsequent 12th-place finish, wasn’t enough to unseat the four-time Cup champion after four weeks of competition.
1. Jimmie Johnson: Team’s car wasn’t as strong as the toolbox in the Kobalt TV ad. Crew chief Chad Knaus is still waiting for fellow driver David Gilliland to go a lap down, so his driver will have a clear path around his pit stall.
2. Kevin Harvick: Happy spent the first 300 laps outside the top 12 before finally racing his way into the top 10. His ninth-place finish keeps him atop the point standings, and it’s hard to gripe when that’s the case.
3. Matt Kenseth: Jumps three spots this week after an impressive runnerup finish at Atlanta. All of a sudden, Kenseth’s looking like the same guy that won back-to-back races in 2009.
4. Mark Martin: Battled his way back from an earlier tire problem and subsequent spin to crack the top 15 … only to get caught up in a multicar crash before the final green-white-checkered restart.
5. Greg Biffle: Eighth-place finish gives him four top-10s to start the season, so two of the four Roush Fenway Racing cars appear to be up to snuff.
6. Kurt Busch: Series’ most recent winner jumped nine spots in the rankings this week. He’ll celebrate by competing in NHRA
GatorNationals this weekend in Gainesville, Fla. Not exactly the Indy/Charlotte double, but …
7. Clint Bowyer: Streak of top-10 finishes comes to an end, and the result was a fall from second to fifth in points.
8. Jeff Burton: Finished 20th but was flagged twice for speeding on pit road. That’ll happen when you lose your front brakes.
9. Kasey Kahne: Had the dominant car for much of the day, but lost lead in the pits on numerous occasions. In the end, that proved to be the team’s undoing. Fourth-place finish was nice change of pace for team that had been snake-bitten in previous races, though.
10. Jeff Gordon: Wound up 18th and wasn’t sure if tires were to blame or if setup was a bit too aggressive. Either way, it was a step back for a team that looked so strong the week before.
11. Juan Pablo Montoya: Solid from the outset, JP had a shot at the win – he was second and closing with 10 laps remaining – before two final cautions resulted in a smash-and-grab ending and left him third in the rundown. Almost as good was the fact that his teammate didn’t take him out of this race.
12. Tony Stewart: Fell three spots in the rankings despite his 13th-place finish. Goodyear officials thanking their lucky stars that Smoke wasn’t one of the handful of guys that had tire problems at AMS.
13. Kyle Busch: After battling tire issues for part of the day, Busch had nowhere to go when Jamie McMurray and Clint Bowyer crashed in front of him late in the race. A team that was expected to contend for wins is suddenly headed in the wrong direction.
14. Joey Logano: A victim of the first dust-up between Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski, Logano’s day didn’t get much better. A tire failure just short of halfway poured salt in the wound and left the Joe Gibbs Racing team 35th in the rundown. It cost him six spots in the point standings, and four in this week’s rankings.
15. Scott Speed: Thanks to a 10th-place finish at Atlanta, Speed makes his first appearance in the rankings. That he’s still learning the ropes in Cup bodes well for the Red Bull bunch.
16. David Reutimann: Overheating issues bit the MWR team, and left Reutimann 40th. He’ll have to avoid such finishes if he hopes to be a top-10 contender and Chase hopeful.
17. Paul Menard: Another newcomer to the rankings, Menard has been the surprise of the season thus far. A fifth-place finish at AMS pushed the Richard Petty Motorsports driver all the way up to ninth in points. Anyone not surprised by that is crazy.
18. Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Couldn’t cash in on his first pole since 2008, but this Hendrick team is clearly better than it was a year ago. Only problem is, it was so horrid in 2009, it would be nearly impossible to be worse.
19. Denny Hamlin: The Joe Gibbs Racing team was a contender – Hamlin led five times for 32 laps – but his day soured when he was trapped in the seven-car crash near the end of the race. A 21st-place finish may look worse than it actually was, but the end result was the same – the team still has a long way to go to dig itself out of an early hole in the point standings.
20. Carl Edwards: Kurt Busch may have won the race, but most folks will remember Edwards’ obvious takeout of Brad Keselowski when recalling this year’s Kobalt Tools 500. The Roush Fenway Racing driver was more than 150 laps down when he punted the Penske Racing driver, a move that sent Keselowski on a wild ride reminiscent of Edwards’ adventure at Talladega last year. Fans will be mulling this one over for months to come. The move earned Edwards an automatic trip to the garage and a 39th-place finish.
If NASCAR wanted feuding drivers, Edwards obliged ‘em.
Just missing the cut: Jamie McMurray, Brian Vickers and AJ Allmendinger
