Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
(June 7, 2011)
Sprint Cup Series points leader Carl Edwards climbed back atop the Sporting News Power Poll after a fifth-place run in Sunday's STP 400 at Kansas Speedway. The top five was his series-high seventh. He also has two wins and a series-high 10 top 10s in 13 races. Kevin Harvick dropped to second, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. jumped to third in the poll, which is a weekly collaboration of Sporting News, SceneDaily.com, Rowdy.com and NASCAR Illustrated.
1. Carl Edwards (Last week: 2nd) Finished fifth at Kansas and continued to expand his points lead—almost to the point where he could take a week off and still be No. 1.
2. Kevin Harvick (1st) Since blowing an engine early in the Daytona 500, Harvick has completed all but three of the laps since and finished no worse than 20th.
3. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (5th) Sure, fuel mileage helped Junior to a runner-up finish at Kansas, but he also made more green-flag passes than any other driver.
4. Jimmie Johnson (6th) Johnson failed to lead a lap and was never a threat to win at Kansas, but his seventh-place finish moved him up one spot in points to second.
5. Kyle Busch (4th) Did the beat-down at the hands of Richard Childress knock Kyle off his game?
6. Matt Kenseth (3rd) Another solid finish for a driver looking more and more like a legitimate championship contender.
7. Denny Hamlin (9th) One of the hottest drivers in the garage, Hamlin has been close to a win in back-to-back races. He has raced his way to the doorstep of the top 10 and looks ready to live up to his preseason billing.
8. Kurt Busch (10th) The squeaky wheel gets the grease, and Busch’s recent barking clearly paid off at Penske Racing. Busch’s dominant performance was his best in a while.
9. Tony Stewart (11th) Stewart came down on the wrong side of fuel mileage but still managed to score a top 10.
10. Jeff Gordon (14th) Gordon finished fourth, his first top 10 in the past five races, and it wasn’t just a fuel-mileage fluke—he sat third at the race’s halfway point.
11. Greg Biffle (8th) Tenth was not what Biffle was looking for at his best track—by far—on the circuit. He did win the last race at Pocono, however.
12. Clint Bowyer (7th) His streak of five straight top-10 finishes has been replaced by three finishes of 15th or worse in his last four.
13. Brad Keselowski (19th) Win a race and—Presto!—you’re in the Chase conversation. Penske chassis have shown major improvement lately.
14. Ryan Newman (13th) Newman finished 15th at Kansas and is barely hanging onto his top-10 points position.
15. David Ragan (15th) Coming off a career-best runner-up finish at Charlotte, Ragan mustered a 13th-place result at Kansas. His future at Roush Fenway will continue to be a storyline heading into the summer.
16. Kasey Kahne (17th) Kahne and his team struggled at Kansas, an intermediate speedway. That doesn’t bode well for the team’s fortunes down the stretch.
17. Mark Martin (18th) Martin limped home 21st while all three of his Hendrick teammates finished in the top seven. The No. 5 team chased it all day and never found an answer.
18. Juan Pablo Montoya (20th) Somebody tell Montoya this isn’t Darlington and there’s no such thing as a “Kansas stripe.”
19. AJ Allmendinger (12th) Three finishes of 20th or worse in his last four starts—the RPM Fords are steadily losing ground to their Roush Fenway counterparts.
20. Marcos Ambrose (16th) Hang in there, Marcos. Infineon is just three weeks away.
21. Paul Menard (24th) Menard didn’t do much at Kansas, starting ninth and finishing an undistinguished 19th. He hasn’t had a top 10 in two months.
22. Martin Truex Jr. (25th) It’s hard to feel good about a 20th-place finish. Then again, it beats last week’s 26th-place run.
23. Brian Vickers (NR) Vickers’ highlight of the week was skydiving into Daytona, not the 16th-place finish at Kansas.
24. Jeff Burton (21st) Among the top 30 in points, Burton is the only driver without a top 10. Can his sponsor bulldoze the rest of his season?
25. Regan Smith (23rd) Granted, 24th at Kansas isn’t great, but where’s the love, voters? Smith has a first and an eighth in two of his past four races.
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