Sporting News Power Poll after Kansas

Sporting News Power Poll after Kansas

Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

(October 11, 2011)

On the strength of his victory Sunday at Kansas, Jimmie Johnson swapped places with Carl Edwards in this week’s Sporting News Power Poll. Johnson moved up from second with his second victory of the year and his second consecutive top-two finish. Johnson finished second the previous week at Dover. The biggest mover for the week was Brad Keselowski—seventh to fourth—who finished third for his third top five in the past four races. The power poll is a weekly collaboration of Sporting News, SceneDaily.com, Rowdy.com and NASCAR Illustrated.

1. Jimmie Johnson (last week: 2nd) That collective uh-oh you just heard either came from the rest of the Chase field or the Anybody But Jimmie camp. Either way, it’s time for both to be concerned.

 2. Carl Edwards (1st) His fifth-place finish at Kansas was nothing short of miraculous, but Edwards’ handling struggles raised questions about the team’s readiness for Charlotte.

 3. Kevin Harvick (3rd) Harvick lost the points lead and will drop further without any more top-five finishes.

 4. Brad Keselowski (7th) Another Chase race, another top five to go with a Nationwide win on Saturday. The roll continues for Big Bad Brad.

 5. Matt Kenseth (6th) Steady Kenseth keeps doing what he does—clicking off top-10 finishes. Don’t be surprised if he’s still in the title hunt at the very end.

 6. Tony Stewart (5th) Stewart ran second to Johnson for 130 laps, putting his best foot forward. Unfortunately, that’s the same foot that confused the accelerator for the brake on the final pit stop of the day.

 7. Kurt Busch (4th) This is why Busch eventually will fade from contention—he follows a spectacular run with a mediocre one.

 8. Kyle Busch (9th) As a whole, the Joe Gibbs Racing cars are missing the speed they need to be frontrunners, but Kyle is hanging in there.

 9. Jeff Gordon (8th) First Gordon’s engine blew up and then his championship hopes. He’s 47 points back with six to go. Not gonna happen.

 10. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (10th) Junior was solid, if not super-fast, at Kansas, but even he realizes his chances for a championship this season are all but over.

 11. Kasey Kahne (13th) With back-to-back top fives, this team is looking like a threat to win before the season ends and the team dissolves.

 12. Clint Bowyer (11th) Combined top 10s for Michael Waltrip Racing’s David Reutimann and Martin Truex Jr.: 10. Top 10s for future teammate Bowyer: 12. Enjoy these last six races, Clint.

 13. Greg Biffle (16th) Starting on the pole, the Biff bounced back after struggling midrace. This season, that counts as progress.

 14. Ryan Newman (12th) An early problem with a lug nut wasn’t the 39 team’s biggest problem, but it didn’t help. Newman simply wasn’t fast. Not a good sign with Charlotte, Texas and Homestead looming.

 15. Mark Martin (17th) The ageless wonder used his grit and veteran guile to grind out a 10th-place finish. Martin now has double-digit top-10 finishes for the 24th consecutive season.

 16. Denny Hamlin (15th) Hamlin’s postrace comments about his team needing to be open to change do not exactly inspire confidence. This team has a lot to fix.

 17. Marcos Ambrose (20th) Mankind must resign itself to certain questions remaining unanswered: Who built the pyramids? Are crop circles really messages from an alien race? How in the hell did Marcos Ambrose finish in the top 10 at Kansas?

 18. AJ Allmendinger (14th) Ambrose’s teammate finished 25th, and AJ has a twist on mankind’s unanswered questions: What about me?

 19. David Ragan (19th) Ragan missed out on receiving the Lucky Dog on a couple of occasions and later said the “chips just didn’t fall our way.” Ragan finished a disappointing 20th after he flashed speed in practice.

 20. Paul Menard (22nd) Strong qualifying effort, midpack finish. Pretty typical day for this team.

 21. Juan Pablo Montoya (21st) Nothing unusual about JPM’s afternoon. Car wouldn’t handle, he struggled and finished 23rd.

 22. Jeff Burton (18th) Needed his Wheaties at Kansas after finishing 21st.

 23. Regan Smith (23rd) Picking up on last week’s theme … Smith finished 24th for the third time this year. Finishing 17th is No. 1 for Smith in 2011 (four times). Which number will win the inane stat award? Stay tuned.

 24. Brian Vickers (24th) Placed 19th and had to wonder what was the difference between his car and teammate Kahne’s.

 25. Martin Truex Jr. (25th) Sorry, Clint, we can’t resist: Truex and Reutimann suffered broken axles at Kansas. Wonder if Bowyer noticed that?