Sporting News Power Poll after Phoenix

Sporting News Power Poll after Phoenix

Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

(November 15, 2011)

For the second week in a row, Tony Stewart stays ahead of Carl Edwards in the weekly Sporting News Power Poll. One of the two will win the Sprint Cup championship Sunday at Homestead. Edwards, who finished second Sunday at Phoenix, one spot ahead of Stewart, leads Stewart by three points in the Cup standings. Sunday’s winner, Kasey Kahne, moved up to fifth in the poll, which is voted on by editors and writers of Sporting News, SceneDaily.com, Rowdy.com and NASCAR Illustrated.

1. Tony Stewart (last week: 1st) Win the race, win the championship. It’s that simple. And who doesn’t think Smoke is capable of doing both at Homestead?

 2. Carl Edwards (2nd) For the first time in four races, Edwards held serve against Smoke, preserving his three-point lead for Homestead.

 3. Kevin Harvick (4th) He’s a good bet to finish third in points—which is exactly where he finished last year.

 4. Matt Kenseth (3rd) Kenseth was close to being eliminated from championship contention anyway, but Brian Vickers closed the deal, robbing Kenseth of a good run by retaliating. Yeah, despite what Vickers says, he retaliated.

 5. Kasey Kahne (8th) Just imagine if Kahne had made the Chase. He would be fighting for the title with a team that is fighting to stay alive.

 6. Jimmie Johnson (6th) Fifth in the standings heading into Homestead, Johnson has never finished outside of the top five in points. Will that streak come to an end, too?

 7. Brad Keselowski (5th) An 18th-place finish at Phoenix eliminated Keselowski from title contention, but 2011 has been a coming-out party for BK.

 8. Ryan Newman (14th) Good news: Another sponsor signing for the No. 39 team for 2012. Even better news: Newman finally logs a top-five finish in a Chase race.

 9. Denny Hamlin (11th) Hamlin has quietly been running well. He scored his fourth top 12 in the last five races. Signs of life for 2012 are crucial now.

 10. Jeff Gordon (7th) Gordon’s finish of 32nd at Phoenix is his fifth sub-20th finish of the Chase.

 11. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (9th) No Hendrick car was good at Phoenix, and Junior was no exception.

 12. Clint Bowyer (12th) Much like teammate Jeff Burton, he is finishing the season strong, with an average finish of 9.8 in his last four events.

 13. Kurt Busch (15th) Busch and his team cost themselves another win. As many mistakes as they make, sometimes Busch’s tirades against his team almost seem justified.

 14. AJ Allmendinger (16th) A second straight top 10—with a little help from David Ragan’s pit crew—leaves AJ on the verge of a nice streak to close out the season.

 15. Kyle Busch (13th) Kaboom! Two more JGR engine failures—one before practice on Friday and one during Sunday's race—capped an explosive season.

 16. Greg Biffle (10th) The Biff appears to have found a measure of consistency with his sixth straight top-15 finish.

 17. Marcos Ambrose (17th) Four of Ambrose’s 12 top 10s have come in the last seven races. His teammate, Allmendinger, also has four top 10s in the last seven. The King has got to be feeling good about RPM’s 2012.

 18. Jeff Burton (19th) Whatever Burton has found with crew chief Lucas Lambert, it’s working. He has three top 10s in his last four races.

19. Paul Menard (21st) Menard got his first career top 10 at Phoenix—and actually, it was just his second finish better than 21st in 10 starts.

 20. Martin Truex Jr. (18th) Truex didn’t get the finish he had hoped for at Phoenix, but he was a top-10 car for the first half of the race.

 21. Mark Martin (22nd) Martin’s replacement next year was celebrating in victory lane while he finished 16th. For the record, Martin hasn’t graced victory lane since winning five times in 2009.

 22. Juan Pablo Montoya (23rd) Montoya says he has signed a contract extension with Earnhardt Ganassi Racing. He says his team is competitive, too.

 23. David Reutimann (NR) Reutimann finally delivers a solid run—his first top 10 in four months—but it’s too little and too late to save his ride at MWR.

 24. Joey Logano (NR) Logano had a decent run, finishing 11th. He needs a strong finish at Homestead to at least have a little bit of a good feeling in the offseason.

 25. David Ragan (20th) Ragan’s day embarrassingly ended on Lap 2. The final audition for a new ride comes at Homestead, where he owns an average finish of 22.0 in four starts.