Sporting News Power Poll after Talladega

Sporting News Power Poll after Talladega

By the Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
(November 2, 2010)

There was shuffling at the top of this week’s Sporting News Power Poll, based on the order of finish in Sunday’s race—but there’s no mystery to the identity of the top three drivers. In what has evolved into a three-way race for the Sprint Cup title—among Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick—Harvick surged to the top of the poll after finishing a close second to Clint Bowyer at Talladega. The weekly poll is a collaboration of Sporting News and Rowdy.com.

1. Kevin Harvick (3rd) Harvick banged into Marcos Ambrose yet still finished second. Huge recovery from near disaster.
2. Jimmie Johnson (2nd) Johnson finished outside the top five—seventh—for only the second time in nine races.
3. Denny Hamlin (1st) It had to be hard to see the 48 finish just ahead of him. But he’s only 14 points down heading into races he finished 2nd, 3rd and 1st in 2010.
4. Jeff Gordon (9th) Gordon was eighth at Talladega despite an engine issue, but he couldn’t push JJ at crunch time.
5. Clint Bowyer (20th) First multiwin season of his career, first multiwinner in the Chase.
6. Carl Edwards (5th) Aside from Matt Kenseth, Ford drivers weren’t a factor on Sunday—or on Friday, for that matter.
7. Kyle Busch (4th) Declined to drop back to help Hamlin stay on the lead lap at Talladega—and ended up 16 spots behind him at the finish anyway.
8. Mark Martin (8th) Helped out Johnson at Talladega—not by pushing the 48, but by not pushing Hamlin.
9. Joey Logano (10th) Five top 10s in the past eight races, and three of those are top fives. Logano has doubled his top 10s from a year ago with this hot streak.
10. Matt Kenseth (12th) From 2002 to 2008, Kenseth averaged 20 top 10s a year. He has 12 this year, same as last year.
11. Juan Pablo Montoya (18th) Montoya gave Earnhardt Ganassi Racing its series-leading seventh pole and followed it with a third-place finish, his first top 10 in seven races.
12. David Reutimann (22nd) Harvick expressed his gratitude to Reutimann for a push at the end. If we had stayed green, would David have been able to slingshot around the No. 29?
13. Greg Biffle (16th) His 19th at Talladega was about average for the Biff. He’d love to close out the season with strong runs in Texas and Homestead two of his better tracks.
14. Tony Stewart (11th) After cutting a tire in the early going, Stewart spent most of Sunday trying to get back to the lead lap. Not much fun.
15. Jamie McMurray (7th) McMurray made Sunday’s most spectacular save before scraping the wall in the Earnhardt tribute car and spoiling a promising run.
16. Paul Menard (19th) Menard has earned four Chase top 15s, which is more than Chase drivers Kenseth, Kurt Busch, Stewart and Burton.
17. Jeff Burton (6th) It’s as Burton said after the race: His day at Talladega was the story of his season—great car, bad result.
18. Martin Truex Jr. (25th) Truex was one of two Michael Waltrip Toyotas in contention for the win at the end Sunday. He finished sixth for his first top 10 since Michigan in August.
19. Brad Keselowski (21st) No top 10s in his first 34 Cup races driving for Roger Penske. Two top 10s in the next two.
20. Kurt Busch (13th) Busch lined up 10th on the final restart. Three laps later he finished in 30th. That’s restrictor plate racing.
21. Ryan Newman (17th) For the first time in the past five superspeedway races, Newman was running at the finish.
22. Regan Smith (NR) Smith finished 12th for the second time in four races. Those are his best finishes of the year.
23. AJ Allmendinger (14th) “It’s Talladega. I %^&*#@ hate this place. Always have, always will.” Tell us how you really feel, AJ.
24. David Ragan (24th) Has finished outside the top 20 18 times in 33 races, but his 16.0 average finish in the past three races is one of his best stretches of the season.
25. Kasey Kahne (23rd) Regressed a bit in his second start in the No. 83, but Kahne did lead three laps. Texas will be an interesting test because of Kahne’s prowess on 1.5-mile tracks.