Sporting News Power Poll

Sporting News Power Poll

By Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
(March 1, 2011)
Jeff Gordon might have won Sunday's Sprint Cup Series race at Phoenix , but it is second-place finisher Kyle Busch who finds himself atop this week's Sporting News Power Poll (and the Sprint Cup standings). Gordon, who won for the first time since April 2009, is second. Last week's No. 1, Carl Edwards, dropped to fourth. The weekly poll is a collaboration of Sporting News, SceneDaily.com, Rowdy.com and NASCAR Illustrated.

1. Kyle Busch (last week: 3rd). Gracious in defeat. The prospect of a mature Kyle Busch should scare every other Cup driver.
2. Jeff Gordon (12th). Gordon has now won in three decades with five crew chiefs.
3. Kurt Busch (2nd). Busch led 31 laps and was near the front all day. And after two races, he's second in points.
4. Carl Edwards (1st). Edwards had the fastest car at Phoenix but was wrecked early. Can't penalize the pole winner for that.
5. Tony Stewart (7th). An ill-timed caution caused Smoke's two-tire strategy to backfire. He has not won at Phoenix since his first Cup start there back in 1999.
6. Jimmie Johnson (11th). Johnson was invisible for much of Sunday after starting 28th. Attrition and perseverance gained him a third-place result.
7. Ryan Newman (5th). Newman finished fifth, his third consecutive top five at Phoenix , to move into eighth in the points. Not a bad start for a team that found itself in a hole early last year.
8. AJ Allmendinger (19th). A quiet top 10 in Phoenix is a very good sign for a driver who has grown immensely over the past year.
9. Mark Martin (6th). Martin was last of the Hendrick cars, but his 13th is still not a bad showing. Still wonder if he misses crew chief Alan Gustafson.
10. Kevin Harvick (15th). He was great at making the best out of tough situations last year, and it's happening again in 2011. Harvick spun early but rebounded to finish fourth.
11. Denny Hamlin (10th). Hmm. Two races, no top 10s. Didn't Hamlin go five races last year without a top 10 before catching fire? Yes, he did.
12. Juan Pablo Montoya (8th). A 19th-place finish for a guy that wasn't involved in any of the major incidents at Phoenix tells you how bad his car handled all day.
13. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (17th). If you pit under green with a loose wheel, after sliding through your pit box on an earlier stop, a 10th-place finish ought to feel like a win.
14. Kasey Kahne (NR). Kahne was 30th and 34th in his first two starts last year with Richard Petty Motorsports. He's 25th and sixth this year with Red Bull Racing.
15. Paul Menard (13th). Menard is 11th in the standings. If the regular season were over today … sorry, couldn't help myself.
16. Clint Bowyer (4th). One positive—his crew got experience putting a new nose on the car after the big wreck.
17. Matt Kenseth (24th). Brian Vickers won't be volunteering to babysit, but Kenseth kept his composure after the big crash and limped home to a 12th-place finish.
18. Bobby Labonte (20th). Labonte finished 21st at Phoenix . He finished better than 22nd only four times last year. He's 2-for-2 so far in 2011.
19. Martin Truex Jr. (23rd). Truex said he had a car that was “very capable of winning.” A pit road mistake cost the team dearly, though, and Truex finished 14th.
20. Greg Biffle (25th). Biffle avoided disaster in Phoenix but still sits 28th in the standings. Vegas feels like an early season “must top 10” for the Biff.
21. Jeff Burton (9th). Dating to last year, Burton hasn't had a top 10 since Martinsville in October.
22. Jamie McMurray (18th). McMurray has been caught up wrecks in the first two races and sits 26th in the standings. He needs to stay clean in Vegas.
23. Regan Smith (16th). Smith was collected in the “big one” and finished a disappointing 34th after his stellar opening at Daytona.
24. Brad Keselowski (NR). Keselowski gets bonus points just for avoiding all the early wrecks at Phoenix . Still searching for speed in his car.
25. David Gilliland (21st). Another driver caught up in the big wreck—who wasn't?—Gilliland brought his car home 22nd.