Sporting News Power Poll

Sporting News Power Poll


(March  2011)

Carl Edwards’ win Sunday at Las Vegas propelled him into the top spot of this week’s Sporting News Power Poll. Edwards has a win and a second-place finish in the first three races. Tony Stewart, who dominated Sunday’s race but finished second because of a mistake on pit road, is ranked second. The weekly poll is a collaboration of Sporting News, SceneDaily.com, Rowdy.com and NASCAR Illustrated.

1. Carl Edwards (last week: 4th) Winner, winner, chicken dinner—with a back flip thrown in for good measure. Edwards made up for disappointments at Daytona and Phoenix with his victory in Sin City.
2. Tony Stewart (5th) Smoke scored his first top five of 2011, but Mr. Glass Half Empty found little solace in that fact—instead, lamenting the one that got away.
3. Kurt Busch (3rd) Busch makes a nice rally from an early wreck to salvage a top 10 and earn a share of the points lead.
4. Ryan Newman (7th) Back-to-back top-five finishes for Newman. That’s three in his past five starts, dating back to the final two races of 2010.
5. Juan Pablo Montoya (12th) Considered a road-course ace, Montoya seems to be on his way to contending for wins elsewhere as well.
6. Jeff Gordon (2nd) At 19th in points, Gordon is now the lowest-ranked Hendrick driver despite his win at Phoenix. Earnhardt, Martin and Johnson are all in the top 12.
7. Denny Hamlin (11th) Hamlin was the only bright spot in an otherwise bleak day for JGR. He has to get through Bristol and California before Martinsville, where he has three straight wins.
8. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (13th) Junior was the best Hendrick car in Las Vegas and got better as the race went on. How often have we said that in the past two years???
9. Kyle Busch (1st) A flat tire and a brush with the wall couldn’t stop him, but an exploding engine did. Does JGR have a problem? Four sour engines in three weeks?
10. Jimmie Johnson (6th) You just knew Johnson would make his way back through the field. And you were wrong. His 16th-place finish reflected a desultory effort in the desert.
11. Martin Truex Jr. (19th) Says communication has been the key to improved performance. A real chatterbox, that Truex.
12. Paul Menard (15th) The highest-ranked RCR driver, Menard is starting off 2011 just like 2010, with a string of top-20 finishes. Can he keep it up?
13. Matt Kenseth (17th) A flat tire cost him a chance to win, but he rallied for a respectable 11th-place finish.
14. AJ Allmendinger (8th) No major problems for AJ in Las Vegas, but he didn’t have the run many thought he would—especially compared with teammate Marcos Ambrose.
15. Mark Martin (9th) After a gift win in the Nationwide race, Martin (18th) fared no better than his Hendrick teammate Johnson on Sunday.
16. Kevin Harvick (10th) A nondescript day at Vegas, but that was true of all the RCR cars. Had Harvick not blown his engine at Daytona, we’d be looking at a really feared driver.
17. Kasey Kahne (14th) Kahne followed up his first top 10 with Red Bull with a 14th at Vegas. It’s not spectacular, but that kind of consistency will get him in the Chase.
18. Clint Bowyer (16th) Dating to 2010, it’s five straight finishes without a top 10 for Bowyer. And he’s a guy who won two races in last year’s Chase.
19. Marcos Ambrose (NR) Ambrose’s fourth-place finish at Las Vegas marked his first top five on a downforce track in Cup or Nationwide. (He scored top fives in the truck series at Kansas & Nashville.)
20. Brian Vickers (NR) Vickers had his first top-10 finish of the season, and he certainly needed it.
21. Greg Biffle (20th) The first big casualty of the new self-venting gas can, the Biff is now truly behind the eight-ball after problems in Las Vegas.
22. Jeff Burton (21st) Burton started 21st and finished there. That’s his best finish of 2011, but 31st in points is a major hole.
23. Bobby Labonte (18th) Labonte has led two laps in the first three races. Big deal, you say? He didn’t lead his second lap last year until the 28th race.
24. Joey Logano (NR) A pit-crew error late with a tire violation ruined a chance for Logano to climb back in points.
25. David Reutimann (NR) His 13th-place finish is nothing to write home about, but he needed it after a dreadful first two races.