Sporting News Power Poll

Sporting News Power Poll


It was the Kyle Busch Show on Sunday … until the end of the race. Busch led a race-high 151 laps but not the final three, but that was still good enough to edge Carl Edwards for the top spot in this week’s Sporting News Power Poll. Busch finished third in the Auto Club 400 while Edwards came home sixth. Winner Kevin Harvick moved up to fourth in the poll, which is a weekly collaboration of Sporting News, SceneDaily.com, Rowdy.com and NASCAR Illustrated.

1. Kyle Busch (last week: 2nd). You can’t win ’em all—but Busch is doing his best to disprove that axiom.
2. Carl Edwards (1st). Edwards played Fontana like a champion, getting a sixth-place finish out of a car that couldn’t run up front.
3. Jimmie Johnson (4th). Five-time was in line for his first win of 2011 until he got snookered on the last lap by Kevin Harvick. The No. 48 team is getting better, but it’s not at championship form just yet.
4. Kevin Harvick (9th). There’s nothing quite like the drama of a last-lap pass, and Harvick gave it to us. But he gave Johnson the right to use his bumper in the future.
5. Ryan Newman (5th). Newman is making a habit of finishing fifth. And that has him nipping at the heels of the points leader.
6. Kurt Busch (3rd). The first poor run of the season costs Busch the points lead.
7. Tony Stewart (6th). Stewart’s average running position Sunday was fifth, and he ran in second for much of the day, which made his late race fade to 13th all the more painful.
8. Matt Kenseth (11th). A second straight top-five finish shows Kenseth and the No. 17 team are starting to turn things around.
9. Juan Pablo Montoya (12th). Montoya won the pole on Friday and led twice for seven laps en route to a 10th-place finish. He needs consistency, though.
10. Kasey Kahne (13th). Kahne made an impressive push at the end. There is plenty of reason for optimism.
11. Paul Menard (7th). With “Menarch” drawing to a close, Menard stumbled. Still, a 16th ain’t too shabby.
12. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (8th). Junior admits a poor qualifying run kept him from the top 10 this week. But once again, he was faster at the end than at the beginning.
13. Jeff Gordon (10th). Gordon’s win at Phoenix remains his only top 10. His second-best finish is the 14th he scored at Bristol .
14. Greg Biffle (18th). Biffle has slowly crawled his way back into the top 20 in the standings, but overall the Fords were a disappointment on Sunday.
15. Martin Truex Jr. (14th). A familiar refrain: Now you see him, now you don’t. Truex is leading the league in fading.
16. Clint Bowyer (21st). His fourth straight finish in the top 10 at Auto Club Speedway is also his first top 10 of 2011. He’s among the few who wants to race at Fontana twice.
17. Mark Martin (15th). Martin fared better in a strenuous workout with uber trainer Jillian Michaels than he did in the race. Finishing 20th dropped the ageless wonder three spots in points to 14th.
18. AJ Allmendinger (17th). A top 15 at California doesn’t count as especially impressive, but it’s the kind of day you need when your car isn’t working.
19. Denny Hamlin (16th). His free fall continues after an engine failure. Was that “wild card” we just heard in the 11 shop?
20. Brian Vickers (NR). Vickers got his second top 10 to go with three finishes in the 30s. All or nothing won’t get him very far. Just ask Montoya.
21. Jeff Burton (25th). He said last week that he remains confident, and a 15th-place result is his best of the year so far.
22. Marcos Ambrose (20th). Ambrose sits 19th in the standings. While a road-course win could earn him a Chase wild-card berth, he has to stay in the top 20 to take advantage of it.
23. Bobby Labonte (19th). A blown tire late in the race resulted in Labonte’s first DNF and worst finish of the season.
24. David Ragan (22nd). Highlight of his Hollywood weekend was a sixth-place start on the grid. Reality bit back with a 22nd-place finish.
25. David Reutimann (NR). Reutimann was never a factor, but at least he didn’t get in a wreck.