Sporting News Power Poll after Martinsville

Sporting News Power Poll after Martinsville

 

Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

 

(November 1, 2011)

 

Tony Stewart’s third victory in the Chase wasn’t enough to unseat points leader Carl Edwards atop the latest Sporting News Power Poll, but it was close. Edwards leads Stewart by eight points in the Chase standings and remained No. 1 in the power poll by three points in voting done by editors and writers of Sporting News, SceneDaily.com, Rowdy.com and NASCAR Illustrated.

 

1. Carl Edwards (last week: 1st) A string of fortunate finishes has kept Edwards in the points lead. It's time to get aggressive, if he wants to win the title.

 

2. Tony Stewart (4th) Stewart picked up his third win of the Chase and is now eight points behind Edwards, about whom he said, “He better be worried. … He’s not going to have an easy three weeks.” Cue theme from “Jaws.”

 

3. Kevin Harvick (5th) Harvick put together a fine fourth-place run for his fourth top 10 in the past five races, but that 32nd-place finish at Talladega might prove to be the title killer.

 

4. Jimmie Johnson (8th) It was not a good month for Johnson on late restarts—he lost to Kurt Busch at Dover to begin October and then spit the bit Sunday to Stewart.

 

5. Brad Keselowski (3rd) Punted by a chain-reaction wreck after the final restart at Martinsville, Keselowski fell from contender status to long shot in less than three seconds.

 

6. Matt Kenseth (2nd) Kenseth deserved better Sunday. He ran well and was in position to take the points lead when he got caught up in the wreck-fest. Now his championship hopes may be over.

 

7. Kyle Busch (6th) A victim of short-track racing at Martinsville, Busch saw his Chase chances vanish after contact with Kenseth set him screaming into the Turn 3 wall.

 

8. Jeff Gordon (12th) Gordon scored his 31st top 10—and 25th top five—in 38 Martinsville starts. Not too shabby.

 

9. Denny Hamlin (11th) Hamlin scored his first top five since July. Nevertheless, a fifth-place finish has to feel like a bit of a letdown after he won both Martinsville races in 2010.

 

10. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (14th) Junior wasn’t afraid to use his bumper at Martinsville and pushed his way to a top-10 finish.

 

11. Kurt Busch (10th) His championship hopes are over, and his luck also seems to have run out. He hit nearly everything at Martinsville and got bounced around like a pinball.

 

12. Ryan Newman (15th) Newman didn’t get shoved out of the way by the boss this week. Instead, he recovered from a late-race spin to finish 10th.

 

13. Kasey Kahne (7th) Kahne’s streak of four straight top-six finishes ground to a halt at Martinsville. But he should be a favorite this week at Texas. He is down to three races to score a win at Red Bull.

 

14. Clint Bowyer (9th) He’ll like going back to Texas, where he finished second and led 44 laps in April.

 

15. Greg Biffle (13th) Biffle must have felt good about his 15th at Martinsville—until he saw that Harvick finished 11 spots ahead of him.

 

16. AJ Allmendinger (17th) Despite the chaos at Martinsville, AJ finished 11th and was close to the front for most of the day.

 

17. Jeff Burton (19th) After finishing sixth at Martinsville for his second straight top-10 finish, we’re reminded of Burton’s strong run to close 2009, when he finished that year with four straight top 10s.

 

18. Martin Truex Jr. (20th) Restarting on the inside lane at Martinsville at the end of the race paid dividends for Truex, who finished a surprising eighth.

 

19. Marcos Ambrose (16th) Ambrose was involved in two wrecks early on, but it could have been worse. He could have been Brian Vickers.

 

20. Juan Pablo Montoya (22nd) Montoya finished 22nd and still climbed three spots in the points to 17th. Seems there’s a close battle going on in the back of the field, too.

 

21. Paul Menard (18th) Menard’s recipe for success this week: Pretend Martinsville never happened and look forward to super-fast Texas, where he finished fifth in April.

 

22. Regan Smith (NR) Smith went for a spin and still came home 13th, his best finish since his last top 10, in September at New Hampshire.

 

23. Mark Martin (21st) Martin, the consummate gentleman driver, found himself in a less than civilized race at Martinsville. He limped home 28th.

 

24. Joey Logano (25th) Logano had a heated exchange with crew chief Greg Zipadelli, then was in the top 10 late before an accident on the last lap dropped him to 18th.

 

25. David Ragan (24th) Ragan is officially in limbo now after UPS jumped on board with Edwards as an associate sponsor in 2012. Ragan then capped the week with a 33rd-place finish. Yuck.