NASCAR Power Rankings

By Adam Ruggiero
Love of Sports Correspondent

Back after a getaway week for the non-points Sprint Showdown (formerly the All-Star Challenge), the Power Rankings are just in time to catch you up on a wild race at Darlington and rev you up for one of, if not the greatest weekends of racing on the schedule.

But first, a thank you to all of you readers who’ve made this column and The Love Of Sports on the whole a growing success. We’ve had our biggest weeks ever recently and the site is starting to take off. Because of your passion and support we’re able to debate, cheer and outright parody the sports and athletes we look up to (and down at).

So, here’s a standing-O from us to you, for being the best fans in the world!

Now, back to the track. In case you missed it – and you’ll kick yourself if you did – Kyle Busch, shrugging off cascading boos from 60,000-plus Earnhardt fans who hadn’t forgiven the dicey late-race antics that left Little E in the wall at Richmond, won at Darlington, one of NASCAR’s crown jewel tracks.

In typical “Rowdy” fashion, Busch proved it’s better to be reckless than smart, stripping nearly all the paint off his right side as he scraped along Darlington’s infamous outside wall en route to the victory. He extended his points lead, tied Carl Edwards for most wins on the year and even drew the ire of commentators Larry McReynolds and Jeff Hammond for his rude radio communiqué toward his team.

But he won - and won handily. And like Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt before him, he’s fostering a following of diehard fans who respect his on-track demeanor in lieu of his off-track personality.

In the week that followed, drivers and fans alike were given a reprieve from Busch’s in-your-face style and treated to a winner-take-all, leave-it-on-the-track exhibition of the sport’s finest. The Showdown race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway has some confusing rules.

To be eligible, drivers must have, A) Won a race in this or the previous season; B) Have won the Showdown in the last 10 years; C) Been a Cup champion within the last 10 years; D) Be one of the two top finishers in the pre-race qualifying heat; or, E) Be a lead-lap finisher in the qualifier who is subsequently voted in by the fans. No driver has ever won the Showdown by being the fan vote-in participant.

Until this year.

Kasey Kahne won the fourth and final segment of the race, taking home over $1 million for himself and his team and becoming the first driver to win after gaining entry by virtue of the fan vote. Greg Biffle, who won the third segment, worth $75,000, finished second. Biffle’s Roush teammate, Carl Edwards, won segment two, also worth $75,000, and finished 10th. Kyle Busch won the opening $75,000 segment, but finished dead last at race’s end with a blown engine.

Next up for the boys of summer (and spring and fall), the haulers stay put and crews sleep in as NASCAR puts on its longest show of the year in the Coca-Cola 600 – 400 laps and 600 miles in the official unofficial home of NASCAR – North Carolina.

Power Rankings (after Darlington)

1. Kyle Busch (1)

There’s not much more to say that hasn’t already been said. Three wins on the year, the most Top 5s, the most Top 10s, the second-most laps led – he’s even been the leader of all three of NASCAR’s top series (Craftsman Truck, Nationwide and Sprint)! The only black mark on this kid is his lack of maturity. The sole respect he gets on the track is what he earns through driving ability, and even that’s wearing thin. Although he’s proven he can win while sanding away the passenger compartment along the outside wall, other drivers are tiring of his aggressive behavior and will soon start to leave him to his own devices. Of course, his devices seem to be much faster than their devices.

2. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (2)

It’s safe to say we officially have a rivalry developing, a good thing considering NASCAR’s most prominent rivalry before now was something like “The People of NASCAR vs. Jeff Gordon.” Sure, Kurt Busch and Jimmy Spencer shared some real animosity and head-to-fist conflict resolution techniques a few years ago, but that lacked the on-track romance of two skilled competitors. Earnhardt vs. Busch not only divides fans along which driver they like better off the track, it also pits two racers who are week-in and week-out dueling for the checkers. If Busch weren’t the phenomenon in his Gibbs Toyota that he’s been, Earnhardt would certainly be the talk of NASCAR. He’d also have a couple wins under his belt. Advantage: Busch.

3. Denny Hamlin (4)

Hamlin’s a threat every week, and although there doesn’t seem to be any real team work among he, Tony Stewart or Kyle Busch, the power packed under the hoods of Gibbs’s Camrys is clearly enough to throttle all of them ahead of the pack. While Stewart and Busch are on opposite ends of the luck spectrum, Hamlin’s making above-average finishes consistently. He’s only got four finishes outside the Top 10, and one of them was in the rain-soaked mockery at Fontana, a race that by all rights should be re-run.

4. Carl Edwards (6)

After Kyle Busch dominated at Darlington for his third win this year, he matched the season-high, he didn’t set it. Edwards landed three back flips, his trademark victory celebration, after just seven races – in four fewer than it took series-leader Busch. And unlike Rowdy, people actually cheer when Edwards wins. The problem for Carl is that he’s running for Roush, and they’re having a heck of a bad year. The engine power and race setups are there – Edwards, Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth are all in the Top 10 in laps led – but mechanical problems are as rampant in these cars as expletives are in a postgame Ozzie Guillen interview. I don’t know that Edwards alone can overcome his team’s woes; Roush has to get better.

5. Jeff Burton (3)

Shortly after Burton assumed the points lead and scooted into the No.1 standing in the Power Rankings, I warned that he would begin to drop from both unless he upped his aggression and vigor on the track. I know he can be counted on to finish every race and that he’ll give other drivers plenty of room so as not to rile tempers, but in a sport where speed is everything and control is fleeting you’ve got to be a little bit nuts to succeed. Right now, he’s just too level-headed.

6. Jimmie Johnson (5)

If you’ve read these Power Rankings before, you know that when I congratulate Jimmie Johnson, I’m actually congratulating Chad Knaus, Johnson’s crew chief. Guaranteed, if you watch a single race you will see a shot and hear commentary about Knaus and his race management. The man’s a genius when it comes to race strategy, and Johnson’s a well-behaved listener. So long as that relationship continues, “Johnson” will notch more wins and cruise into the Chase.

7. Greg Biffle (10)

How does a man who finished dead last in the previous race move up in the Power Rankings? By leading the most laps prior to falling out of said race and showing he had a car faster than the eventual race winner. Biffle’s car was better and his line was cleaner than Busch’s while running around The Lady in Black at Darlington, and if he had any other team’s chassis he probably would’ve won. That’s because the Roush-Fenway Ford Fusions have been riddled with problems since the Cup series transitioned to COTs full time. I think if they can get their engineering squared away, Biffle and Co. will start stealing some wins. Bottom line for Biffle: Keep doing what you’re doing.

8. Clint Bowyer (7)

After his win at Richmond, Bowyer scooted from a dismal 38th-place starting position to a very respectable 15th-place finish at Darlington, one of NASCAR’s most demanding tracks. The Childress cars of Burton, Bowyer and Kevin Harvick are showing they may not have muscle-power, but the do have staying power. None of the three have led many laps, but their uncanny ability to be in or near the Top 10 in every race earns the Childress boys some respect in the Power Rankings.

9. David Ragan (14)

These are my Power Rankings and I’m allowed one homer call every 11 weeks. It’s somewhere in the fine print of my contract. David Ragan’s quietly making a lot of noise, if that makes any sense. Unless you follow NASCAR, you’ve never heard of him, but if you do follow the sport you know he’s all the rage right now. This kid – he’s seven months and 22 days younger than 23-year-old Kyle Busch – has three Top 5s in his last four races, including the star-studded Sprint Showdown.

10. Jeff Gordon (12)

OK, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Continue to fool me by wrecking or finishing outside the Top 20 while I continue to trumpet what a wily, bound-for-success veteran you are, your name will go unspoken in the Power Rankings for weeks on end. That said, Gordon’s strung together two – count them, two – Top 10 finishes in a row. While that wouldn’t be enough on its own to win his way back into the good graces, the burgeoning success of Hendrick makes me think they’re on to something. And being the wily, bound-for-success veteran he is, I think Gordon’s on the upswing. Ugh.

11. Tony Stewart (8)

If Tony didn’t have bad luck, he’d have no luck at all. At Darlington, he was taken out of the race on lap two by a contrite Elliott Sadler who admitted he made a “rookie mistake” in ducking under Stewart in the turn. That said, Tony’s failed to convert on repeated quality runs and strong starting positions – he sits fifth in most laps led this season – and finger-pointing aside, bad finishes equal poor Power Rankings. He’s got the technology, Busch and Hamlin can attest to that, but Smoke’s got to shake the monkey off his back and put that beloved orange machine in victory lane. He can do it, and if he gets right, he’ll do it a lot.

12. Travis Kvapil (20)

Here’s why Travis Kvapil, 18th in points in his third full year of Cup racing, is in the bubble spot of the Power Rankings ahead of higher-points veterans like Harvick, Ryan Newman and Kasey Kahne: he’s got three Top 10s in his last four races (Showdown included), and he’s doing it as a member of Robert Yates Racing. That’s akin to me finishing third in the Tour de France atop a Huffy. Not only is he starting to string together quality finishes, he’s led some laps and has no DNFs. I’m always one to root for the underdog, but don’t be surprised if Kvapil makes some ripples this season and challenges for the final Chase spot.

OUTSIDE LOOKING IN

13. Kasey Kahne
14. Kevin Harvick
15. Martin Truex, Jr.
16. Matt Kenseth
17. Juan Pablo Montoya
18. Jamie McMurray
19. Kurt Busch
20. Brian Vickers