Power Rankings: Championship mindset at Atlanta
by JORGE A. MONDACA, FOXSports.com
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With that fact in mind, this weekend's 500-miler could quickly become a classic. Heading into the race 19 drivers are within 102 points of 12th place Kurt Busch in the standings, meaning we could see a lot of teams and drivers gambling throughout the weekend.
Who will possibly secure one of those coveted top spots in the standings this weekend? Here's a look at the top drivers so far this season.
Power Rankings heading into this week's Sprint Cup race at Atlanta
1. Kyle Busch — 119.9 driver rating: Shrub did not have the race day he anticipated at his hometown track Sunday, but he is arguably one of the hottest drivers in the series at the moment.
Back-to-back top five results to start the year coupled with an 11th-place run in Las Vegas have Busch leading the championship following Carl Edwards' penalty earlier this week.
But if the Joe Gibbs Racing driver wants to continue his best career start to a season, he must solve Atlanta Motor Speedway. In seven career starts at the 1.54-miler, Busch has an average finish of 22.6 and has a best finish of 12th at the venue (three times, most recently 2006).
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2. Carl Edwards — 114.8 driver rating: Controversies aside, Edwards is proving that Roush Fenway Racing's struggles with the new car are a thing of the past. And guess what, it can get even better this weekend.
After scoring impressive late victories at both Auto Club Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Edwards' and his No. 99 crew head to AMS this weekend, one of his best tracks in the Sprint Cup Series circuit. Not only is it where Edwards won his first career race, but it's also where he scored his first Cup top five finish (October 2004) and has an average finish of 8.7 in seven career starts.
He is definitely a favorite to win come race day.
3. Jeff Gordon — 105.0 driver rating: Gordon may have two finishes of 35th or worse this season, but that certainly is not an accurate display of how he's run so far in 2008. Season-to-date, Gordon is second in average running position (7.551), number of fast laps set (57) and laps in the top 15 (629, 87.7% of all laps in competition).
Unfortunately, a combination of poor luck and possibly unnecessary risks has ended up in unusually bad results for the driver of the No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet.
A good place for him to rebound is on the horizon though, as he has been impressive in the past at Atlanta. Along with his four victories and 19 top-10 finishes at the speedway, Gordon has led 1,050 of 9,929 laps in the 31 races he's competed in.
4. Greg Biffle — 103.3 driver rating: While Roush Fenway Racing teammate Carl Edwards is stealing the spotlight the last few weeks, Biffle is another "Roushkateer" that is worthy of praise in 2008. Two top-10 results and a 15th-place finish at Fontana makes the start of this season the best in Biffle's seven-year Cup career.
To continue the streak, Biffle must find consistency at Atlanta — a track where he has five top-10 results but also three finishes of 20th or worse in 10 career starts. Hopefully for the driver of the No. 16 Jackson Hewitt Ford, his good 2008 will help him forget last year's 41st place finish in the Atlanta spring race, his worst finish to date at the track.
5. Matt Kenseth — 101.5 driver rating: A combination of Jeff Gordon and Greg Biffle's previews can be used here, as Kenseth has also been impressive for Roush Fenway Racing but bad luck has prevented him from scoring a deserving finish in two of three races so far.
Atlanta is only one of four intermediate tracks (Kansas, Darlington and Chicago are the others) where Kenseth has not scored a triumph, but six top-five results and three additional top-10 finishes in 16 starts bode well for a strong points day at least this coming Sunday.
6. Kasey Kahne — 98.1 driver rating: Looking for a comeback driver of the year candidate? Look no further than the driver of the No. 9 Budweiser Dodge. Last season it took Kahne 24 races to record his third top 10 of the year, this year he has only needed three — a feat made even more remarkable because he faced multiple struggles at Las Vegas (including battling the flu), but was able to record a sixth for his efforts.
Atlanta has been a mixed bag for Kahne. He has a victory, four top fives and 5 top 10s in eight starts — but his other three starts have produced 35th or worse finishes.
7. Kevin Harvick — 95.9 driver rating: In case you haven't noticed, Kevin Harvick is having a pretty solid 2008. Sure, he wasn't able to repeat as Daytona 500 champion, but three straight top 15 finishes, including runs of eighth and fourth the last two weeks respectively, puts Happy solidly into fifth place in the championship standings.
He will need to make noise this weekend though if he wants to keep running the way he has so far this season. Although he finished first and third in his first two starts at AMS respectively, his results have been nowhere near as impressive ever since — 28.17 average finish in 12 races.
8. Dale Earnhardt Jr. — 94.6 driver rating: Junior Nation can rejoice ... three races into the new year and the top Hendrick Motorsports driver in the standings is none other than Dale Jr. Perhaps more importantly than the results though is the fact that Earnhardt has been in contention in two of his three starts so far.
Could the breakthrough happen this weekend? Past results bode well for the driver of the No. 88 National Guard/Amp Chevrolet. Through 17 career starts at the 1.54-mile venue, Junior has an average finish of 12.2, including his 2004 win.
It's been 65 races since the last time Earnhardt Jr. visited Victory Lane in a points race, something tells me that streak won't last much longer.
9. Ryan Newman — 94.1 driver rating: Will we see "Rocket Man" return this weekend?
No, it's not that Newman hasn't been impressive in 2008 — his Daytona 500 triumph and results in the other races certainly are nothing to laugh at. But through all the positive results, he has yet to score a pole position — something he is widely known for.
Atlanta could change that, as the driver of the No. 12 has seven career pole positions in 12 starts.
Unfortunately, that's about as good as it gets for Newman at Atlanta, as he only has four top 10 finishes — with his last coming in the spring of 2004 — and an average finish of 18.8 at the speedway.
10. Jeff Burton — 90.4 driver rating: Just like his Richard Childress Racing teammate Kevin Harvick, Burton has had a quiet but impressive year so far.
And based on his past runs at Atlanta Motor Speedway with RCR, it could very well continue this Sunday.
While he has an overall average finish of 16.8 in 27 career starts at the track, it actually drops to 10.86 in the seven starts he has made at the speedway in a Childress Chevrolet.
Editor's Note: Jorge A. Mondaca's weekly power rankings are based on NASCAR's Driver Rating system. Why these statistics and not others? The NASCAR Driver Rating system is based on a formula combining several categories which show how a driver is racing, not only how he is finishing, by looking at the point-paying races this season. As a result, it offers a much clearer explanation as to how they are currently performing.
The statistics used to determine the final numeric value are: Wins, finishes, Top-15 results, average running position while on lead lap, average speed under green, fastest lap, led most laps and lead-lap finishes.
The system has a maximum of 150 points per race. And drivers must have raced in 75 percent of scheduled point-paying races to be included in this rating.
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