2. Jimmie Johnson (2) – Johnson nearly came out of Alabama with his seventh win of ’08, but was derailed by his Hendrick teammate in the closing laps. The 48 Lowe’s machine still came home second, but Gordon’s victory was enough to send Johnson to second in the standings.

3. Tony Stewart (3) – Tony made several efforts in the last few laps to try and pass the Hendrick motors at the front of the Talladega pack, but just didn’t have enough going through the final turns to get the job done. An attempt to pass Gordon on the last turn of the final lap sent Stewart from the top 3 to an 8th place finish as the no. 20 lost a few more points to Chase leaders Gordon and Johnson.

4. Carl Edwards (6) – The man from Missouri was yet again unable to make up any ground on the Chase leaders and now finds himself sixth in points. Edwards had a mediocre run at Talladega and desperately needs to get something going next week at Lowe’s if he wants to have any real chance of staying in Chase contention.

5. Denny Hamlin (NR) – Hamlin was able to lead the most laps and bring home a solid Top 5 finish in Sunday’s race. This was Hamlin’s first top five in the first four races of the Chase, something the 11 car needed in a bad way.

6. Greg Biffle (7) – The Biff wasn’t overly impressive on Sunday by any means, but his efforts from the past few races leading up to Talladega were strong enough to keep him in the Top 10 Power Rankings this week.

7. Kyle Busch (5) – After getting off to a great start in the Chase with solid finishes at New Hampshire and Dover, Kansas and Talladega have been nothing but heartache for the 5 car as he continues to slip further and further out of championship contention.

8. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (9) – Another great run spoiled by another engine failure. Junior was running in the top ten and looking as though he might have a serious chance of bringing home the checkered flag on Sunday until he was hit with his sixth engine failure of the season. Junior’s been on a roll the past few races leading up to Talladega, so it should be interesting to see how he does without Eury Jr. by his side for the remainder of the season.

9. Matt Kenseth (8) – Matt looked good at various points of the race at Talladega, but the final results were definitely not what the DeWalt team was looking for. He’s now 11th in the standings, more than 300 points behind leader Jeff Gordon, and virtually without any hopes of holding up the Cup trophy at Homestead.

10. Clint Bowyer (4) – I know, I know … Bowyer was fourth in the rankings last week and finished 11th at Talladega, so could he have possibly dropped this low in the Power Rankings, right? It’s all based on a unique points system I’ve created, and despite his consistency over the past three races, he hasn’t really produced any “power” numbers, thus taking quite a few points away from his current Power Rankings total.

Post from: EveryJoe

Power Rankings: Week of 10/8 – 10/14

Roush Racing president Geoff Smith is obviously appealing NASCAR’s decision to dock Carl Edwards of 25 points in the midst of his bid to win his first Cup Championship.  Smith stated that the rule infraction actually hurt Carl’s car rather than helping it, and that the rule is actually in place to address restrictor plate races (as opposed to downforce races).  The Roush President also claims that if you do the math that a 25 point penalty assessed to a Chase contender serves as a much harsher penalty than to a non-chase contender based on the total number of points they’re competing for.  Smith says that the team should have been hit with no more than ten driver points.

Let me ask you this, Mr. Smith … shouldn’t a team be scrutinized more harshly because they’re competing for a championship?  It’s no secret that NASCAR has some serious issues with their schematics for awarding penalties, as there’s absolutely no consistency there.  Earlier this year at Darlington in May, the number 8 Budweiser team was levied with a $100,000 fine, a six-race suspension for their Crew Chief, and Dale Earnhardt Junior was penalized 100 driver points, which ultimately cost him his chances of making the Chase four months later.  Granted, that incident involved an actual illegal part on the car, but all the same, an infraction is an infraction, and an infraction is usually caused by somebody attempting to cheat.  Regardless of the consistency issues that NASCAR has with their penalties, though, what it all really comes down to is the fact that somewhere along the way somebody has to be accounted for.  This is not little league baseball where the umpire might be willing to turn the other cheek for an unintentional rule violation, this is NASCAR – the competition is the absolute best of the best and the dollar signs are huge.  As an avid fan of the sport, I expect more from the teams that fall into the upper tier.  Now, I know, I know … it is very likely that this particular incident was not a blatant attempt to gain an advantage, but all the same, I also expect those teams to have such a level of attention to detail that these things do not happen.

Did the infraction help Edwards’ car?  Probably not.  Did it hinder the car’s performance?  Doubtful.  Am I being too harsh on the no. 99 Office Depot team?  I don’t think so, but then again, maybe I just expect too much from guys that consider a six-figure annual salary to be a bad year.  I actually like Carl Edwards, and I very rarely ever complain when a fellow Missourian brings home a trophy, but I find it absolutely appalling that this race team was only hit with the loss of twenty-five points for this incident.

Post from: EveryJoe

Fair Is Fair – Or Is It?

On the other hand, there are numerous drivers that have left open-wheel racing and have succeeded very well. Tony Stewart is a prime example of that, and it shows that it can be done, but Montoya I think has more “attitude” problems than anything else at this point. He’s making enemies on the track ,and it can be very difficult come race day if you have no friends that could give you that break when you’re trying to get a lap back. Kurt Busch learned this the hard way, after having both on and off-track incidents that finally led to him leaving Rousch Racing in 2006.

Is Montoya too aggressive? Probably in terms of what he thinks his race car can do. These are not Indy or F1 cars, and stock cars have nothing in common with the type of cars he’s used to driving. But he’ll learn in time, and I predict that in a couple of years, he’ll be challenging for the Nextel Cup.

Post from: EveryJoe

Juan Pablo Montoya – Good for NASCAR?

First, Goodyear is the “official” sponsor of NASCAR as such, the only supplier of tires for the race teams when racing or practicing on NASCAR-sanctioned race tracks. So in this case, teams went and spent money on tire manufacturers (B.F. Goodrich, or Hoosier), that should have went to Goodyear. And secondly, I’m not sure there was a whole lot gained by the teams simply because they were using non-Goodyear tires, and there’s no way to predict how much value the teams got out of testing because of this.

Remember, the testing policy was put in place to “level the playing field” so that single-car teams wouldn’t have to expend extravagant testing dollars to keep up with the multi-car teams. But in this case, NASCAR realizes you can’t prevent teams from testing, unless you bar them completely from testing anywhere, and I don’t see that happening.

Post from: EveryJoe

Testing Policy Getting Neutered

My question – Is Cingular gone yet? My cell phone still says Cingular. If this is not a done deal and Cingular still exists, what is AT&T doing?

And then there is Nextel who doesn’t want any mention of AT&T. Someone needs to explain to me why Cingular is ok but AT&T is not as far as Nextel is concerned.

Didn’t the government once make AT&T break up it’s strangle hold on the communications industry?

Post from: EveryJoe

NASCAR Sponsorship Controversy

FRIDAY, March 16

American Commercial Lines 200 final practice – Craftsman Truck Series
Network: SPEED
Time: 12:30 p.m. ET Friday

Nicorette 300 final practice – Busch Series
Network: SPEED
Time: 2 p.m. ET Friday

NCTS Setup- Craftsman Truck Series
Network: SPEED
Time: 8:30 p.m. ET Friday; Re-airs 2 a.m. ET Saturday

American Commercial Lines 200 – Craftsman Truck Series
Network: SPEED
Time: 9 p.m. ET Friday; Re-airs 2:30 a.m. ET Saturday

SATURDAY, March 17

Nicorette 300 qualifying – Busch Series
Network: SPEED
Time: 11:30 a.m. ET Saturday

Kobalt Tools 500 Happy Hour – Nextel Cup Series
Network: SPEED
Time: 1 p.m. ET Saturday

NASCAR Countdown
Network: ABC
Time: 2:30 p.m. ET Saturday

Event: Nicorette 300 – Busch Series
Network: ABC
Time: 3 p.m. ET Saturday

Kobalt Tools 500 practice – Nextel Cup Series
Network: SPEED
Time: 3:30 p.m. ET Saturday
SUNDAY, March 18

NASCAR Performance
Network: SPEED
Time: 8 a.m. ET Sunday

NASCAR Now
Network: ESPN2
Time: 10 a.m. ET Sunday
(New shows air weekdays at 6:30 p.m. ET; Re-airs midnight ET)

Tradin’ Paint
Network: SPEED
Time: 11 a.m. ET Sunday

NASCAR RaceDay
Network: SPEED
Time: 11:30 a.m. ET Sunday

Hollywood Hotel
Network: FOX
Time: 1:30 p.m. ET Sunday

Kobalt Tools 500 – Nextel Cup Series
Network: FOX
Time: 2 p.m. ET Sunday
Green Flag: 2:25 p.m. ET Sunday

NASCAR Victory Lane
Atlanta Sun, Mar 18 8:00PM

As usual, all times are Eastern. Enjoy and check back for my comments and breaking news all weekend!

Post from: EveryJoe

NASCAR Complete TV Schedule in Atlanta

Post from: EveryJoe

Robbie Gordon – AGAIN!

Rusty Wallace thinks Jimmie Johnson will win.

Stacy Compton thinks Kevin Harvick will win followed by Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne in 2nd and 3rd.

The Vegas odds are:

Jimmie Johnson 6/1

Matt Kenseth 7/1

Kasey Kahne 7/1

Tony Stewart 7/1

Jeff Gordon 8/1

Who do you think will win?

Post from: EveryJoe

NASCAR Now Picks UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 Winner