Updated Aug. 6
While Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing might be the premier teams in Nextel Cup this year, Pocono showcased what is shaping up to be the battle to watch down the stretch run of the "regular season": Penske Racing vs. Dale Earnhardt Inc.
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| A huge win in Pocono puts Kurt Busch right back in the Chase. (AP) |
But on race day, it was all Busch; he led a race-high 175 laps en route to victory and jumped up to 12th in the standings, leap-frogging Earnhardt Jr., who despite a spin and a shock change during the race was able to rally for second.
With five races left before the Chase cutoff, Martin Truex Jr. is 11th with 2,437 points, 45 ahead of his DEI teammate Earnhardt Jr., 13th with 2,392.
Busch, with 2,399, holds a seven-point lead over Earnhardt Jr. and is 90 points ahead of his Penske teammate Ryan Newman, who lurks in 14th with 2,309.
Both Busch and Earnhardt Jr. are adamant their teams are stronger than where they're currently positioned.
Coincidentally, both were docked 100 points for infractions during the season.
"That situation has reminded me of what I can do in a race car and what I better do," Busch said. "And that is to drive it conservatively and get the best points finish I possibly can each and every day.
| Chase standings | |||
| Driver | Points | Deficit | |
| 1. Jimmie Johnson | 6,723 | --- | |
| 2. Jeff Gordon | 6,646 | -77 | |
| 3. Clint Bowyer | 6,377 | -346 | |
| 4. Matt Kenseth | 6,298 | -425 | |
| 5. Kyle Busch | 6,293 | -430 | |
| Complete Chase | Traditional points | |||
"We've thrown away quite a bit of points this year, (through) driver mistakes. Such as Charlotte, leading the most laps and wrecking, Daytona leading the most laps and wrecking. Texas; Phoenix, we had fuel mileage issues there and we took a top five car at both those tracks and finished in the teens. So we can add up our points. I'm not going to look back on that 100 points and think that it's a deficit, it's only turned us into a stronger program."
Despite dropping out of the top 12, Earnhardt Jr. insists he's not concerned.
"I think we're a better team than 12th or 13th now," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I think we're way better than that. We just had a lot of the bad luck and we cheated and got caught. So, you know, those type of things have hurt us a lot in the points."
"But we're way better than this and I think the cream is going rise to the top, so I ain't too worried about it."
Power Rankings after Pocono:
| POWER RANKINGS | ||
| Current | Driver | Previous |
| 1 | Jimmie Johnson | 1 |
| Johnson started the 2006 Chase with four consecutive finishes outside the top 10. In 36 Chase races since, he has just five finishes outside the top 10 while picking up 12 victories. | ||
| 2 | Mark Martin | 2 |
| His seven poles were a career high. His second-place points finish was his best since finishing second in 2002. His five wins and 805 laps led were his most since winning seven and leading 1,730 in 1998. | ||
| 3 | Jeff Gordon | 3 |
| Finished top five in nearly half of this season's races and his 25 tops 10s were tied for third most in 17 years of full-time Cup duty. | ||
| 4 | Denny Hamlin | 4 |
| He and his 11 team struggled with consistency at the start of the season, but once they found their groove, they were as good as anyone. He earned a career-high four victories and 15 of his 20 top 10s were top fives. | ||
| 5 | Kurt Busch | 5 |
| Easily his best season since joining Penske Racing in 2006 with his 21 top 10s matching his career-high set in 2004, when he captured the championship with Roush Racing. His 10 top 10s tied for second-most of his Cup career. | ||
| 6 | Tony Stewart | 6 |
| Sure he exceeded many expectations, but after such a dominating regular season where he was knocking off top fives with ease, the late-season struggles surely left the team somewhat disappointed. | ||
| 7 | Juan Pablo Montoya | 7 |
| When he started the Chase with four consecutive top fives, it looked like he had a chance to shock the world. But then things fell apart, with wrecks leading to three finishes of 35th or worse over the final six races. Overall, though, Montoya made huge strides in his third season, earning the first two poles of his career, seven top fives, 18 top 10s and 0 DNFs. In his first two seasons, he had managed just five top fives and nine top 10s while failing to finish 13 races. | ||
| 8 | Kyle Busch | 8 |
| Though he enjoyed much success with crew chief Steve Addington -- 12 wins together over the past two seasons, including four this year -- there was also much inconsistency, which cost him a spot in the Chase this season. Will new crew chief Dave Rogers be able to keep Busch in check? | ||
| 9 | Clint Bowyer | 9 |
| Though he missed the Chase, finishing 15th in the final standings, his 2009 season wasn't all that much worse than 2007 and 2008 when he finished in the top five overall. A streak of nine consecutive finishes outside the top 10 through April and May proved too much to overcome. Started to make some waves toward the end of the season. | ||
| 10 | Greg Biffle | 11 |
| While it was a down year for Roush Fenway Racing, Biffle still managed to have a relatively successful season by his standards. Though he failed to win for the first time in six years, his 10 top fives and 16 top 10s were third most of his career. His 551 laps led were his most since 2006. | ||
| 11 | Jeff Burton | 14 |
| During the last month of the season, only Johnson and Hamlin were hotter. The problem was the other nine months of the schedule. After a crew chief change to Todd Berrier, Burton ended the season with four consecutive top 10s of which three were top fives and two were runner-up finishes. However, in the season's first 32 events, Burton had managed just two top fives and six top 10s. | ||
| 12 | Matt Kenseth | 12 |
| Two wins and a cloud of dust. Kenseth started the season with his first career Daytona 500 victory and followed up with a win the next weekend in California. It was a nightmare year after that, especially during the second half of the season. Over the final 18 races of the year, Kenseth managed just five top 10s. | ||
| 13 | Ryan Newman | 10 |
| Newman came to Stewart-Hass off of three sub-par seasons at Penske Racing. He enjoyed a slight resurgence, making the Chase for the first time since 2005, but performance dipped a bit during the Chase. He ended the season with just one top 10 over the final eight races. | ||
| 14 | Kasey Kahne | 13 |
| Amidst all the chaos at Richard Petty Motorsports, Kahne still managed to make the Chase and snag two wins, seven top fives and 14 tops 10s. With his contract expiring after the 2010 season, he's ready to start listening to offers. | ||
| 15 | Carl Edwards | 15 |
| Coming off a season in which he notched nine wins, 19 top fives and 27 top 10s, a 0-win, seven-top five and 14-top 10 performance can't be considered anything but highly disappointing. All were career lows. | ||
