Updated June 2
We have reached the halfway point of the Sprint Cup "regular season" and while Kyle Busch has asserted himself as the driver to beat, intrigue remains throughout much of the standings.
Dover, in fact, showed how quickly a driver (or drivers) can freefall with one bad race.
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| Stewart blames himself '100 percent' for the crash: 'It's my fault for being even anywhere close to Elliott (Sadler).' (AP) |
Despite finishing 35th, just his fourth finish outside the top 10 in 13 races, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was able to retain his third-place spot in the standings.
Most of the others in the wreck weren't as lucky.
Denny Hamlin dropped five spots to ninth after steam-rolling into the carnage and finishing 43rd.
"I came piling in there way late," Hamlin said. "I had the 43 (Bobby Labonte) right on my bumper trying not to get hit from him. When I heard wreck off Turn 2, I immediately was on the brakes. It's just these cars don't stop as well as they had in the past.
"Luckily, I wasn't the last one. It looked like guys even behind me piled in there. It's just part of the race track."
Richard Childress Racing teammates Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer also got dinged up. Bowyer's car escaped in relatively good shape but was later done in by a broken shock mount resulting in a 36th-place finish. He fell three spots to eighth in the standings.
Harvick's mangled car spent many laps in the garage. He eventually returned to the track but made up little ground, finishing 38th. He sank from seventh to 10th in the standings.
Stewart, too, fell three spots, from eighth to 11th. He, somewhat sarcastically, blamed himself.
"I take 100 percent responsibility," Stewart said. "It's my fault for being even anywhere close to Elliott. If I'm within a half a lap of him, I expect that to happen.
"Unfortunately, adversity is our motto here at Joe Gibbs Racing."
With 13 more races to go until the Chase field is set, 276 points separate sixth-place Jeff Gordon from 18th-ranked Travis Kvapil, which is a lot of drivers within a tiny window considering only two drivers (Earnhardt and Jeff Burton) can lay claim to being that close to first-place Kyle Busch in the standings.
Kasey Kahne finished 31st after also receiving damage in the early wreck but hung on to the 12th spot in the standings, just a mere eight points ahead of David Ragan and 154 in front of Kvapil.
Power Rankings after Dover:
| POWER RANKINGS | ||
| Current | Driver | Previous |
| 1 | Jimmie Johnson | 1 |
| Even if Johnson were to finish last and Mark Martin were to win and lead the most laps in the next race at Texas, he would still hold the points lead by 23 points. | ||
| 2 | Mark Martin | 2 |
| There was a time when Martin had a bit of luck at Talladega. From 1988 through 2001 he had 18 top 10s in 28 races. In 12 races since 2002, he has just two top 10s with nine finishes outside the top 20. | ||
| 3 | Jeff Gordon | 3 |
| He has four victories in his past 12 trips to Talladega. However, he finished outside the top 10 in the eight races he did not win, with finishes of 19th or worse in his past four visits. | ||
| 4 | Juan Pablo Montoya | 4 |
| He captured second at Talladega in the spring of 2008, but has finished no better than 15th in his other five visits to the track. | ||
| 5 | Tony Stewart | 5 |
| Though he won last fall at Talladega, he has finished 22nd or worse in five of his last seven trips to the track with three DNFs by way of crash. | ||
| 6 | Denny Hamlin | 6 |
| He has led at least one lap in all eight of his visits to Talladega, but has just two top 10s to show for it with six finishes of 21st or worse. | ||
| 7 | Kurt Busch | 7 |
| He has three finishes of 21st or worse in his past four visits to Talladega after finishing outside the top 10 just three times in his first 14 trips. | ||
| 8 | Kasey Kahne | 8 |
| Sunday marked his second second-place finish at Talladega. In 12 starts at the track, those are his only top 10s. | ||
| 9 | Ryan Newman | 9 |
| His 36th-place finish Sunday was his sixth of 33rd or worse in 16 starts at Talladega. "We had this race back here in the spring and complained about cars getting airborne and now ironically I'm the guy that gets upside down," Newman said. "I wish NASCAR would do something. It was a boring race for the fans. That's not something anybody wants to see; at least I hope not. If they do, go home because you don't belong here." | ||
| 10 | Kyle Busch | 10 |
| His win in the spring of 2008 is his lone top 10 finish in 10 starts at Talladega. | ||
| 11 | Carl Edwards | 11 |
| After three consecutive top 10 finishes at Talladega between 2005-06, he has finished outside the top 10 in his past six trips to the track, but at least he wasn't flying into the catchfence like in his last visit. | ||
| 12 | Matt Kenseth | 12 |
| Like his Roush-Fenway Racing teammate Edwards, he had three consecutive top 10 finishes at Talladega between 2005-06, but has failed to finish in the top 10 at the track since. | ||
| 13 | Greg Biffle | 13 |
| Finished a Talladega career-best fourth on Sunday, his second consecutive top 10 at the track after finishing no better than 13th in his first 12 visits. | ||
| 14 | Clint Bowyer | 14 |
| He won't complain too much about a 12th-place finish considering he has finished 35th or worse in four of his eight visits. | ||
| 15 | Kevin Harvick | 15 |
| His 21st-place finish Sunday was his fifth consecutive finish of 20th or worse at Talladega. He has been running at the finish of all 18 of his starts at Talladega. | ||
