Updated Nov. 17
Sorry Jimmie, you'll have to settle for your third consecutive Sprint Cup trophy, because the title of 2008 CBSSports.com NASCAR Power Ranking's champion belongs to -- drum roll please -- Carl Edwards.
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| Carl Edwards has more wins, more top fives and more top 10s than J.J. (Getty Images) |
Jimmie Johnson fans will raise hell, but if you take a good look at the standings, it is pretty cut and dried that Edwards had the better season.
Edwards had more wins: 9-7
Edwards had more top fives: 19-15
Edwards had more top 10s: 27-22
Edwards had a better average finish: 9.5-10.5
Even within the confines of the Chase, while Johnson and Edwards each won three races, Edwards picked up eight top fives to six for Johnson. Edwards won three of the season's final four races.
But NASCAR's points system is such that a poor finish is punished far more than success is rewarded. And a bad finish hurts doubly during the 10-race Chase.
Therefore, a back-to-back stretch in which he finished 29th (Talladega) and 33rd (Lowe's) proved too much for Edwards to overcome. He'll have to shoulder the load for the Talladega debacle, but a parts failure proved his undoing at Lowe's and all but put the nail in his coffin.
Before the advent of the Chase, it could be argued that NASCAR had the fairest system to crown a champion in any sport. He was on the same track week in and week out with every other driver and delivered over the entire course of the season. What other sport could say that?
The only complaint was perhaps rewarding a driver a larger amount of points for winning. Other than that, it was near perfect.
But what did NASCAR officials do? They invented the convoluted Chase, artificially tightening the points in hopes of creating buzz for the stretch run. Does anyone else find it strange that NASCAR has a "playoff" system and college football does not?
More than anything, the Chase has alienated longtime fans of the sport.
For his part, Edwards made no complaints while recognizing the strong performance of his team.
"I'm glad that we won the race so that we can go into the offseason knowing we won more races than anyone else in this series," Edwards said after his victory Sunday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
"I think that's a big accomplishment, especially considering how well Jimmie and Kyle (Busch) both ran all season. Second in both series is not first, but it's definitely not something to be ashamed of. I'm proud of what we did this year."
Final Power Rankings:
| 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. | ||
