Updated Sept. 25
With victories by Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton in the first two races of the Chase and cheating controversy to boot, Richard Childress Racing has dominated the headlines the past couple of weeks.
Strangely, it has left Jeff Gordon flying under the radar.
The four-time series champion is the only driver to register top five finishes in the first two legs of the Chase, finishing third at both New Hampshire and Dover.
Gordon, in fact, has top fives in five of the past six races.
"I'm just really proud," said Gordon, who is six points behind Burton in the standings. "I've got a rookie crew chief that is acting like a veteran and I'm pretty excited about that. It doesn't guarantee anything but to be second in this thing two races in with two third-place finishes, what more can I say. That just is proof of what kind of race team I've got and in my mind, the championship caliber that they're proving right now. Hopefully we can keep proving that for the next eight races.
"When you have a crew chief that believes in you and just wants to give you the tools you need to go out there and then you believe in him, everyone knows that's the magic. That doesn't happen overnight, it takes time. It's been building and building and I said that I hope that by the summer we start to see that potential, and we have."
Gordon is especially pumped for the upcoming race at Kansas. In five trips, he has two victories and four top 10s with a worst finish of 13th.
"Obviously we've had two guys in the Chase win the last two races," Gordon said. "We've got to put ourselves up there on the board as well."
Power Rankings after Dover:
| POWER RANKINGS | ||
| Current | Driver | Previous |
| 1 | Tony Stewart | 1 |
| It's only fitting that he won the race after hogging the lead most of the night. | ||
| 2 | Jeff Gordon | 2 |
| He was having issues with blistering tires before getting tangled up in the big mid-race wreck. | ||
| 3 | Jimmie Johnson | 3 |
| Earns his first top five and just his second top 10 in seven races at Daytona since winning the Daytona 500 in 2006. | ||
| 4 | Kurt Busch | 4 |
| Continues to knock on the door for a win at a restrictor-plate track. He has finished fourth or better in four of his past five trips to Daytona. | ||
| 5 | Carl Edwards | 6 |
| No doubt he was having flashbacks to Talladega. "It was a crazy, crazy finish," Edwards said. "I thought I wanted to be up there racing with those guys, then I saw that [Kyle Busch wrecking] and I was just fine with where I was at." | ||
| 6 | Juan Pablo Montoya | 7 |
| He now has eight top 10s on the season with five coming in the past seven races. | ||
| 7 | Denny Hamlin | 11 |
| He and Stewart were the class of the field. But with Stewart snagging the win, Hamlin had to settle for his third top-five finish in the past four races. | ||
| 8 | Mark Martin | 5 |
| Since picking up his third win of the year back at Michigan, Martin has followed with finishes of 35th, 14th and 38th. | ||
| 9 | Ryan Newman | 8 |
| He has hit a little bump in the road with four consecutive finishes of 17th or worse. | ||
| 10 | Kyle Busch | 10 |
| Wreck in the last lap left him with his fifth finish outside the top 10 in the past six races. | ||
| 11 | Greg Biffle | 9 |
| Never a factor at any point, spending just 14 laps in the top 15 all night. | ||
| 12 | Kasey Kahne | 12 |
| The sensational image of his collision with Kyle Busch notwithstanding, Kahne was able to leave Daytona with a 15th-place finish and move up one spot to 12th in the standings. | ||
| 13 | David Reutimann | 13 |
| After starting at the rear of the field because of an engine change, he had managed to work his way into the top 15 before being collected in the mid-race big one. | ||
| 14 | Matt Kenseth | 14 |
| Gets a much-needed top 10 after four consecutive finishes of 16th or worse had him tumbling down the standings. | ||
| 15 | Clint Bowyer | 15 |
| He had just joined the top 10 when he became a victim of the mid-race carnage. | ||
