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 | Jimmie Johnson | 1 |
| Next to Martinsville, there probably isn't a better track for Johnson and his 48 team to try to rebound than Phoenix, where he has three wins, seven top fives, 10 top 10s and an average finish of fifth in 12 starts. | ||
| 2 | Mark Martin | 2 |
| Martin was OK in the first half of Sunday's race but really came on in the second half to snag a top five. That allowed him to close the gap on Johnson from 184 to 73 points. And there's even more good news for the 5 team as the series shifts Phoenix: Martin won at the track in April. | ||
| 3 | Jeff Gordon | 3 |
| Troubles at Talladega and Texas left him outside the top 10 in back-to-back races for the first time since May. | ||
| 4 | Tony Stewart | 5 |
| A good, solid effort from the 14 team throughout at Texas, just didn't have enough to challenge the Busch brothers for supremacy. | ||
| 5 | Juan Pablo Montoya | 4 |
| He started 20th and had made gains into the top 10 until he got loose running next to Carl Edwards, taking them both out. | ||
| 6 | Denny Hamlin | 6 |
| He was stout early, racing from 25th into the top five, but poor pit stops and contact with the wall had the 11 car reeling in the second half of the race. So his team gambled and won on fuel mileage to pull out second. | ||
| 7 | Kurt Busch | 7 |
| Not only did he have a great car, but great fuel mileage as well. He was always one of the last to pit after every long green-flag run at Texas. | ||
| 8 | Kyle Busch | 10 |
| On the verge of an historical triple victory weekend at Texas, he runs out of fuel just a couple laps from the finish. Tough way to end Dave Rogers' first race as crew chief of the 18 car. | ||
| 9 | Ryan Newman | 9 |
| Struggled with a loose car at Texas, running just 61 laps in the top 15. | ||
| 10 | Matt Kenseth | 12 |
| His 17 team continues to show late-season improvement. He had the best finish (third) of those who pitted for gas instead of gambling. | ||
| 11 | Clint Bowyer | 14 |
| A steady run for Bowyer, who finishes in the top 10 at Texas for the third time in his past four visits. | ||
| 12 | Greg Biffle | 13 |
| Notched his second consecutive top 10 and third of the Chase. | ||
| 13 | Kasey Kahne | 8 |
| After starting second, he dropped like a rock. Ran in the teens most of the day until his engine went sour in the waning laps, leading to a 33rd-place finish. | ||
| 14 | Carl Edwards | 11 |
| Four consecutive finishes outside the top 10 including two finishes of 39th. There wasn't a whole lot he could do to avoid Montoya getting up into him Sunday at Texas. | ||
| 15 | Kevin Harvick | 15 |
| Earns his fourth top five of the season at Texas, his first since a second-place run at Atlanta in early September. | ||
