Updated Nov. 6
The sleeping giant has officially awakened.
With four consecutive finishes of first or second, it's safe to say Jimmie Johnson and his No. 48 team are out of their slump.
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| Jimmie Johnson has his sights set on No. 1. (Getty Images) |
The struggles continued though the first four races of the Chase with no finish better than 13th.
Then came Talladega.
For the first time during the Chase, the 48 car showed some signs of life. But the results failed to show it as Johnson was tapped by teammate Brian Vickers and sent crashing into Dale Earnhardt Jr. while trying to make a move for the win on the final lap. He wound up 24th.
While it was a disappointing finish, you could say that it only made the 48 team better; no team seems to thrive more with their back against the wall.
Sure enough, the 48 has been a fixture up front in every race since. He has gone from 165 points out to 17 points ahead, and with two races left, he has clearly asserted himself as the driver to beat for the championship.
"We just hope we can lead this thing at the end of the year," Johnson said. "That's the goal. Our guys are doing awesome and we've raced our way back into this and that's something I'm very proud of."
Power Rankings after Texas:
| 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. | ||
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