Power Rankings: Chase shaping up as letdown for Stewart
Updated Oct. 26
Only once in the five-year history of the Chase has the regular-season points leader after 26 races gone on to capture the Cup championship.
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| After leading the regular season with 13 top fives, Smoke has just two during the Chase. (US Presswire) |
Even with a victory at Kansas a month ago, it's not appearing as if Stewart will be able to repeat the feat of regular-season and Chase champ in the same year. With the Chase erasing what would have been a 179-point lead over Jeff Gordon, Stewart has been unable to rediscover the top-five consistency that made him a beast during the regular season.
With six races down in the Chase, Stewart, who led the series with 13 top fives in the regular season, has just two. He hasn't finished worse than 14th, but with Jimmie Johnson claiming three wins, five top fives and six top 10s, Stewart finds himself in a 192-point hole.
Sunday's ninth-place finish at Martinsville, the site of his first top five with his new team back in March, was typical of what the past three months have turned into for Stewart and the 14 team -- good, but not good enough.
"It was definitely a survival day for us," said Stewart's crew chief, Darian Grubb. "We were a lot better taking off on a run at the start of the race. We made the car better all day. About the middle of the race, we had the car really good, had a bad pit stop and fell back in traffic. We had to make up for that and do a little strategy thing there and that ended up putting us back up in the field. We were able to run up into the top five from there, but late cautions didn't play out in the end. We struggled to hang on to a top 10 in the end."
Since winning at Watkins Glen on Aug. 10, Stewart hasn't been much of a factor. Immediately following that victory were five consecutive finishes outside the top 10. In fact, since that victory, teammate Ryan Newman has been the more consistent of the two.
| Final Chase standings | |||
| Driver | Points | Deficit | |
| 1. Jimmie Johnson | 6,652 | --- | |
| 2. Mark Martin | 6,511 | -141 | |
| 3. Jeff Gordon | 6,473 | -179 | |
| 4. Kurt Busch | 6,446 | -206 | |
| 5. Denny Hamlin | 5,335 | -317 | |
| Complete Chase | Traditional points | |||
In the past 10 races, Newman has finished ahead of his boss seven times. Contrast that with the first 22 races, when Stewart finished behind Newman in four races.
Stewart is certainly disappointed by his team's slip, but he's also able to keep perspective.
"No matter where our two teams end up this year, we have a lot to be proud of by just by making the Chase," Stewart said before the race. "We did more than 99.9 percent of the people in this room said we could do to begin with and we exceeded our own expectations.
"What we get from here forward is a bonus. But we are competitors. We want to win every time that we go out. Of course we want to win the championship. It's not going to be a great thing if we don't win it, but at the same time, it is not going to be the end of our world."
Power Rankings after Martinsville:
| POWER RANKINGS | ||
| Current | Driver | Previous |
| 1 | Greg Biffle | 1 |
| Won the pole and led 74 laps on Saturday night but faded down the stretch to finish 12th. Still hanging on to the Sprint Cup Series points lead but by only a pair over Roush Fenway Racing teammate Matt Kenseth. | ||
| 2 | Matt Kenseth | 2 |
| Climbed to within a whisker of the points lead with a sixth-place finish on Saturday night. Now the world awaits the announcement regarding the potential change of Kenseth's car number. Relax Kenseth fans, the 17 isn't going anywhere. | ||
| 3 | Jimmie Johnson | 7 |
| Roared back up the rankings and the points standings with his first win since October of last season and in the process gave team owner Rick Hendrick historic Sprint Cup victory number 200. Johnson's history has been to bunch up wins once he gets to victory lane. | ||
| 4 | Kyle Busch | 3 |
| Was in the mix for a second Darlington win but wound up settling for a fourth-place finish. Like Johnson Busch has returned to form in recent weeks and delivered on the expectations most had for the No. 18 team this season. | ||
| 5 | Denny Hamlin | 5 |
| Was behind the wheel of one of the coolest looking cars in recent weeks with a Cale Yarborough-inspired retro paint scheme on the No. 11 Toyota. Looked almost Yarborough-like at Darlington for a while but didn't have enough mustard to run down Johnson for the win. | ||
| 6 | Martin Truex Jr. | 6 |
| Wasn't exactly pleased with his team for some suspect pit work at one point of the race but kept his composure and battled back for yet another finish inside the top five. | ||
| 7 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 4 |
| It was a struggle for Junior to just finish 17th. Had a decent car early in the night but handling issues plagued the No. 88 squad, and you can be sure crew chief Steve Letarte won't bring the same set-up back to Darlington next season. | ||
| 8 | Clint Bowyer | 8 |
| A rather quiet night for the Michael Waltrip Racing driver with an 11th-place finish. Still not bad when an "off night" can be within a hair of a top-10 run. | ||
| 9 | Tony Stewart | 12 |
| An interesting night for Smoke, who was very strong in spurts but had to fight through handling issues, a broken clutch and a fuel pressure problem during the 500 miles. Pretty solid performance to deal with all that and still come home third. | ||
| 10 | Carl Edwards | 11 |
| A seventh-place finish and another top 10, but now that Johnson's 17-race winless drought has ended will the questions mount for Edwards on his not visiting Victory Lane for more than a year? | ||
| 11 | Kevin Harvick | 10 |
| Was the focal point of Darlington's promotional campaign trying to capitalize on Harvick's tussle with Kyle Busch last season. But overall a very quiet night for the No. 29 Chevrolet driver who left Darlington with a rather mediocre 16th-place finish. | ||
| 12 | Brad Keselowski | 9 |
| Hasn't performed well at Darlington during his Sprint Cup career and that remained intact on Saturday with a 15th-place Southern 500 effort. A downer for the Blue Deuce after Keselowski's Talladega win last weekend. | ||
| 13 | Ryan Newman | 13 |
| Was headed for a better night than what the results show when Newman got caught up in the aftermath of Kurt Busch's spin late in the race when he got punted from behind. The frustration overflowed once the checkered flag flew with both teams getting involved in a scuffle as well as Newman and Busch exchanging harsh words. | ||
| 14 | Paul Menard | 15 |
| A decent day with a 13th-place finish for the Richard Childress Racing driver. Continues to hang around on the fringe of the top 10 in the points standings. | ||
| 15 | Kasey Kahne | NR |
| Has finally completed the turnaround from his dismal start to the season and is knocking down consistent finishes on a weekly basis. Kahne's eighth-place run was his fifth straight top-10 finish. | ||
