Updated June 23
While in theory every race is equally important, urgency grows as the races wind down ahead of Chase.
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| Kasey Kahne leads the pack early at Sonoma, but it doesn't last for long. (US Presswire) |
The biggest losers were Kasey Kahne (33rd) and Kevin Harvick (30th).
Kahne had been on a pretty good roll since Charlotte with three finishes of first or second in the four races prior to Sonoma, but he dropped like a rock after starting from the pole and leading the first four laps Sunday.
"It just wasn't our day," said Kahne, who slipped two spots to ninth in the standings. "The car was extremely loose. I was pretty much spinning my tires everywhere on the track. It's just unfortunate given the fact that we started on the pole. I really can't explain what happened today."
Harvick, on the other hand, had a great car, but a late mistake proved costly, not only to him, but Jamie McMurray and Tony Stewart as well. Running in the top-five with three laps left, he overdrove his car trying to overtake McMurray for position.
"I made a mistake late in the race and drove the car in too deep and wheel-hopped it," Harvick said. "I feel bad for involving the No. 26 (McMurray) and the No. 20 (Stewart). Hopefully we can turn things around next week at Loudon."
Harvick's error dropped him to 13th in the standings, two points behind Matt Kenseth, who finished eighth and rejoined the top 12 for the first time since the fifth race of the season.
"I don't know if it's ever too early to look at [the point standings]," Kenseth said. "You always look at it on the way home, especially if you're moving up to see where you're at and see what happened.
"But, the bottom line is really you do the best you can every week, and try to finish as high as you can and try to lead laps and do all that and the points take care of themselves -- the higher you finish, the more points you get. So, really, it's not a strategy, when you race hard and try to be smart and do the right things and hopefully get some good finishes and get back in it."
The revolving door at the rear of the top 12 is likely to continue over the coming weeks, which will include another road-course event (Watkins Glen). Only 173 points separate Kahne in ninth from Martin Truex Jr. in 17th.
Power Rankings after Sonoma:
| POWER RANKINGS | ||
| Current | Driver | Previous |
| 1 | Jimmie Johnson | 1 |
| Is there any reason to pick against him other than the belief that the law of averages eventually has to catch up to him? | ||
| 2 | Jeff Gordon | 3 |
| He's got to be fed up watching his teammate rack up the wins and titles. | ||
| 3 | Kurt Busch | 5 |
| Penske is the only Dodge camp in town. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? It will be interesting to see how Busch adjusts to new crew chief Steve Addington, who helped lead his brother Kyle to 12 wins the past two seasons. | ||
| 4 | Tony Stewart | 6 |
| Throughout his career he has been the model of consistency with his first season as driver-owner right on par with his career averages. However, he'll need to step up his game during the Chase if he's to snatch the title away from Johnson. Consistency alone won't get the job done like it did in 2005. | ||
| 5 | Clint Bowyer | 9 |
| Of Richard Childress Racing's trio of drivers, he's the one who flies under the radar. But I have a hunch that this could be his breakout season. | ||
| 6 | Kyle Busch | 8 |
| He was dominant at times over the past couple of years, but when his car was off, he tended to pout and his finishes suffered because of it. It's up to Dave Rogers to keep him focused during the bad days. | ||
| 7 | Denny Hamlin | 4 |
| Because of his strong finish to end 2009, many consider him the top challenger to Johnson. But his knee injury concerns me and I think it will affect his performance as the season drags on. | ||
| 8 | Carl Edwards | 15 |
| I don't know that I expect him to climb all the way back to 2008 levels when he had nine wins, but he should be much improved from 2009 when he had none. | ||
| 9 | Mark Martin | 2 |
| He had a magical season in his return to full-time racing with Hendrick Motorsports, but I don't believe he'll hit that same level in 2010. | ||
| 10 | Jeff Burton | 11 |
| He was among the hottest drivers the last few weeks of the 2009 season, but we have seen so often that momentum doesn't always carry over. | ||
| 11 | Greg Biffle | 10 |
| He's a lot like Bowyer in that I don't think he gets the amount of respect he probably deserves. He has championship ability; I'm just not sure his crew is up to the challenge. | ||
| 12 | Juan Pablo Montoya | 7 |
| To be honest, I have no idea what to expect of Montoya entering this season. I think he can be in the mix again, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if he takes a step back. | ||
| 13 | Matt Kenseth | 12 |
| He's never been the same since he lost Robbie Reiser as crew chief, and I don't have a whole lot of confidence that he's going to rediscover that magic without him. | ||
| 14 | Kasey Kahne | 14 |
| Like Harvick, he's a pending free agent with many believing he has got one foot out the door. But he has seemed awfully excited about the Roush-Yates power he has under the hood with Richard Petty Motorsports' switch to Fords. | ||
| 15 | Brian Vickers | NR |
| Can the team rediscover the consistency that helped vault him and his Red Bull team into the Chase for the first time or were his dreadful runs during the Chase a sign of things to come? | ||
