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Power Rankings: Darlington
March 16, 2004
9:54 AM EST (0954 GMT)

Wow. Maybe this new points system isn’t so bad. If the regular season ended now, Ken Schrader would be in the playoffs.

Biggest Gain this week: Dale Earnhardt Jr., up seven spots

Biggest Drop this week: Scott Wimmer, 19th to unranked

New this week: Brian Vickers (24).

Dropped out: Scott Wimmer (19).

Week 5 of 36, Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 at Darlington Raceway
Rank Prev Number Driver Comments
 1  1 Matt Kenseth Matt Kenseth OK, we have another Karate Kid reference for you. Kenseth’s season has been kind of like the blonde-haired bully (named Dutch) in the movie. Imagine that Kenseth is Dutch, and the rest of the drivers are Daniel Laruso. Remember when he confronts Daniel right before the tournament? “Points or no points -- you’re dead meat!”
 2  2 Kasey Kahne Kasey Kahne If we see another headline that says “Kahne is Able,” we’ll puke.
 3 10 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Dale Earnhardt Jr. Guess everyone saw that he served as best man to that couple in Victory Lane over the weekend. Which means he was the only guy to see Victory Lane twice this weekend.
 4  8 Tony Stewart Tony Stewart Well, after that contact late in the race, we doubt Dale Jr. will serve as best man for his wedding.
 5  5 Ryan Newman Ryan Newman He’s working on a new book. It’s yellow and it’s called Bud Pole Qualifying for Dummies.
 6  3 Jamie McMurray Jamie McMurray He’s ran the same car for three weeks in a row. And who said he didn’t have something in common with Andy Hillenburg?
 7  7 Kurt Busch Kurt Busch Did you see that he was on Regis and Kelly last week? What’s next? Intimate Portrait?
 8  4 Jeff Gordon Jeff Gordon He had the flu so bad that he made sure the Robitussin logo was turned towards the TV camera when he was interviewed.
 9 14 Jimmie Johnson Jimmie Johnson So it took the boy just a couple races to get back into the top 10. And just one for Casey Mears to fall out.
10 12 Dale Jarrett Dale Jarrett If Jarrett ever gets to run an Oakland A’s-themed paint scheme, he can just keep the decals he used at Atlanta.
11  6 Kevin Harvick Kevin Harvick His car wasn’t on TV much at Atlanta. It was, however, on pit road a lot, getting 92 rounds of bite taken out of the left rear. And a couple dozen spring rubbers added.
12 16 Casey Mears Casey Mears If he does well at Darlington, then it’s major proof that his turnaround is for real. Big if though.
13  9 Bobby Labonte Bobby Labonte Darrell Waltrip said that he “Put up a violent effort to stay on the lead lap.” Was his car really that bad?
14 11 Elliott Sadler Elliott Sadler He’s got the M&Ms colors back for Darlington. Which means some additional yellow paint on Turn 4.
15 20 Jeremy Mayfield Jeremy Mayfield Looks like he made the right decision to stay with Evernham.
16 13 Rusty Wallace Rusty Wallace So he broke the transmission. We thought that wasn’t a serious problem! In Days of Thunder, they fixed it in 15 seconds!
17 15 Mark Martin Mark Martin So he’s not looking forward to the SAFER walls at Darlington. Says it takes away some of the racing groove. What he really means is that it’ll be that much harder to get around Kirk Shelmerdine on Lap 5.
18 21 Greg Biffle Greg Biffle His last name would be cooler if he actually looked more like Biff from Back to the Future. Actually, come to think of it, Biff did drive a Ford in the movie. Into the manure.
19 18 Sterling Marlin Sterling Marlin After seeing that Hamilton-Skinner finish in Atlanta, we’d like to see ol’ Sterling run a few Craftsman Truck Series races and trade paint with some of the other veterans.
20 17 Terry Labonte Terry Labonte We’ve got two friends – the optimist and the pessimist. So what do you think of Terry Labonte’s year? Optimist: Pretty good. He’s got four straight top-25 finishes. Pessimist: It sucks. No top-16 finishes.
21 23 Joe Nemechek Joe Nemechek Quietly having a decent season. And no, we’re not talking about the Busch Series.
22 22 Jeff Burton Jeff Burton Even the IRS sent him a note, wishing him well on his sponsor search.
23 25 Ward Burton Ward Burton He’s the only driver in the Nextel Cup Series with multiple 13th-place finishes.
24 NR Brian Vickers Brian Vickers Poor guy. He keeps losing the Bud Pole to Newman. We saw a story that said that he “was staring up at Ryan Newman” on pole day. Man, you got to be pretty short to do that.
25 24 Brendan Gaughan Brendan Gaughan Whoa! Did you see those sunglasses he had on during the pre-race show? Did he sign a deal with CVS Pharmacy to market those sunglasses you wear over your bifocals?

The opinions listed here are solely those of the writer.
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