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Power Rankings: Bristol
March 23, 2004
10:54 AM EST (1054 GMT)

So we hear they are going to make a movie about Derrike Cope’s awesome qualifying run at Darlington. It’s going to star Kurt Russell and will simply be called “Lap.”

Biggest Gain this week: Jimmie Johnson, Bobby Labonte, Elliott Sadler, Jeremy Mayfield, up three spots

Biggest Drop this week: Dale Jarrett, Kevin Harvick, Casey Mears, down three spots

New this week: Robby Gordon (23), Scott Wimmer (24), Johnny Sauter (25).

Dropped out: Jeff Burton (22), Brian Vickers (24), Brandan Gaughan (25).
Week 6 of 36, Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway
Rank Prev Number Driver Comments
 1  1 Matt Kenseth Matt Kenseth Wow. He’s in real danger of losing the points lead for the first time in a year. It’s been a long time. When he took the points lead back in early 2003, Mark Martin’s losing streak was less than a year old.
 2  3 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Dale Earnhardt Jr. If Dale Jr. doesn’t finish in the top-five in any given race, then you can bet that he gets more airtime during the commercials than he does during the actual race. But they are some pretty funny commercials at least.
 3  2 Kasey Kahne Kasey Kahne Tony Stewart gave him a nice shove from behind. Tony must have thought that his red car was actually Dale Jr’s, and he figured he would pay him back for the Atlanta bump.
 4  4 Tony Stewart Tony Stewart So if he spun Andy Hillenburg out for being so slow, did he spin Kasey Kahne out for being too fast?
 5  5 Ryan Newman Ryan Newman We read somewhere that his pit crew eats a lot of Rice Krispie treats to stay energized for pit stops. So we assume that Ryan steals some before his qualifying laps. And he eats 12 of them for good luck, because you can’t stop at just one.
 6  9 Jimmie Johnson Jimmie Johnson Whoa! His crew nailed him right in the eyes with Gatorade! Guess they figured they won the race for him, they can do what they want!
 7  7 Kurt Busch Kurt Busch All right! Back to Bristol, where this boy dominates. But we are still holding out hope that Jimmy Spencer will find a one-time ride for this race. Please, somebody step up.
 8  6 Jamie McMurray Jamie McMurray So he’s going to be on that FX reality show. He got the gig after he flunked out of Missouri Idol.
 9  8 Jeff Gordon Jeff Gordon So he told that Cincinnati reporter that his job “sucked.” You know, we kind of agree with Jeff. If we had to cover the Reds and Bengals, it would suck.
10 13 Bobby Labonte Bobby Labonte He was hoping he’d win when Jimmie Johnson’s tire exploded, but the strategy didn’t plan out like it had at Homestead last year.
11 14 Elliott Sadler Elliott Sadler Man. He finished fifth and slipped two spots in the points. Which will probably start a movement to get the points system fixed to where the fifth-place finisher is awarded more points.
12 15 Jeremy Mayfield Jeremy Mayfield Man, if he can run that well with a smashed back end at Darlington, then he’ll probably win after his back end gets smashed at Bristol.
13 10 Dale Jarrett Dale Jarrett We recall a great race he had at Bristol back in 1997. Dick Trickle finished third and was closing fast on Jarrett when the checkered flag flew. We’ve never forgiven Dale for not letting Trickle win that night.
14 11 Kevin Harvick Kevin Harvick A great man once wrote, “I always wanted to slap the people in first class while I am walking back to my seat in coach.” We feel that way about the guy who holds the clipboard in the GM Goodwrench commercials. If he were sitting in first class while we walked back to our seat in coach, fists would fly.
15 12 Casey Mears Casey Mears Another lead-lap finish. He’s practically Matt Kenseth now.
16 17 Mark Martin Mark Martin All of a sudden, this man looks tough. If his engine had stayed together at Daytona, he’d be in the top seven in the points.
17 18 Greg Biffle Greg Biffle Remember the Harvick-Biffle tussle in the Busch race a couple years back? Can we please have an encore on Saturday? We’re action-starved.
18 16 Rusty Wallace Rusty Wallace He’s got a car dealership near Bristol that sells Lincolns and Mazdas. So if you can’t decide between a Protégé and a Navigator, this is the place to try both out.
19 19 Sterling Marlin Sterling Marlin He became a grandfather for the first time. Which makes him the winningest active grandfather in the Nextel Cup Series. Which was not that hard, since he’s the only active grandfather in the Nextel Cup Series. Well, only active grandfather that runs most of the laps.
20 21 Joe Nemechek Joe Nemechek We never saw the car at Darlington. And trust us, we looked.
21 23 Ward Burton Ward Burton He’s having a really good year. Not great, but he’s done wonders for his team.
22 20 Terry Labonte Terry Labonte He’s had five straight finishes between 17th and 24th. This may be a record. We’re currently scanning our files.
23 NR Robby Gordon Robby Gordon Great run at Darlington. But he’s never had back-to-back top-five finishes in his career, mainly because they don’t run Sonoma and Watkins Glen in successive weeks.
24 NR Scott Wimmer Scott Wimmer He’s won more money this year than Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne and Joe Ruttman.
25 NR Johnny Sauter Johnny Sauter Did you see him hit those barrels in qualifying? You know, Michael Waltrip hit barrels at Richmond during a race in 2002. And both drive blue-and-yellow cars. We’re also researching the correlation between blue-and-yellow cars and their attraction to barrels. If Jeff Green hits barrels this weekend, it’s officially a trend.

The opinions listed here are solely those of the writer.
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