| 1 |
1 |
 |
Kurt Busch |
He’s second in the points standings but only 15th in money earned, which doesn’t leave much money for celebratory bubble gum. |
| 2 |
7 |
 |
Jimmie Johnson |
Unfortunately for the media, he didn’t pit with Rusty Wallace when he should have, leaving them without the losing streak to write about. |
| 3 |
3 |
 |
Dale Earnhardt Jr. |
The National Enquirer reported this week that he took the points lead with a third-place run at Martinsville, but don’t go believing that hogwash. |
| 4 |
4 |
 |
Matt Kenseth |
That wasn’t smart to get into Kevin Harvick at Martinsville. On Monday morning, Kenseth walked into the shop and suggested a special paint scheme for Richmond. |
| 5 |
5 |
 |
Jeff Gordon |
“I know he (Rusty Wallace) wanted this really bad,” Gordon said after the race. Was he talking about Wallace’s win, or the chance to judge the Miss USA pageant like Gordon did last week? |
| 6 |
10 |
 |
Rusty Wallace |
Now that the losing streak is finally over, poor Rusty is going to lose all his press coverage, because no one will have any idea what to write about. |
| 7 |
6 |
 |
Tony Stewart |
Man, he’s awfully aggressive this year. He ran into the back of two more people at Martinsville. The good thing is that his car is an orange Chevy, so he can just blame it on Robby Gordon. |
| 8 |
2 |
 |
Kasey Kahne |
You know why he raced Ricky Rudd so hard when he was a lap down, right? On a restart, his crew chief told him he needed to go get some R&R. |
| 9 |
8 |
 |
Elliott Sadler |
He drove the final laps at Martinsville without any front brakes. To motivate him, Robert Yates told Sadler that he’d buy him 50 of Martinsville’s famous hot dogs if he kept it out of the wall. |
| 10 |
13 |
 |
Ryan Newman |
Did you see him asleep during that red flag? No, not when he was lying on the pit wall. We mean during the actual interview. |
| 11 |
9 |
 |
Jamie McMurray |
Hey Jamie, we know how you can get Sterling back as far as practical jokes go: Have someone pretend to be Chip Ganassi and call up Sterling, explaining that the team has made the decision to put Scott Pruett in the No. 40 Dodge at Sonoma. |
| 12 |
16 |
 |
Bobby Labonte |
Unfortunately for the media, he didn’t wreck Rusty Wallace while racing for the lead at Martinsville, leaving them without the losing streak to write about. |
| 13 |
11 |
 |
Kevin Harvick |
He’s probably Chevrolet’s best bet to unseat the DEI juggernaut at Talladega. Pretty neat word, juggernaut. It means “overwhelming, advancing force that crushes or seems to crush everything in its path.” Or, basically, Matt Kenseth when he’s on Harvick’s bumper at Martinsville. |
| 14 |
14 |
 |
Sterling Marlin |
Unfortunately for the media, he didn’t have very good pit stops even though he was faster than Wallace all day long, leaving them without the losing streak to write about. |
| 15 |
15 |
 |
Dale Jarrett |
Man, he did a whale of a job getting that car into the top 10 at the end of that race, but this team still has got to run well this weekend to retain any kind of momentum. |
| 16 |
19 |
 |
Mark Martin |
As the years drag on, the competitors get tougher, more visable and more vocal. No, not Martin's. Viagra's. |
| 17 |
13 |
 |
Jeremy Mayfield |
His results have gotten worse in four straight races, so Talladega is a welcome sight for him. Not as much as it is for Michael Waltrip, but pretty close. |
| 18 |
20 |
 |
Joe Nemechek |
He’s completed more laps this year (99.4 percent) than Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson or Stanton Barrett. |
| 19 |
17 |
 |
Greg Biffle |
We see the Subway ads are popping up again. Subway, gotta love em. You can get two footlongs for $7.99 on Sundays. Which sucks if you get scheduled to work there on Sundays, because you’ll be making two foot-long subs for everyone who walks in the door. |
| 20 |
NR |
 |
Brian Vickers |
He finished 12th at Martinsville, so he was finally the highest finishing rookie. Which is not exactly easy to do. To be the highest finishing rookie in 2004 – with Kasey Kahne around – you pretty much have to finish first. |
| 21 |
21 |
 |
Michael Waltrip |
Michael’s coming in for an online chat on NASCAR.COM on Wednesday at 11 a.m. ET, so be sure to send in lots of suggestions for new commercials. |
| 22 |
23 |
 |
Ward Burton |
So Tom Brokaw is retiring on Dec. 1 and being replaced with Brian Williams. Bad decision. They want ratings? They should have hired Ward. |
| 23 |
NR |
 |
Jeff Burton |
He hasn’t used a provisional yet this year. See, that is his problem. Burton needs provisionals to run well. He needs to skip qualifying for a couple weeks. He’d rocket up the points. |
| 24 |
24 |
 |
Robby Gordon |
Man, this poor guy is having to listen to some rumors about losing his job. And he doesn’t even watch The Apprentice. |
| 25 |
NR |
 |
Kyle Petty |
He’s going to be on CNN on Wednesday. But he won’t be interviewed by Larry King. If he was, we’d have to watch Larry lean forward and ask, “So, Kyle, tell me. Just how tough was it racing against David Pearson?” And Kyle would have to answer, “Well, Larry, by the time I raced David, it wasn’t too tough.” |
