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Power Rankings: Chicago
July 5, 2004
12:05 PM EDT (1205 GMT)

Biggest Gain this week: Kurt Busch, up five spots

Biggest Drop this week: Robby Gordon, down four spots

New this week: Joe Nemechek (22).

Dropped out: Ricky Rudd (23).
Week 18 of 36, Tropicana 400 at Chicagoland Speedway
Rank Prev Number Driver Comments
 1  5 Jeff Gordon Jeff Gordon Wow. That is two straight restrictor plate wins. And one straight where he was not pelted with debris after the race.
 2  1 Jimmie Johnson Jimmie Johnson Jeff Gordon says he will help repay Jimmie Johnson for the push at Daytona, which means he will help keep the 48 car from going a lap down at Watkins Glen.
 3  2 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Dale Earnhardt Jr. He gave 86-year-old 60 Minutes correspondent Mike Wallace a ride around the speedway in a Corvette. Thankfully, Wallace survived.
 4  4 Michael Waltrip Michael Waltrip Well, he’s 0-for-3 in plate races since he won at Talladega last October. Which means that exiting through that escape hatch was bad luck.
 5  8 Ryan Newman Ryan Newman He won at Chicago last year, and Harvick won the first two races there. Which means it must be really tough to win at Chicago if you have a full head of hair.
 6  3 Elliott Sadler Elliott Sadler Man, what a fantasy racing disappointment at Daytona. But all was not lost. Morgan Shepherd got us a solid top-35 finish for a mere 18 cents.
 7  7 Bobby Labonte Bobby Labonte The commercial says that Bobby Labonte says that he does not take Wellbutrin XL. So maybe he takes Wellbutrin XXXXXL.
 8 12 Mark Martin Mark Martin He said that finishing sixth at Daytona was nothing to brag about. Maybe it was because he couldn’t even outrun Kurt Busch.
 9 14 Kurt Busch Kurt Busch He’s now not the only member of the Nextel Cup Drivers Who Have Been The Victims of Post-Race Incidents with Older Drivers Club.
10  6 Matt Kenseth Matt Kenseth He’s finished worse than 20th in three of the last four races. The last time that happened, Jeff Burton had a sponsor.
11  9 Jamie McMurray Jamie McMurray He’s got nine top-10s, a very high number for a sophomore driver, but four DNFs are threatening to keep him out of the Chase for the Nextel Cup.
12 10 Tony Stewart Tony Stewart We’re almost sure Brian Vickers was laughing when he saw his teammates blow Stewart away on new tires.
13 11 Kasey Kahne Kasey Kahne His merchandise is selling so quickly that it’s becoming hard to find. But you have got to think that maybe people think his car is Dale Jr.’s.
14 16 Brian Vickers Brian Vickers He turns 21 in October. Which means he can buy Tony Stewart a beer at Martinsville, and they can forget the whole thing ever happened.
15 16 Kevin Harvick Kevin Harvick He’s anchoring the final spot in the Chase for the Nextel Cup. Kahne’s over 100 points back, and unless he reels off some second-place finishes, he won’t get that final spot from Harvick.
16 15 Dale Jarrett Dale Jarrett Question we got from a five-year-old this week after seeing the latest UPS commercial: “Does Dale Jarrett really wear his uniform everywhere he goes?” Yes, he does. And so does Michael Waltrip.
17 13 Jeremy Mayfield Jeremy Mayfield It seems like his performance has fallen off since his segment on NASCAR Drivers 360 ended. Which means he should win when the reruns kick in.
18 22 Terry Labonte Terry Labonte His car was sponsored by Spiderman 2 at Daytona, and it was arguably his best run of the year. Which means he took in $119,000 at Daytona, or $40.3 million less than Spiderman 2 took in on Wednesday.
19 19 Casey Mears Casey Mears So he was on Days of Our Lives last week. We’d make a joke about his appearance, but that would be admitting we actually watched it.
20 18 Jeff Burton Jeff Burton We figured he’d have an advantage at Daytona since he had no decals to weigh him down, but we were wrong.
21 25 Sterling Marlin Sterling Marlin Forget Casey Mears. Now, if Sterling appeared on Days of Our Lives, we’d watch.
22 NR Joe Nemechek Joe Nemechek Every year, it seems that someone has more bad luck than anyone else – and Joe has had all the bad luck this year. This team is not a 26th-place team.
23 20 Rusty Wallace Rusty Wallace He said last week that he didn’t like the new points system. Which means he wishes they took the top 25 instead of the top 10.
24 24 Greg Biffle Greg Biffle He’s got as many top-10s as Scott Pruett and Boris Said. Which means Pruett and Said might overtake him at Watkins Glen.
25 21 Robby Gordon Robby Gordon He’s had the lowest finishing RCR car in three straight races, which means he really misses having Johnny Sauter as a teammate.

The opinions listed here are solely those of the writer.
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