| 1 |
1 |
 |
Kurt Busch |
You've been pretty good since the Chase started. If you really want some insurance for the title, have your brother enter the Martinsville race and block Junior in the pits. |
| 2 |
2 |
 |
Dale Earnhardt Jr. |
Dale Jr. is 24 points behind Busch, which means his fans are scanning eBay for riot gear. |
| 3 |
7 |
 |
Jeff Gordon |
It’s been 10 races since he’s won – which is his longest losing streak of the year. Getting that 70th career win has been tough. Which means that he will win this weekend because we just implemented a reverse jinx. |
| 4 |
6 |
 |
Dale Jarrett |
He qualified 92nd and still finished sixth, but it went unnoticed. Or maybe it was because he qualified so bad that he was nowhere near that first wreck. |
| 5 |
8 |
 |
Joe Nemechek |
He scored back to back Bud Poles for the first time in his career. Then he scored back to back top fives for the first time in his career. And you thought Kevin Federline had fun this month. |
| 6 |
3 |
 |
Jamie McMurray |
So if Benny Parsons walks in McDonald’s (likely), does he order a McFlary? |
| 7 |
5 |
 |
Elliott Sadler |
He spent last week racing against other gamers on an Xbox, who furiously tried to end Sadler’s streak of 36 races without a DNF. |
| 8 |
4 |
 |
Mark Martin |
So he’s quitting after 2005, eh. Which gives him plenty of time to come up with Matt Martin’s fake birth certificate. |
| 9 |
10 |
 |
Ryan Newman |
First, he got tires from Brendan Gaughan. Then he got his paint and sheet metal. |
| 10 |
11 |
 |
Rusty Wallace |
Rusty, you simply can’t sit there and let Mark Martin come up with a better quote about that wreck. That is your domain, and you let Martin have it. Very disappointing. |
| 11 |
14 |
 |
Tony Stewart |
It went virtually unnoticed, but one of the greatest paragraphs in history was written on Saturday night, and it was in the AP story of Jimmie Johnson’s win: “Tony Stewart finished 10th after fighting all night with a car that was so bad, he once threatened to intentionally wreck it.” |
| 12 |
12 |
 |
Ricky Rudd |
The race on Saturday night was the Wood Brothers’ 1,200th in Cup racing. |
| 13 |
9 |
 |
Jeremy Mayfield |
As long as he wins each of the last five races and leads the most laps in each, he should be OK for the title as long as the top nine drop a bunch of cuss bombs in every event. Don’t laugh. It could happen. |
| 14 |
13 |
 |
Michael Waltrip |
He actually got up to do stand-up comedy with Jeff Green last week, which means they were not hurting for Kentucky jokes. |
| 15 |
19 |
 |
Jeff Burton |
Did you see that all-white car he drove at Charlotte with very little lettering on it? We thought that was why he left Roush in the first place. |
| 16 |
17 |
 |
Kasey Kahne |
He should have expected bad luck. His car was painted up like Mark Martin’s. That is just asking for something bad to happen. |
| 17 |
24 |
 |
Jimmie Johnson |
Thank God no one used “How Sweep It Is” as a headline. Talk about puke. That’s almost as old as “Junior Achievement.” |
| 18 |
16 |
 |
Matt Kenseth |
No top-10s in the last four races and just one in the last six. Which means Rusty Wallace’s retirement tour announcement was really bad luck for him. |
| 19 |
18 |
 |
Greg Biffle |
If you want to get Robby back, this is the place to do it, because neither one of you guys are good at Martinsville anyway. |
| 20 |
25 |
 |
Sterling Marlin |
So he’s got Tony Glover as his crew chief again. Both of them are Tennesseans, which means they can’t claim to have a communication problem if they run bad. |
| 21 |
15 |
 |
Kevin Harvick |
No wonder he’s mad. From late 2002 to the middle of this year, he went 58 races without an engine problem, and all of a sudden, he’s had three problems in the last 12 races. |
| 22 |
21 |
 |
Bobby Labonte |
Some fans have asked, so here’s the numbers: With Fatback in 2004: Average finish of 13.58 and an average start of 15.17. Without Fatback in 2004: Average finish of 20.28 and an average start of 18.78. |
| 23 |
22 |
 |
Brendan Gaughan |
He had a tire go down just one race after saying he hated the Kansas tire. And you thought the Junior penalty brought out the conspiracy theorists. |
| 24 |
20 |
 |
Carl Edwards |
That stupid red flag at Texas cost us all hope of Edwards beating Burton head-to-head, so that is all you’ll be hearing about that. |
| 25 |
23 |
 |
Terry Labonte |
It’s good that none of these guys that are retiring went by the Darrell Waltrip model. Terry, Mark and Rusty all won within 13 months of their announcements. It’s a good trend. |
