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Power Rankings: Fontana
February 22, 2005
10:49 AM EST (1049 GMT)

It’s unofficial, but I am pretty sure FOX set a record for usage of the term “rear-end grease” on Sunday when they used it six times in only 41 seconds.

Biggest Gain this week: Tony Stewart, up nine spots

Biggest Drop this week: Kasey Kahne, down five spots

New this week: Sterling Marlin (20).

Dropped out: Ricky Rudd (19).
Week 2 of 36, Auto Club 500 at California Speedway
Rank Prev Number Driver Comments
 1 10 Tony Stewart Tony Stewart The storyline that came out of Speedweeks was “the 24-hour feud,” both involving Jimmie Johnson. In Stewart’s case, the feud with Johnson lasted all of 15 minutes. This is a disturbing trend. We need feuds to last for weeks, if not months. Where have you gone, Jimmy Spencer?
 2  2 Jeff Gordon Jeff Gordon Las Vegas needs to set odds on what will happen first: Jeff Gordon’s fourth Daytona 500 win, or Kelly Ripa’s fourth kid.
 3  3 Kurt Busch Kurt Busch You can almost hear what he was saying on the radio when he was having problems finding drafting partners. Busch: “Have I got any Fords back there to help me out?” Spotter: “Yeah, Andretti’s about three back of you.” Busch: “He’s in this race?”
 4  1 Jimmie Johnson Jimmie Johnson He proved last Thursday that beneath every calm Nextel Cup driver lurks a potential quote-machine, and we’re glad Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart could help Jimmie turn over a new leaf.
 5  6 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Dale Earnhardt Jr. His playlist is featured on iTunes. And it only had one Three Doors down song. It was the biggest shocker since, well, Kevin Lepage not getting wrecked by Robby Gordon on the cool-down lap after the 150-mile race.
 6  4 Mark Martin Mark Martin To borrow a football term: He left everything on the field.
 7  7 Elliott Sadler Elliott Sadler We got plenty of emails defending Sadler after we ran a letter in Track Smack last week saying he had gained weight. Surprisingly, none were from Kirstie Alley.
 8  9 Ryan Newman Ryan Newman He had the quote of the week: “When it counted, ol’ Lynyrd Skynyrd (Mike Skinner) got me in the butt.”
 9  8 Jamie McMurray Jamie McMurray It took only two laps of Thursday’s first race for Jamie McMurray’s name to be mispronounced for the first time in 2005. History recorded the time and date as 1:17 p.m. ET on Feb. 17, 2005.
10  5 Kasey Kahne Kasey Kahne Funny, true story from Daytona last week: Dozens of fans milled around Kasey Kahne’s garage area, clamoring for lugnuts. They were beating on the glass, the whole nine yards, wanting those danged lugnuts. Further investigation revealed that another driver, a few stalls down, had actually put up a sign that said “Kasey Kahne is giving away lugnuts.”
11 11 Dale Jarrett Dale Jarrett He fell like a rock after the green flag, but he didn't stay down like we thought he would.
12 18 Rusty Wallace Rusty Wallace He says no, but we’ll be very surprised if he doesn’t at least run Daytona next year, especially after his overlooked solid run on Sunday.
13 15 Jeff Burton Jeff Burton Did you see the hat they made this poor boy wear last week? If not, take a look.
14 13 Kevin Harvick Kevin Harvick "And Joe Nemechek has just thrown a water bottle at Kevin Harvick." Only slightly less entertaining than "One small step for man....one giant leap for mankind."
15 12 Greg Biffle Greg Biffle He is about to start negotiating a contract extension with Roush. Hopefully he won’t do it this week, because a pay cut would suck.
16 25 Scott Riggs Scott Riggs So he got $643,896 for finishing fourth. Nearly $650,000 for one top-five? And people wonder why Ward Burton does not want to take a Busch or Truck ride.
17 14 Jeremy Mayfield Jeremy Mayfield We wonder how much Slugger Labbe laughed when Waltrip's motor blew.
18 16 Matt Kenseth Matt Kenseth So his car owner, Jack Roush, is thinking of aligning with the Boston Red Sox. Which means Roush will do anything to stop winning championships.
19 17 Bobby Labonte Bobby Labonte He already has a 34-point lead over Robby Gordon in the standings.
20 NR Sterling Marlin Sterling Marlin Drove good.
21 20 Carl Edwards Carl Edwards Aw, shucks.
22 21 Joe Nemechek Joe Nemechek The Joe Nemechek interview on Thursday after the wreck was, by far, the top Joe Nemechek interview of all time. It’s pretty safe to say that.
23 22 Brian Vickers Brian Vickers Paris Hilton’s address book was stolen and posted online. Much to Brian Vickers’ dismay, his name wasn’t in it. After his deal with L’Oreal, we figured it would have been in there.
24 24 Michael Waltrip Michael Waltrip OK , so we had to do it -- we called the phone number on the QVC commercial (866) 708-6730 and got a recording from Michael Waltrip saying that he and Dale Jr. were busy racing, but they didn’t update it when we called back after Waltrip dropped out with engine failure.
25 23 Jason Leffler Jason Leffler On TV, they called him an “ex-midget star,” but no pun was intended.

The Power Rankings are written by Ryan Smithson and the opinions listed here are solely those of the writer. To email Ryan about the Rankings, click here.
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