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Power Rankings: Loudon
July 12, 2005
9:38 AM EDT (0938 GMT)

Biggest Gain this week: Dale Earnhardt Jr., up 11 spots

Biggest Drop this week: Jeff Gordon, down 12 spots

New this week: Casey Mears (24), Travis Kvapil (25).

Dropped out: Ken Schrader (22), Kasey Kahne (24).
Week 19 of 36, New England 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway
Rank Prev Number Driver Comments
 1  1 Tony Stewart Tony Stewart He had the non-Biffle/Harvick quote of the week: “I feel like I got invited to a baseball bat war and didn't get my own bat,” he said after crashing in Friday practice.
 2  4 Jimmie Johnson Jimmie Johnson They did it again. The Chicagoland track announcer claimed he was from “El-Cay-Jone” California. Dude, just tell ‘em you’re from Kannapolis. It would certainly help the merchandise sales.
 3  2 Rusty Wallace Rusty Wallace They might have to change this to Rusty’s Next-to-Last Call.
 4  3 Greg Biffle Greg Biffle If Junior or Jeff fail to make the Chase, NBC will be forced to pad their ratings by showing weekly Biffle/Harvick mud wrestling matches.
 5  8 Mark Martin Mark Martin So there is a year gap between the time Mark Martin leaves and the time where Jamie McMurray can get in the car. This is good though. This will give Matt Martin time to grow his hair long, dye it blonde, comb it back and practice walking on stilts. That way Roush Racing can say it’s actually Ricky Craven in the car. They would just have to make sure Matt finished sixth every week so he could avoid the interviews.
 6 11 Jeremy Mayfield Jeremy Mayfield One of his goals in life is to be in the audience during a taping of The Jerry Springer Show. We didn’t make this up. If Biffle and Harvick keep feuding, Mayfield might eventually find the perfect excuse to go.
 7 14 Matt Kenseth Matt Kenseth Dale Jr. was leading. Matt Kenseth was right on his tail. We could hear Bill Weber clearly, and Allen Bestwick not at all. For a second, I thought the TV was set to ESPN Classic.
 8 13 Kurt Busch Kurt Busch Someone asked Chicago Cubs Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg if Kurt Busch did well when Kurt worked out with the Cubs. “He’s a great race car driver,” Sandberg said.
 9  9 Ryan Newman Ryan Newman A lot of people are picking him to win this weekend, and no doubt, he is going to be tough. A definite top-3. If he wins, he will actually wear something on his head other than a Bud Pole hat.
10  6 Jamie McMurray Jamie McMurray He signed a contract with Roush Racing for 2007. Which will give Jack Roush a full 18 months to try to sign McMurray’s hairstyling team to their own long-term deal.
11 19 Ricky Rudd Ricky Rudd The Fatback nickname is getting a tad obsolete. If he keeps it up, McSwain will weigh less than Tony Stewart soon.
12  7 Elliott Sadler Elliott Sadler It’s a good thing Jeff Burton is a relatively young man. One of these days, Elliott Sadler is going to win at Loudon, and Burton will need to be there to translate Sadler’s victory lane comments to the New England media.
13 12 Dale Jarrett Dale Jarrett He’s a true grinder, but he can’t make the Chase with mere top-20 finishes. It’ll be interesting to see what he does on the flat tracks, which have been his best tracks during his career.
14 25 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Dale Earnhardt Jr. I can imagine how brief the post-race inspection was for the No. 8 Chevy. “Yep, those are authentic Goodyear tires all right, boys!”
15 17 Joe Nemechek Joe Nemechek "Seventh-row Joe" just doesn't have the same ring to it.
16 20 Brian Vickers Brian Vickers He is currently taking Spanish lessons, mainly so he and his teammates can safely curse at Mike Bliss.
17  5 Jeff Gordon Jeff Gordon This is how bad his season has gotten: You can almost imagine the conversations Gordon was having with his spotter. Gordon: “Tell Leffler to ease up on me and get out of the way!” Spotter: “Jeff, the 11 car is for position.” Gordon: “What?!”
18 10 Carl Edwards Carl Edwards A lot of people have caught on to our Jeff Gordon-Wrigley Field/Stadium curse that we wrote about a month ago, but it looks like Carl Edwards has suffered the same fate. He sang “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” before the Sonoma race. Geez. Keep the guys on the Chase bubble away from baseball.
19 15 Jeff Burton Jeff Burton Before he retires, he needs to have the track folks at Loudon announce him as “Jeff Burton, from South Boston,” just to see if the stands erupt.
20 16 Kyle Busch Kyle Busch Three guys we want to see on "Dancing with the Stars": Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Busch and Jimmy Spencer.
21 23 Bobby Labonte Bobby Labonte Report: Labonte to actually sport a green car this weekend
22 18 Kevin Harvick Kevin Harvick His comments about Biffle victimized Harvick’s dog more than anyone else, because it pretty much ended the dog’s dream of making it onto Biffle’s pet calendar.
23 21 Michael Waltrip Michael Waltrip Just in case you wondered, Waltrip named seven sponsors in his post-crash interview, or one sponsor for each of his top-10 finishes in 2005.
24 NR Casey Mears Casey Mears He had a bad motor and buzzcut at Chicagoland and still finished ninth.
25 NR Travis Kvapil Travis Kvapil If he is going to get a top-five this season, it’ll be at Loudon. And he'll get numerous requests to clarify spelling of his name.

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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