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Power Rankings: Talladega
September 27, 2005
10:50 AM EDT (1050 GMT)

Biggest Gain this week: Casey Mears, up eight-plus spots

Biggest Drop this week: Jeff Gordon, down 10 spots

New this week: Casey Mears (18), Kyle Petty (24), Bobby Labonte (25).

Dropped out: Joe Nemechek (20), Jeff Green (23), Scott Riggs (25).
Week 29 of 36, UAW-Ford 500 at Talladega Superspeedway
Rank Prev Number Driver Comments
 1  1 Tony Stewart Tony Stewart He has got a new, tricked-out Lamborghini, but it has nothing to do with performance. He simply needed something distinctive. That way, when he pulls into the Dairy Queen in Columbus, Ind., the workers already know to get the Blizzard ready.
 2  5 Rusty Wallace Rusty Wallace Report: Wallace tearfully admits he signed 10-year contract extension to remain at Penske
 3  8 Ryan Newman Ryan Newman Rusty Wallace says his team is the best at Penske right now, which isn’t giving Travis Kvapil much respect.
 4  4 Mark Martin Mark Martin I can’t believe he’s got to run both the Nextel Cup and Craftsman Truck schedules next year. He has got to figure out some way to put his kid in the truck for a few races without anyone knowing. Wigs. Makeup. Progressive-aging cream. Phone books from Atlanta.
 5  3 Matt Kenseth Matt Kenseth You don’t think of Matt Kenseth as a tremendous risk-taker, but I can’t believe he’d take both of his cats to Talladega. The second hand smoke and stress of living in the infield for four full days probably cuts years of their lives.
 6  6 Kurt Busch Kurt Busch Caution done come out I reckon and we got stuck in the pits and a tire done got flat was just one of them racin’ deals but we’re going to Dega with a good car that the boys at the shop done worked on good.
 7  2 Greg Biffle Greg Biffle I thought we had agreed not to do two things under any circumstances, and both were violated on Sunday. 1. Don’t call him "The Biff," and 2. Retire the creepy sandwich-in-the-lap Subway commercial.
 8  9 Jeremy Mayfield Jeremy Mayfield This is actually a fact: Mayfield runs better at tracks where an Olive Garden is close by. Which means he will finish 99th at Talladega and then dominate for the win at Charlotte.
 9 12 Kyle Busch Kyle Busch He missed a good chance to get back at Kasey Kahne because he qualified right behind him at Dover. Of course, if he had taken Kahne out on the pace lap, NASCAR would have suspended Busch until his 21st birthday, which is several years away.
10 13 Jimmie Johnson Jimmie Johnson After the race, he should have said, "Man, I love this trophy, but can you get me one that doesn’t remind me of Ryan Newman?"
11 14 Carl Edwards Carl Edwards He was so surprised that he finished ninth -- you can almost imagine what they were saying. Carl: "Well, we got around the 41, so that’s another spot." Spotter: "That was for ninth." Carl: "Really?!"
12  7 Brian Vickers Brian Vickers Apparently he was in Dover because they have him listed as qualifying 26th and finishing 14th, but I never saw his car all day. But circumstantial evidence points to him actually running that race on Sunday.
13 11 Kevin Harvick Kevin Harvick Oh geez. More Harvick-leaving-RCR rumors. See, this kind of stuff never happens to Dave Blaney, but it should. Not because he is doing badly, but it would help keep his name in the spotlight more. It would be good for at least two pre-race interviews.
14 15 Jeff Burton Jeff Burton I’ll be serious for a second. RCR is a much-improved race team even if it is not showing on paper much. The whole team has just 13 top-10s, and they will match that total over the next eight races.
15 18 Elliott Sadler Elliott Sadler You can only imagine what the interviews are like when people apply to be Elliott Sadler’s crew chief.

"Son, you sure you can understand Elliott on the radio?"

"Do you enjoy attractive women flocking to your pit?"

"Seriously, can you understand him?!"
16 21 Ricky Rudd Ricky Rudd I know it can’t be done, but a deal needs to be worked out to let Elliott Sadler borrow the Air Force sponsorship for this race only.
17 16 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Dale Earnhardt Jr. Life is good. He’s got his cousin back. There might be restrictor plates at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. The Redskins are doing well. His commercial shoots will be cut in half next year.
18 NR Casey Mears Casey Mears Report: Mears asked for a post-race quote
19 17 Kasey Kahne Kasey Kahne That was kind of wrong of him to admit that he tried to ruin Kyle Busch’s day at Loudon. It would have been much funnier if he had accused Kyle of buying his sunglasses at Rite-Aid.
20 10 Jeff Gordon Jeff Gordon Even if we were under the old points system, we still wouldn’t have gotten to see the new girlfriend at the banquet, and that’s a shame. She probably would have had a pretty good-looking dress.
21 19 Jamie McMurray Jamie McMurray He is starting to wreck a lot of race cars. The good thing is that it always allows Rusty a chance to come in and adjust the car under yellow, which is always appreciated.
22 NR Dale Jarrett Dale Jarrett Report: Random fan to be hired, fired as Jarrett’s crew chief
23 21 Michael Waltrip Michael Waltrip Bill Davis obviously relaxed his restrictions on long hair, which has to bewilder Ward Burton, who wasn’t given the same courtesy.
24 NR Kyle Petty Kyle Petty See man, Robbie Loomis is helping already! He is telepathically setting up the car!
25 NR Bobby Labonte Bobby Labonte There is simply not much news on him these days. Pretty soon Jayski is going to have to make up stuff like: LABONTE TO ENTER TALLADEGA? UPDATE YES

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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