December 22, 2005
03:36 PM EST (20:36 GMT)
NASCAR.COM's recap of the top 20 drivers in 2005: No. 1: Tony Stewart 2005 Stats: 4 Bud Poles, 5 wins, 17 top-fives, 25 top-10s The good: Five wins in seven races -- and 13 consecutive races finishing in the top 10 -- all but sealed Stewart's fate as the title favorite. But the sweetest win for Smoke, no doubt, was his emotional victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where he led 44 laps and held off Kasey Kahne for the win. In cruising into the championship, Stewart became just the 14th NASCAR driver to win multiple Cup titles and joined Jeff Gordon as the only active full-time driver on that list. The bad: Just prior to his mid-summer domination, Stewart had two streaks that had the opposite effect. A slide in April left him with three consecutive races of finishing 26th or worse. It happened again just a few months later, with finishes of 24, 15 and 29 right before his steak of top-10s. After the summer concluded, Stewart's only real speed bump was an 18th-place finish at Dover that dropped him to fifth in the points with eight races to go. Click here for story. No. 2: Greg Biffle 2005 Stats: 0 Bud Poles, 6 wins, 15 top-fives, 21 top-10s The good: Biffle had no shortage of wins in 2005. He visited Victory Lane six times, five of those in the season's first 15 races. Biffle had only one DNF all season -- he blew an engine at Phoenix in the spring -- and his 1,322 laps led and 15 top-fives were second only to series champion Tony Stewart. The bad: Biffle didn't record a top-10 finish at any of the road courses or restrictor plate tracks, and he also struggled at the larger flat tracks like Pocono and Indianapolis. Stewart was in Biffle's crosshairs throughout the final weeks of the season, but a pair of 20th-place finishes proved to be the reason Biffle failed to win the title. The one that really bothered Biffle was Texas, where loose lugnuts forced him off the lead lap and out of the title chase with two weeks to go. "It's something I'm going to think about for a long, long time," said Biffle. "I lost the [Craftsman Truck Series] championship by eight points in 1999 and lost one this year by 35, and we lost over 50 with the loose wheel." Click here for story. No. 3: Carl Edwards 2005 Stats: 2 Bud Poles, 4 wins, 13 top-fives, 18 top-10s The good: Edwards entered the season without guarantee of a year-long sponsorship. He finished with four wins and a third-place finish in the Chase. Talk about stepping up. In the season's final four races, Edwards had back-to-back wins at Atlanta and Texas, then a sixth-place finish at Phoenix and a fourth-place at Homestead-Miami. Edwards probably wishes the season was still going. Then again, after also competing full time in the Busch Series, maybe not. The bad: In a season full of smiles for Edwards, it's hard to point to any bad areas of an otherwise clean slate. A three-week stretch in mid-summer, however, screams headache. Edwards finished 38th at Infineon Raceway, 33rd at Daytona and 39th at Chicagoland as June turned to July. For the rest of the season, though, his worst finish was 26th. Click here for story. No. 4: Mark Martin 2005 Stats: 0 Bud Poles, 1 win, 12 top-fives, 19 top-10s The good: In a season that was scheduled to be his final as a Nextel Cup regular, Martin indeed saluted his fans with a victory at Kansas and a popular All-Star win at Lowe's. While trouble followed his competitors throughout the Chase, knocking them further down the list, Martin marched upward. He had six top-fives in the 10 Chase races and improved from ninth to fourth in the standings over the final eight weeks. The bad: The reason six top-fives didn't push Martin into the title hunt come Homestead was because of his other finishes during the Chase. A 14th-place showing at Phoenix wasn't bad, but a wreck at Talladega left him 41st, and a 34th-place finish at Martinsville soured his string of success over the final three months. Click here for story. No. 5: Jimmie Johnson 2005 Stats: 1 Bud Pole, 4 wins, 13 top-fives, 22 top-10s The good: Johnson was in control for much of the first half of the year. He started the season with seven consecutive top-10s and visited Victory Lane four times during the season. He led the series in top-10 finishes and pocketed more than $6 million in on-track earnings. The bad: Like 2004, it was a stretch of four races in August that really cost him a lot of momentum. There were also accusations of improper garage practices by his team on a couple of occassions during the season. The year ended on a sour note at Homestead when Johnson qualified badly and then had a tire explode during the race. He finished fifth in the standings, his lowest since his rookie season. Click here for story. No. 6: Ryan Newman 2005 Stats: 8 Bud Poles, 1 win, 8 top-fives, 16 top-10s The good: Qualifying. Newman's eight Bud Poles earned him his fourth consecutive Bud Pole Award, and he had an average starting position of 6.2. Newman started the Chase strong, opening with a win and three top-fives, followed by two top-10s in the next three races. The bad: Opportunity lost. Despite his high starting position, Newman's average finish was nine spots lower at 15.3. Of his eight Bud Poles, Newman finished in the top 10 only three times (two fifth places). After climbing to within four points of leader Tony Stewart after three Chase races, Newman finished 23rd the following week at Kansas. He had 23rd- and 25th-place runs (starting both from the pole) at Atlanta and Texas, respectively, to end his Chase hopes. Click here for story. No. 7: Matt Kenseth 2005 Stats: 2 Bud Poles, 1 win, 12 top-fives, 17 top-10s The good: Kenseth finished strong, including 14 top-10s in the final 21 races. He led 415 of the 500 laps in the fall race at Bristol, winning the Sharpie 500 from the pole. That was part of a five-race string of top-10s (four top-fives) in which he jumped from 15th to fifth in points. Kenseth entered the top 10 in points for the first time all season with just one week remaining before the Chase. The bad: The Daytona 500 through the Coca-Cola 600. Three DNFs and only one top-10 in the season's first 12 races put Kenseth behind. Six times during that stretch did Kenseth finish 26th or worse, including placing 42nd twice (at Daytona and Phoenix). After getting to fifth in the points after the first Chase race, a crash the following week at Dover resulted in a 35th-place finish and dropped Kenseth to ninth. He never seriously challenged after that. Click here for story. No. 8: Rusty Wallace 2005 Stats: 0 Bud Poles, 0 wins, 8 top-fives, 17 top-10s The good: Fans turned out at every stop to wave goodbye to Rusty, and he didn't disappoint. The veteran had 17 top-10s in his final season as a racer and finished inside the top 10 in points for the first time since 2002. And in 36 races, Wallace was running at the end of them all. The bad: Despite the masses who cheered for No. 2 to find victory lane, Wallace didn't win a race in 2005. He didn't have a pole, either. A short string of bad luck near the end of the Chase -- three consecutive finishes of 20th or worse -- closed the door on a title. Click here for story. No. 9: Jeremy Mayfield 2005 Stats: 0 Bud Poles, 1 win, 4 top-fives, 9 top-10s The good: For the second season in a row, Mayfield made the field for the Chase for the Nextel Cup. He also took the checkered flag at Michigan in August to vault himself into the field, musch like he had done in Richmond the previous September. The bad: The 2005 Chase was similar to the 2004 campaign for Mayfield. Despite improving his overall entry into the Chase and his ultimate championship finish from 2004, Mayfield's season stats were off, which stayed in line with most Dodge teams. He won a race each season, but failed to win a Bud Pole in 2005 after claiming two in 2004 and his top five and top 10 production dropped from five to four and 13 to nine, respectively. But the Chase was again the telling element. After scoring a top five and three top 10s in 2004, Mayfield fell to only two top 10s in 2005. Click here for story. No. 10: Kurt Busch 2005 Stats: 0 Bud Poles, 3 wins, 9 top-fives, 18 top-10s The good: Busch won at Phoenix, Pocono and Richmond en route to making the Chase for the Nextel Cup for the second consecutive season. The bad: Busch's mid-November run-in with Maricopa County, Ariz. sheriff's deputies resulted in a misdemeanor citation for reckless driving and his subsequent dismissal from Roush Racing two events before season's end, dropping him to 10th in the final championship standings. Click here for story. No. 11: Jeff Gordon 2005 Stats: 2 Bud Poles, 4 wins, 8 top-fives, 14 top-10s The good: Gordon opened the season with another Daytona 500 victory and he ended the season with four wins, bringing his career total to 73. His team also seemed to become invigorated with the promotion of Steve Letarte to crew chief. The bad: From May 15 to Oct. 15 -- exactly five months -- Gordon, a four-time champion, had nary a finish better than seventh. He failed to make the Chase for the Nextel Cup, settling for an 11th-place finish. Click here for story. No. 12: Jamie McMurray 2005 Stats: 1 Bud Pole, 0 wins, 4 top-fives, 10 top-10s The good: McMurray had a stretch of four top-10s (two top-fives) in five starts in April and May that vaulted him into the top 10 in points. He signed a contract to drive for Roush Racing, which had all five of its teams in the Chase, beginning in 2007, but was released early from his deal with Chip Ganassi Racing and will pilot Roush's No. 97 in '06. The bad: The Daytona 500 was an ominous sign of a season-gone-awry to come when he crashed and finished 32nd. His top-fives and top-10s dropped significantly. Still, McMurray was in 10th place going into the final race before the Chase, but a crash at Richmond left him out of the playoffs again. He lost out on the 11th-place, $1 million bonus when Jeff Gordon overtook him with two races remaining. Click here for story. No. 13: Elliott Sadler 2005 Stats: 4 Bud Poles, 0 wins, 1 top-five, 12 top-10s The good: Sadler started the season strong with nine top-10s in the first 16 races, including a second-place run at Bristol. Sadler earned a career-high four poles, second only to Ryan Newman's eight. The bad: Sadler fell like a stone in the 10 races leading up to the Chase. The low point came at the Brickyard, when he started from the pole but wound up 32nd. He dropped out of the top 10 in points, never to return. Sadler had only one top-five all season and for the third time in five years since the Cup circuit went to a 36-race schedule, failed to record a victory. Click here for story. No. 14: Kevin Harvick 2005 Stats: 2 Bud Poles, 1 win, 3 top-fives, 10 top-10s The good: Without crew chief Todd Berrier, who was serving a four-race suspension in the spring, Harvick guided his No. 29 to victory lane in the Food City 500 at Bristol. Prior to the race, the car was leaking power steering fluid, and repairs forced Harvick to start from the back of the field. With Richard Childress on the pit box, Harvick passed everybody for the win. The bad: Headlines filled Harvick's season, and most of them weren't good. No matter what Harvick did on the racetrack, the news of the season was Berrier's two suspensions, both related to tampering with the fuel cell. Engine problems for the team at Sonoma dropped them out of Chase contention for good. Click here for story. No. 15: Dale Jarrett 2005 Stats: 1 Bud Pole, 1 win, 4 top-fives, 7 top-10s The good: Restrictor-plate racing was D.J.'s forte in 2005, claiming victory at Talladega in October. The win ended a streak of 98 races without touching victory lane for the 1999 Nextel Cup champion. Jarrett started 2006 by winning his third-career pole at the Daytona 500. The bad: Four laps was all Jarrett led over the entire season en route to his second consecutive year of finishing 15th in points. Two crew chief changes didn't help team chemistry or consistency. Click here for story. No. 16: Joe Nemechek 2005 Stats: 1 Bud Pole, 0 wins, 2 top-fives, 9 top-10s The good: Nemechek's best outing may have been Michigan, where he won the pole and led 30 laps before his right-front tire blew. The team rebounded by gambling on fuel mileage and finished eighth. His 16th-place finish in the points was his best since 2000, when he finished 15th, thanks to scattered spots of success along the schedule. He twice posted consecutive top-10s. The bad: Mechanical problems clouded the season for Nemechek. He led the most laps at California before blowing an engine and led at Michigan and Lowe's Motor Speedway before cutting tires. Click here for story. No. 17: Brian Vickers 2005 Stats: 1 Bud Pole, 0 wins, 5 top-fives, 10 top-10s The good: Most of Vickers' 10 top-10s came in the 13-week stretch that ran from Dover to Fontana. The highlight of Vickers' summer streak came on June 12, when Vickers led 121 of the 200 laps at the notoriously difficult Pocono Raceway. He also made a daring move, spinning Mike Bliss on the final straightaway to win the non-points Nextel Open at Lowe's Motor Speedway in mid-May. The bad: There were glaring holes in his season, mainly a lack of consistency on short tracks, where he cracked the top 15 just once. What's more, a poor November took Vickers out of the top 15 in the final Nextel Cup Series standings. Click here for story. No. 18: Jeff Burton 2005 Stats: 0 Bud Poles, 0 wins, 3 top-fives, 6 top-10s The good: Burton had three top-fives, including a second-place finish at Bristol in August. He closed the 2005 season with four top-15 finishes in the final six races. The bad: Despite Burton's string of consistency to finish the season, he led only seven laps the entire year and had an average finish of 19.56. He finished 18th in the standings for the second consecutive season. Click here for story. No. 19: Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2005 Stats: 0 Bud Poles, 1 win, 7 top-fives, 13 top-10s The good: Earnhardt Jr. won at Chicagoland in July and by season's end, he and the reunited No. 8 came closer to discovering the magic that made them championship contenders in 2004. The bad: After Junior and Michael Waltrip essentially swapped teams at the start of 2005, Tony Eury and Tony Eury Jr., members of Earnhardt's team since the Busch Series days, refused to communicate with new crew chief Pete Rondeau and the new No. 8 team, starting a downward spiral from which the team was never truly able to recover from. Click here for story. No. 20: Kyle Busch 2005 Stats: 1 Bud Pole, 2 wins, 9 top-fives, 13 top-10s The good: In his first year, Busch had nine top-five finishes, more than veterans Jeff Gordon, Ryan Newman or Rusty Wallace. He claimed victories at California and Phoenix and was named rookie of the year. The bad: To go with his nine top-fives, Busch had eight DNFs on the season. He was also criticized following his Phoenix win after voicing his support for brother Kurt, who was suspended for the season's final two races. Click here for story. | 
