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Power Rankings: Atlanta
By Ryan Smithson, NASCAR.COM
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October 25, 2006
1:09 PM EDT (1309 GMT)

Biggest Gain this week: Bobby Labonte, up seven spots

Biggest Drop this week: Jeff Burton, down five spots

New this week: Dale Jarrett (20), Tony Raines (21), David Stremme (22), Ken Schrader (25).

Dropped out: Martin Truex Jr. (20), Ryan Newman (21), Dave Blaney (23), Robby Gordon (24).

Week 33 of 36, Bass Pro Shops 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway
Rank Prev Number Driver Comments
 1  4 Jimmie Johnson Jimmie Johnson He has got to be really happy that Brian Vickers was half a lap down there at the end.
 2  2 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Dale Earnhardt Jr. I guess you saw him appear on Wally's World. It was the first time someone with actual experience leading races had ever stepped into Wally's car.
 3  3 Kasey Kahne Kasey Kahne One of my favorite lines of text on the Internet is a story about the women on the Allstate commercial: "Another [old woman], stretched out next to the racer, slides under the racing car for an underbody inspection, after which he smears her face with a dab of grease. That bit of romantic horseplay causes her to passionately embrace Kahne."
 4  5 Carl Edwards Carl Edwards Tony Stewart said he won't stop training until he makes the cover of Men's Health. That is kind of like Carl saying he will eat at McDonald's three times a day until he makes the cover of Obese Living.
 5 12 Denny Hamlin Denny Hamlin He is in the FedExCup Chevy this weekend. They had golfer Davis Love III at Atlanta with Hamlin two weeks ago hitting golf balls. Well, Hamlin kind of swiped at them.
 6  1 Jeff Burton Jeff Burton I gotta say something about Ward and his comeback. Gotta love him. On Friday, there was a gorgeous blonde local reporter. Someone asked Ward if anything had changed since his layoff, and he deadpans, "I'll say this, the media crowd is a lot of y'all like this young lady in here that looks really good and the rest of you, it still looks the same as it always does."
 7 13 Tony Stewart Tony Stewart He has lost like 12 pounds. Not sure what I will do when he weighs 180 pounds again. On a side note, for sheer entertainment, it is funny how he almost says this in the Banquet commercial: "I don’t know. I am pretty fat [fast]."
 8 15 Bobby Labonte Bobby Labonte His PR team put out a press release highlighting the fact that Labonte is outperforming the Hendrick Motorsports teams. Ouch.
 9 11 Jeff Gordon Jeff Gordon Just saw Talladega Nights for the second time. Shake and Bake, baby. If Gordon and Tony Stewart were teammates, they'd be "GQ and DQ."
10  6 Mark Martin Mark Martin Report: Martin already sure he can't win Truck title in 2008
11  7 Matt Kenseth Matt Kenseth He has got to be pumped up about the bigger Car of Tomorrow, which will allow him to wear a baseball cap right under his helmet.
12  8 Kevin Harvick Kevin Harvick Take a cue from Schrader. Let the cutout race the remaining Busch races.
13  9 Kyle Busch Kyle Busch He is skipping the Busch race at Memphis, which means he will only get booed at one driver intro this week.
14 10 Brian Vickers Brian Vickers Hey, Ward Burton. I bet you 10 bucks (money, not deer, sorry) that you can't say "Vickers and Allmendinger" 10 straight times in under 10 hours.
15 19 Casey Mears Casey Mears Report: Mears to confront Gilliland after he checks Gilliland's NASCAR.COM driver page to see what he looks like
16 16 Kurt Busch Kurt Busch Kurt, I can't believe you actually said "Blue Deuce Juice." Groan factor: 100 out of 100.
17 14 Greg Biffle Greg Biffle I saw Jared this weekend. He didn't look that slim. I think he eats a 12-inch steak and cheese for lunch, and then a 68-inch meatball sub for dinner.
18 17 Scott Riggs Scott Riggs He had one of the quotes of the week about the Car of Tomorrow. In the Charlotte Observer, he said, "You say 'COT' I think of something laying down on the side of the road to lay on and relax. Maybe that's what the fans will be doing when the Car of Tomorrow is racing."
19 18 Clint Bowyer Clint Bowyer It wasn't reported much last week (mainly because of all the hoopla generated when Sara Evans abruptly left Dancing with the Stars) but ACDelco is leaving at the end of the year as Bowyer's Busch sponsor.
20 NR Dale Jarrett Dale Jarrett Jarrett will campaign the No. 44 next year, which is obviously half of the No. 88, and Jarrett has even said that he has a notion to drive the No. 22 before his retirement in 2018.
21 NR Tony Raines Tony Raines Report: Raines contracts with girl on DLP commercial to use amazing mirrors to blind David Ragan
22 NR David Stremme David Stremme Report: Ask.com bombarded with requests for "Why in the world does David Stremme have two consecutive 15th-place finishes?"
23 22 Elliott Sadler Elliott Sadler Report: Media coverage of Jeremy Mayfield's pugs down 97 percent since his release
24 25 Reed Sorenson Reed Sorenson I loved Casey Mears' quote on Sunday, when he called David Gilliland a "good kid." Well, Gilliland is older than Mears and already has two kids. When Sorenson had his tiff with Jarrett at Charlotte, he should have said, "Jarrett is a good kid, but he has a lot to learn before he steps into that Toyota."
25 NR Ken Schrader Ken Schrader I fully expected Fatback McSwain to pour the contents of his dip cup on top of David Ragan's head. Only one problem: Ragan is way taller. Wouldn't work.

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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