Gordon, Busch among the front-runners on upswing

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We are 10 races into the Sprint Cup Series season, a good time see how the top 12 drivers in the standings are faring this year compared with their first 10 races of the 2008 season. Bill Marx of the Sporting News Wire Service breaks down the top 12:

1. Jeff Gordon, 1,441 points -- Big change. Gordon wasn't even in the top 12 after 10 races last year. He was 13th, 339 points out of first. He also was winless with three top-five finishes. This year he has one win and a series-high five top-fives.

2. Kurt Busch, 1,431 -- Bigger change. If you are looking for Busch in the 2008 standings on NASCAR.COM, you have to scroll down he is so low. He was 24th with one top-10, his second-place finish in the season-opening Daytona 500. He wouldn't get his second top-10 until the 14th race of the season.

No Margin for Error

Kurt Busch has the dubious distinction of finishing second in the closest finish in the history of NASCAR's electronic scoring and timing. Ricky Craven beat Busch by 0.002 seconds on March 16, 2003, a finish that was voted by fans as the track's most memorable moment. "Sure, I think about that race and the way it turned out every time we return to Darlington," Busch said, "and I'm sure it'll be the same situation when we go back there this weekend."

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By the Numbers

A look back to last year shows that Greg Biffle finished 43rd after engine trouble, but that doesn't tell the story of his dominance at the track.

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3. Tony Stewart, 1,402 -- Stewart was eighth last year with four top-fives and six top-10s, similar numbers to this year: also four top-fives but with seven top-10s. Yes, he's five spots higher in the standings, but the biggest change is his team. He is now an owner-driver for Stewart-Haas Racing.

4. Denny Hamlin, 1,321 -- Hamlin was sixth last year with a win. Although winless this year, he had the dominant car at Martinsville, where he led a race-high 296 laps and finished second; and at Richmond, where he led a race-high 146 laps and finished 14th. Mistakes on pit road are killing the No. 11 team. That absolutely must change.

5. Kyle Busch, 1,314 -- Forget the fact Busch was first in points at this point last year. His victory at Richmond was his third of the season, one more than at this point last year. He dominated races last year, and he's dominating them this year. And if you are wondering about his totals in all three series, gnaw on these numbers: Eight wins in 2009, seven in 2008.

6. Jimmie Johnson, 1,290 -- Johnson is Busch without all the wins. His one win and four top-fives are the same as what he had last year. As impressive as Johnson is during the first 10 races of a season (12 career wins), it is his performance in the final 10 in which he has made his mark on the sport (16 wins and three consecutive championships).

7. Jeff Burton, 1,257 -- Burton was second last year by 18 points. The big difference? Besides his one win last year, his average finish was 7.9 and he was 10 races into a streak of 17 top-15 finishes. Burton is winless this year with a 13.7 average finish and he began the season with finishes of 28th and 32nd before launching his current streak of eight races in the top 15.

8. Clint Bowyer, 1,212 -- Bowyer jumped to third with his first victory of the season last year in Race 10. He is winless this year with three fewer top-10s (four), but he has been a surprise considering he has an entirely new team.

9. Carl Edwards, 1,204 -- Can a guy be in the top 10 and be experiencing a slow start to his season? Yes, if it's Edwards, who already had three victories at this point in 2008. He was 10th last year, but that's only because he incurred a 100-point penalty after his victory at Las Vegas. He is winless this year, and worse, he has rarely been a factor.

10. Ryan Newman, 1,198 -- How's this for perception? Newman won the Daytona 500 last year and had five top-10s and was ninth last year. Yet, he is 10th this year with no wins and one fewer top-10 but appears to have more momentum. The reason is because athletes aren't judged by how they start, but how they finish. During the final 26 races of 2008, Newman posted three top-10s, none in his final 12 starts. Take Newman's finish, add in a move to newbie Stewart-Haas Racing and you have low expectations. Not anymore. He has finished in the top five in the past two races.

11. Greg Biffle, 1,193 -- Biffle was ninth in points last year and didn't really catch fire until the Chase. Based on last year's strong finish -- two wins and four top-fives in the Chase --much was expected from Biffle to start the season. He has been good -- three top-fives, five top-10s -- but not great.

12. Matt Kenseth, 1,187 -- Kenseth is a puzzler. By every benchmark, Kenseth is light years ahead of last year. He has won the first two races of the 2009 season, whereas he went winless in all 36 races of 2008 and was 22nd after 10 races. So why does it seem Kenseth is stuck in the same rut as the other Roush Fenway Racing drivers? Perhaps it's because has one top-10 and an average finish of 21.6 in the eight races since his hot start.

All statistical references are for Cup Series races at Darlington Raceway unless otherwise indicated. Driver rating is based on the past four races at the track.

Top five ...

Stewart

1. Jeff Gordon, 115.1 driver rating -- Gordon has one win and hasn't finished worse than third the past five years. Overall, he has seven wins in 28 starts. He also has six DNFs, but in the 22 races he has finished, he has 19 top-10s.

2. Kurt Busch, 78.9 -- Busch is winless in 12 starts with four top-10s. What is alarming about Busch's numbers is that he qualifies well (11.5 average start with two poles) but hasn't been able to turn those into enough strong finishes (17.6 average).

3. Tony Stewart, 81.5 -- Darlington is one of three current Cup tracks on which Stewart is winless (Fontana and Las Vegas are the other two). Although he has eight top-10s in 16 starts, he has led a shockingly scant eight laps, his fewest at a Cup track. His lone win at Darlington came last year in the Nationwide Series, his 20th NASCAR race at the track.

4. Denny Hamlin, 112.5 -- Hamlin has three top-10s in three starts, including a second in 2007 when he led a race-high 179 laps. In what has become an all-too-frequent scenario for Hamlin, the No. 11 team lost the race when it messed up in the pits. Hamlin had to restart too deep in the field and couldn't catch Gordon.

5. Kyle Busch, 99.0 -- Busch dominated last year -- after Greg Biffle's engine died -- leading 169 laps, including all but five of the final 98, for his first win in four starts. He swept both races last week at Richmond and arrives in Darlington on a roll.

Five to watch ...

Newman

6. Jimmie Johnson, 116.0 -- Johnson finished a "stunning" 13th last year, only his second finish outside the top 10 in 10 races. Johnson swept both races in 2004, the last time the track hosted two Cup races in the same season. His driver rating is second to Biffle's.

9. Carl Edwards, 98.6 -- Edwards finished second last year for his second consecutive top-five finish. In five starts, he has four top-10s.

10. Ryan Newman, 97.1 -- Newman had a rare poor race last year, finishing 37th after starting a personal track-worst 32nd. He has five top-fives in 10 starts. After some early season misfortune, the No. 39 team is moving in the right direction and has finished in the top five the past two weeks.

11. Greg Biffle, 121.8 -- In 2005 and '06, Biffle was untouchable, leading a total of 346 laps and winning twice. Biffle appeared on his way to yet another win, but his engine gave out on Lap 233 while leading. Instead of his third victory, all Biffle had to show for his 95 laps led was a last-place finish.

18. Dale Earnhardt Jr., 104.2 -- Earnhardt has four of his seven top-10s in the past four years. He dropped three spots in the standings after Richmond and now trails 12th-place Matt Kenseth by 87 points.