Seriously

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mlitefan01

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Posted on Mon, Feb. 24, 2003

Strong showings put Busch at the top
By DAVID POOLE
The Charlotte Observer

ThatsRacin.com's David Poole ranks the top 40 teams in Winston Cup racing after the Subway 400 at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham. The team's previous ranking and car number are in parentheses:
1. (2) Kurt Busch (car No. 97)

Makes his homecoming trip to Las Vegas as your Winston Cup points leader.

2. (1) Tony Stewart (car No. 20)

Nothing unusual about him getting the season off to something of a slow start.

3. (6) Mark Martin (car No. 6)

Ought to be one of the oddsmakers' favorites for Sunday's race in Las Vegas.

4. (3) Jimmie Johnson (car No. 48)

Eighth-place finish at Rockingham made this the only Chevrolet in the top 14 there.

5. (11) Dale Jarrett (car No. 88)

Has now won in 11 straight seasons, making him the active leader in that category.

6. (7) Matt Kenseth (car No. 17)

Quietly off to another solid start in another season. He's the Stealth contender.

7. (4) Jeff Gordon (car No. 24)

Nothing special from this team so far this season. Sort of has the last year look to it.

8. (10) Jeff Burton (car No. 99)

Two weeks of "not bad in spite of everything" finishes. Looking for a change in luck.

9. (5) Dale Earnhardt Jr. (car No. 8)

Well, he sure got his sponsors a lot of television exposure in his Rockingham debacle.

10. (9) Michael Waltrip (car No. 15)

This early in the season, a win is easily enough to keep you somewhere in the top 10.

11. (8) Ryan Newman (car No. 12)

12. (15) Rusty Wallace (car No. 2)

13. (16) Bobby Labonte (car No. 18)

14. (14) Ricky Rudd (car No. 21)

15. (24) Ricky Craven (car No. 32)

16. (25) Jamie McMurray (car No. 42)

17. (21) Elliott Sadler (car No. 38)

18. (13) Kevin Harvick (car No. 29)

19. (17) Bill Elliott (car No. 9)

20. (20) Ward Burton (car No. 22)

21. (12) Sterling Marlin (car No. 40)

22. (26) Johnny Benson (car No. 10)

23. (19) Robby Gordon (car No. 31)

24. (22) Greg Biffle (car No. 16)

25. (31) Dave Blaney (car No. 77)

26. (18) Jeremy Mayfield (car No. 19)

27. (23) Jeff Green (car No. 30)

28. (27) Kyle Petty (car No. 45)

29. (28) Steve Park (car No. 1)

30. (29) Joe Nemechek (car No. 25)

31. (30) Kenny Wallace (car No. 23)

32. (38) Mike Skinner (car No. 4)

33. (32) Jack Sprague (car No. 0)

34. (33) Terry Labonte (car No. 5)

35. (34) John Andretti (car No. 43)

36. (37) Casey Mears (car No. 41)

37. (40) Ken Schrader (car No. 49)

38. (39) Jimmy Spencer (car No. 7)

39. (36) Jerry Nadeau (car No. 01)

40. (35) Todd Bodine (car No. 54)
 
Umm, 38th in points, 9th on the scale. Flawed ain't strong enough.
 
I agree with the first three.

Johnson in fourth?He sneaked up there on me,but I can see it.

5th and sixth?Yeah.

Gordon in seventh.A bit high based on so far------but never one to underestimate.Same with Jeff Burton.


Jr and Mike?Very rare I have anything positive to say about theses two.....so I wont start now.Both to high even though Mike won the exhibtion last week. :)


Flawed just a bit....but still not too bad,IMO.
 
Mikey is 5th in points so he should be in the top 10, but junior, I do think that they have him placed a little high. His highest finish has been 30 what. Both Park and Waltrip are finishing better then he is at the moment.
 
I agree ...Jr. belongs around 14-17 or there abouts, outside of that looks decent to me.
 
It seems pretty reasonable to me as a whole. Tony hasn't done anything this year to justify a #2 ranking, but he is the defending champ. They are ranking the teams by strength of teams. Therefore Jeff Gordon being the only active racer with 4 championships is concidered to have a very strong team even though he hasn't finished very high yet.
 
As of right now, those ratings are perfectly fair. Since we're only two races into the year, there's still a very heavy emphasis on how teams/drivers finished up the season last year, or how well they were expected to do this year. Over the next few weeks, last season (and the expectations) will be phased out, and then the ratings will be entirely based on this season. The same thing is going to happen for my ratings system (which might start up a week earlier than planned) - fewer races = more emphasis on past performance. That's the way it is until we get about 6 races into the season.
 
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