Rankings | Stewart team still on top

Monday, Jun. 22, 2009

ThatsRacin.com’s top-15 Sprint Cup teams following the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif. Teams are ranked in terms of their performance and potential for success this season. (Previous ranking in parentheses).

1. (1) Tony Stewart (car No. 14)

Stewart finishes a strong second, stretches his points lead. Summer run to the playoffs will be telling, but this is the team to beat so far.

2. (2) Jeff Gordon (car No. 24)

Recovered from a pit road speeding penalty to get a top-10 finish. He could've been a contender without the uncharacteristic blunder, but the rebound showed some character.

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

He recovered even better - finishing fourth - after getting caught in NASCAR's speed trap and showed a lot of class in approaching Kurt Busch after the race to apologize for punting the No. 2 Dodge. What a concept: He didn't use Twitter, e-mail or voice mail. He found Busch, said he was sorry and shook his hand.

4. (4) Ryan Newman (car No. 39)

On a bad day, you do what you have to do, even if that’s major work on a pit stop. There’s probably nobody this team would like to beat more than Stewart’s No. 14 bunch. Expect that in-house incentive – a sibling rivalry of sorts – to pay dividends.

5. (5) Kyle Busch (car No. 18)

Led early and took a hit late, which couldn't have completely been his fault. But team's trouble with inconsistency could run deeper than we'd thought.

6. (6) Carl Edwards (car No. 99)

These guys didn't get all they wanted out of Sunday's race and didn't get out of Sonoma unscathed. But they were less scathed than some. And that's life in the fast lane.

7. (9) Kurt Busch (car No. 2)

Took the hit from Johnson, went back to work and was able to salvage a decent finish. Took Johnson at his word about intention, accepted the apology and wrote it off to racing. That requires a certain amount of class, too.

8. (10) Denny Hamlin (car No. 11)

Driver and team have been racing hard most weekends this season and hardly deserved the trouble they've had. They've been finishing better more of those weekends lately.

9. (8) Greg Biffle (car No. 16)

His trouble on Sunday wasn't his doing. But at least his car was still running at the end, even if it was banged up. Probably just as disappointing, but maybe not as embarrassing as running out of gas.

10. (7) Mark Martin (car No. 5)

Still tied with Kyle Busch for the most wins at 3. But when things go wrong - and that'll happen sometimes when you pretend that stock cars are sports cars - Martin can't be having that much fun.

11. (11) Matt Kenseth (car No. 17)

The driver told reporters over the weekend that he didn't feel at all comfortable at 11th in the standings. He's 10th now. No word on whether that feels any better.

12. (13) Juan Pablo Montoya (car No. 42)

Did it look to you as if this driver was holding back on those much-vaunted double-file restarts late in Sunday's race? Apparently he understands points racing now and that banging wheels - or fenders - is even less efficient in NASCAR than Formula One.

13. (15) Kasey Kahne (car No. 9)

14. (14) Clint Bowyer (car No. 33)

15. (12) Jeff Burton (car No. 31)

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