Power Rankings: Charlotte

Power

Rankings

Charlotte:

A lot of drivers (10 of the 12 Chasers to be exact) got into the massive 25 car pile-up on the last lap at Talladega on Sunday. Oddly, not a whole lot changed when it came to the points, but things are sure still changing in the rankings this week. Some drivers are still rising while others continue a downfall, so let's discover where the twelve Chasers fall this week.

1. Brad Keselowski (No Change, from last week)

Despite being involved in the pile-up, Keselowski was able to drive through it and manage a 7th place finish and extend his points lead a little bit over Jimmie Johnson in the process. Keselowski has never turned many heads at Charlotte, but then again he never turned many heads anywhere until the end of last season. Now, he's a threat anywhere.

2. Jimmie Johnson (No Change)

A 17th place finish is nothing to shout about for Johnson, but he's only 14 points out of first and is in plenty good position to challenge Keselowski for another championship. Not to mention the fact that he's won multiple times at five of the last six tracks.

3. Jeff Gordon (+4)

I'm sure Gordon is still a bit angry about Chicagoland because if it wasn't for the stuck throttle there, he might actually be the points leader right now. Heck, if he keeps finishing top-3 every week he very well could be. He needs to turn some of those top-3's into wins however.

4. Denny Hamlin (-1)

Besides his dominating win at New Hampshire, Hamlin hasn't done much to prove he's worthy of winning a championship. Sure, he's sticking around and still in contention, but he was far from aggressive at Talladega, just hanging at the back all day. He was a runner-up to Kasey Kahne at Charlotte in May at least.

5. Kasey Kahne (No Change)

Kahne has been extremely consistent throughout the Chase, but unfortunately, consistency doesn't win championships. Kahne can capitalize this weekend and sweep the Charlotte races this year, as well as keeping his name in the title hunt.

6. Clint Bowyer (-2)

You have to admire the fact that he tried to keep himself up front at Talladega for the last two laps, but it's no secret that it's damn near impossible to fend off the whole field for the last two laps. As a result, Bowyer was in the pile-up and lost some ground in the points. He needs to win soon to stay alive.

7. Tony Stewart (-1)

If Stewart has any magic left from his championship run last season, he may want to start using it now. He really hasn't been competitive in any of the races so far, though he was running second when he admittedly began the pile-up. I think he still has hope, but it's not much at all.

8. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No Change)

Junior being caught up in the pile-up virtually ends his championship hopes and he knew it. He let out a lot of frustrations after the race and I'm worried that he won't recover from that frustration this year to win anymore races in 2012. He's 11th in points now, so he may have to start looking towards 2013.

9. Martin Truex Jr. (No Change)

He was great in the regular season, but it's difficult to see how he even made the Chase at this point with the less-than-stellar performances he's had so far (Dover is the exception). Despite being so far back, I think Truex could pull off a win somewhere and jump back into the top half of the standings.

10. Kevin Harvick (No Change)

Harvick aired out his frustrations just like Junior after Talladega. A sub-par season for Harvick is completely noticeable and he too may want to turn his attention towards 2013.

11. Matt Kenseth (+1) 

He jumps over his teammate this week simply because he won the Talladega race. Don't think this means he's still a title contender by any stretch of the imagination though, he's not even close.

12. Greg Biffle (-1)

Biffle actually managed to finish 6th at Talladega which is actually a great feat considering all things. I'm interested to see if Roush-Fenway will still be lacking speed this weekend at Charlotte.

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