NASCAR Power Rankings: Kyle Busch Leads Top 20 Drivers Coming out of Michigan

With his win at Michigan International Speedway in the Pure Michigan 400, Kyle Busch became the first driver to punch his ticket into this year's Chase for the Sprint Cup.

By virtue of accruing four wins with three races left before the Chase cutoff, there is no mathematical way that Busch can miss the Chase. Even if he were to inexplicably fall from the Top 10 in points, he would still be guaranteed a wild card spot.

Most, if not all, of those in the know are convinced that Busch, like his teammate Denny Hamlin last year, has the best chance at wrestling the championship away from Jimmie Johnson and ending his five-year reign at the top of the sport. In fact, he proved it by outracing Johnson head to head yesterday.

Does that make him the only driver capable? Not necessarily. In fact, plenty of other drivers would have something to say about that.

Without further ado, here are this week's power rankings:

1. Kyle Busch

What's New: The picture says it all, doesn't it?

What's Next: More good things ahead for Rowdy. In 13 Cup starts at Bristol, he's won five of them, including the very first one in the current generation of stock cars and this year's spring race. Don't be shocked if he wins his second Cup race in a row come Saturday night.

2. Jimmie Johnson

What's New: Once again, the picture says it all. Johnson led 18 laps, but in the end the No. 18 team was just a bit better.

What's Next: Bristol was once Johnson's Achilles' heel, but with a win in the spring last year, he feels he's exorcised that demon. However, a pole start in the night race last year didn't amount to anything, as a mid-race wreck relegated him to 35th.

3. Kevin Harvick

What's New: Some of the disappointment of a middling Cup weekend (started 24th, finished 22nd) was mitigated by a win in the Camping World Truck race. At least, we'd like to think so.

What's Next: Harvick only has one win in 21 Bristol starts, but he did it the hard way. While NASCAR still credits his spring 2005 win as coming from the 13th starting position, he actually started dead last after being sent to the back for unapproved impound work. Anybody who can win from last place in Sprint Cup—especially at Bristol—knows how to drive that track.

4. Carl Edwards

What's New: Michigan proved a wasted weekend for Edwards after wiring issues in the car put him out of the hunt early. In the end, he finished 36th, 29 laps down.

What's Next: Edwards hasn't finished worse than 16th at Bristol since 2006. He won this race from the pole in 2008 and finished second in the spring after starting from the pole.

5. Matt Kenseth

What's New: Starting from the outside pole in a flashy new paint scheme, Kenseth led 15 laps and finished 10th.

What's Next: Kenseth won the Bristol night race in 2005 and 2006, leading a dominant 415 laps in his first win and 117 in the second. Six of his past seven Bristol starts have resulted in Top 10 finishes.

6. Jeff Gordon

What's New: With 50 laps led on Sunday, the second best in the field, Gordon finished a respectable sixth.

What's Next: Anyone who's been around as long as Gordon has is bound to have a strong track record anywhere. Bristol is no exception with five wins and 20 Top 10s in 37 starts, his record at the half-mile bullring alone would make for a championship season in most years.

7. Ryan Newman

What's New: Newman finished fifth after starting third, but led no laps.

What's Next: Bristol and Newman appear to be fair weather friends. It's true that in 19 career starts there Newman has finished in the Top 10 a solid 11 times, but in only one of those occurrences has he actually cracked the Top Five (he finished second in the 2004 night race). He also leads about 25 laps every time he finds the front at Bristol, but he's only led in five of those starts.

8. Kurt Busch

What's New: By rubbing on the wall on lap 198, Busch's day went from so-so (ran in the top 15 for most of the race) to crap (finished 34th). To add insult to injury, brother Kyle's victory tied the two in career Sprint Cup wins with 23.

What's Next: Like his brother, Kurt Busch has five wins at Bristol, including his first career Cup triumph in the spring of 2002. But since signing with Penske Racing, he's only scored one Bristol win—spring of 2006 during his very first Bristol race with the team. That's a far cry from the driver who swept Bristol in 2003 and won four of five from 2002 to 2004.

9. Dale Earnhardt Jr.

What's New: Junior finished 14th at the track that yielded him his most recent Sprint Cup win—an accomplishment now more than three years in the rear view mirror.

What's Next: Aside from a 2004 night race victory, Junior hasn't got too much to look forward to at Bristol. In fact, he's never led a lap there in Hendrick Motorsports equipment. However, he should be good to go for a Top 20 finish—he has a streak of 20 consecutive Bristol runs of 18th or better dating back to August 2001.

10. Tony Stewart

What's New: Smoke finished ninth at Michigan, but still has to feel the pressure of a winless season. At this juncture, if fellow winless competitor Clint Bowyer or even one of the current wild card drivers can gain the necessary points on him, he's out.

What's Next: With one win in 25 career Bristol starts, the bullring may not be Stewart's best bet to claim that important victory. In fact, with that win coming in the 2001 night race and an average finish of 19.6 at the track since starting his own team, it's all but certainly not his best bet.

11. Brad Keselowski

What's New: In the past four weeks—most of which were spent driving with a bum ankle as a result of a road course testing accident—Keselowski has finished ninth, first, second and third. With two wins, he's the first wild card driver in the Chase at 12th in points.

What's Next: Keselowski has three Top 20s at Bristol in three career Cup starts. But Bristol is also the site of his second career Nationwide Series win, which came in August 2008 with JR Motorsports.

12. Denny Hamlin

What's New: Hamlin started fourth with a new engine package, but we could never get a gauge on how strong that engine was in a race after Hamlin scraped the wall in the early going. He finished a disappointing 35th, 15 laps down.

What's Next: Hamlin has never won at Bristol and a second place finish in the spring of 2009 is his best run. In his past three starts, he's finished a dismal 19th, 34th and 33rd.

13. Clint Bowyer

What's New: Despite ranking 11th in points, Bowyer finds himself on the outside of the Chase due to a lack of wins. An eighth place finish at Michigan didn't do much to help his cause either, as 10th place Tony Stewart finished right behind him and maintains a 24 point gap.

What's Next: Bowyer and Denny Hamlin have identical Bristol statistics—three Top Fives and five Top 10s, but no wins in 11 starts. Bowyer, like Hamlin, has also had dismal Bristol finishes as of late with two engine failures in his past three starts. When his car is hooked up Bowyer can place well, having finished fourth in the night race last year.

14. Greg Biffle

What's New: The pole-sitter, driving with a sharp new look courtesy of race presenting sponsor Pure Michigan, led a race-high 86 laps but faded to 20th at the end of the day.

What's Next: In 17 Bristol starts, Biffle has six Top Fives and 11 Top 10s, but has never taken a victory. He has, however, finished eighth or better in each of his past four Bristol starts. If he can build on the momentum of a strong run in Michigan, he could find a backdoor into the Chase.

15. A.J. Allmendinger

What's New: At 62 points out of 10th place and with no wins, the Dinger probably won't make the Chase. But he's still quietly assembling what could be a career best season for him, as an 11th place at Michigan brought him tantalizingly close to his sixth Top 10 of the year. His career high of eight was accomplished last year and he could easily score four more in the next 13 races to set a new personal best.

What's Next: Bristol probably isn't the place for him to do it, though. Allmendinger's average finish at the track is an abysmal 30.1, his lone "bright spots" a pair of low Top 20s scored in the spring of 2009 (16th) and 2010 (17th). He's never had a Bristol DNF, but more telling is the fact that those low Top 20s are the only times he's finished on the lead lap.

16. Mark Martin

What's New: The ageless wonder showed a little magic at Michigan, starting fifth, leading two laps and coming home fourth. Unfortunately, as it was only his second Top Five of the season, his Chase hopes are looking pretty bleak.

What's Next: Martin's two Bristol wins came in 1993 and 1998. Since joining Hendrick Motorsports, he's been all over the map there. On the bright side, he swept both poles in 2009, led 240 laps in the night race that year and finished sixth and second in those events. Since then however, he's only led one lap and has an average finish of 23.3 in those three starts.

17. Kasey Kahne

What's New: Kahne led three laps to finish seventh on Sunday.

What's Next: Kahne's 15 Bristol starts can be split right down the middle in terms of quality. In his first seven, his best finish was 10th. After scoring a runner-up finish from the pole in the 2007 night race, he's added four more Top 10s to the resume, including a ninth place earlier this year.

18. Paul Menard

What's New: Menard found himself unable to do much with his 11th place starting spot, eventually finishing a disappointing 26th.

What's Next: Menard only has one Top Five finish in eight starts at Bristol, but luckily for him it came earlier this year. He led 35 laps in the spring to come home fifth.

19. Joey Logano

What's New: Logano was about as mid-pack as it gets on Sunday. He started 23rd and finished 21st.

What's Next: Logano has no problem qualifying at Bristol, to which his spring 2010 pole would attest. His issue is finishing on the lead lap—he's never done so in a Sprint Cup race at the track. That would explain the extreme disparity between his average start (10.6) and average finish (28.0). His best finish, 18th in last year's night race, also saw him complete all but one lap—still a personal best for him at the track.

20. David Ragan

What's New: Winning at Daytona could have been a breakthrough for Ragan, as it saw him (temporarily) take a wild card spot in the Chase. However, since then he's finished eighth, 14th, 23rd, 34th, 28th and now 12th at Michigan. In fact, he had dropped to 23rd in points before this weekend's race helped him rise to 20th once again.

What's Next: Ragan's lone Bristol Top 10 came in the 2008 night race, as he nearly snuck into that year's Chase by hovering at 13th or 14th in points for much of the year. He'll have to hope that he can channel a little more of that magic this weekend. Leading his first career laps at the track would help.