The cream rises to the top, and stays there it seems. Defending champ Brad Keselowski continues to have the hot hand while Daytona 500 winner Jimmie Johnson is just behind, along with Clint Bowyer.
The only surprises might be Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart, who both took a dive after going out early in the season opener. In fact, over the past ten Tony is not even averaging a 15th place finish and Daytona did not help. Carl Edwards needs come good things to start happening to rise up, while the trio of Aric Almirola, Joey Logano, and Paul Menard rank higher than most might give them credit for. Jeff Gordon actually went up, which says something to how bad he was (35th) ten races ago.
No Danica, no Ricky yet, as they did not run for points last year in Cup. Dale Earnhardt Jr remains low on this list, but is averaging 31 points per race of the eight of the past ten he has run. That would place him tenth on this chart. Even better is Mark Martin, who is 23rd yet is averaging 31.4 over the seven he has run. If he could just pick up a couple of wins along the way the 54-year old could even make the Chase despite his 25-race schedule. At present the ole boy is not schedule to run New Hampshire, Talladega, nor Martinsville late in the season. I wonder if those plans might change if…
Pos (LW) Driver – Points – (W-T5-T10)
1 (1) Brad Keselowski – 385 pts – (2-3-8)
2 (4) Jimmie Johnson – 354 pts – (3-6-7)
3 (3) Clint Bowyer – 354 pts – (1-4-8)
4 (6) Greg Biffle – 333 pts – (0-2-7)
5 (2) Kyle Busch – 329 pts – (0-6-7)
6 (11) Jeff Gordon – 319 pts – (1-4-6)
7 (9) Denny Hamlin – 319 pts – (1-3-4)
8 (9) Ryan Newman – 318 pts – (0-3-6)
9 (5) Kasey Kahne – 312 pts – (0-4-5)
10 (7) Matt Kenseth – 303 pts – (2-3-3)
11 (7) Kevin Harvick – 291 pts – (1-1-3)
12 (13) Martin Truex Jr – 284 pts – (0-1-4)
13 (16) Aric Almirola – 284 pts – (0-1-2)
14 (14) Joey Logano – 276 pts (0-0-3)
15 (17) Paul Menard – 270 pts – (0-1-2)
16 (15) Carl Edwards – 269 pts – (0-1-2)
17 (12) Tony Stewart – 266 pts – (0-2-3)
18 (18) Dale Earnhardt Jr – 248 pts – (0-1-3)*
19 (19) Kurt Busch – 240 pts – (0-0-3)
20 (19) Jeff Burton – 230 pts – (0-0-1)
