This last Sunday in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, CA, the drivers standings got jumbled up like lottery balls in the air-blowing mixer! But it’s not quite that bad. Just in spots.
The drivers in the top-12 driver standings did not change, but the ranks in the top-12 did mix it up.
Jimmie Johnson moved up 2 to 3rd, Kurt Busch‘s win moved him up 3 spots to 4th while the biggest mover of the day was sadly, Dale Earnhardt Jr, sliding back 4 spots to 7th.
Right now Greg Biffle sits 13th, 14 points behind Tony Stewart but what’s more of a concern is that if we’re looking at wild-card play-off positions, if you remember, the drivers with the most wins in the 13th to 20th positions could find themselves in 11th and 12th. I mention that because Tony Stewart has no win under his belt yet. But Stewart, for the moment can breathe a sigh of releif because no driver from 13th to 20th has a win.
Brad Keselowski is the first driver outside the top-12 to have a win but he sits in 22nd, followed by Regan Smith in 28th, with one win.
If Keselowski gets into the top 20 and one of the non-winners in the top-12 find themselves in either 11th or 12th, they will be finding themselves replaced by the wild-card winner.
Who’s in the top-12 without a win?
- Dale Earnhardt Jr. (7th);
- Clint Bowyer (8th);
- Ryan Newman (10th);
- Tony Steward (12th).
We’re only coming up on the 17th race of the season so there’s plenty of time. But that ’0′ has to be unnerving a few teams.
http://www.nascar.com/races/cup/2011/data/standings_unofficial.html
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