Suite 16 Rankings- Las Vegas
Suite 16 NASCAR Nextel Cup rankings after the race at Las Vegas
Every week Suite 101 ranks the top 16 NASCAR Nextel Cup drivers based on results and performance.
1. (2) 17-Matt Kenseth: Not many drivers could have finished 4th in a 16th place car
2. (5) 48-Jimmie Johnson: Las Vegas is rivaling Lowe’s Motor Speedway as Johnson’s best track
3. (3) 20-Tony Stewart: I’m going out on a limb here, but I do not think that Stewart was in favor of the changes to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
4. (1) 29-Kevin Harvick: It is safe to say that Harvick and the 29 team missed the setup at Las Vegas.
5. (6) 24-Jeff Gordon: Drive for five is alive in 07. It just doesn’t have the same ring to it as it did two years ago.
6. (4) 31-Jeff Burton: Burton may have been the only driver that could have given the Hendrick Motorsports duo a serious run for their money.
7. (8) 01-Mark Martin: Martin’s on-track performances have not really changed since moving to Ginn Racing. He is rarely the fastest, but he seems to hover around the top five.
8. (7) 5-Kyle Busch: After watching his erratic performance on Sunday, Busch was fortunate to finish in 9th position.
9. (13) 11-Denny Hamlin: Like Kenseth, Hamlin was able to put a top fifteen car into the top five.
10. (10) 8-Dale Earnhardt Jr: Earnhardt Jr and his crew will laugh about his late-race pit road blunder one day- one day far into the future.
11. (9) 2-Kurt Busch: One day, a Busch brother will win at Las Vegas.
12. (16) 99-Carl Edwards: Edwards must have received the memo stating that the season has started. Maybe he needs to pass it along to his teammate Greg Biffle.
13. (11) 9-Kasey Kahne: A 50-point penalty, an engine failure, and an accident— not the start that Kahne and company expected.
14. (NR) 12-Ryan Newman: Newman’s 8th place finish at Las Vegas was his first top ten since Bristol last August. It was his first top ten on a 1.5-mile track since Homestead in November of 2005.
15. (15) 16-Greg Biffle: It’s hard to believe that Biffle is the only Roush Fenway driver not to score a top ten finish in any of the first three races of the 2007 season.
16. (12) 07-Clint Bowyer: Bowyer had one of the fastest cars, too bad he could not hang on to it.
