May 13, 2009

Week 21 Unified Power Rankings

Jenson Button won the Spanish Grand Prix, which was his fourth Formula 1 victory in five starts, and by virtue of dominating that series, he remains firmly in control of the "highly-scientific" Unified Power Rankings.* What makes this more impressive still, is that he's doing so with a team that was not favored to run well at the start of the season because they are new to the series.

Teammate Rubens Barrichello finished second in last week's battle in Spain, which allowed him to pad his advantage over the remainder of the field. Barrichello was mildly upset that he was not allowed the opportunity to win after team strategy was altered mid-race that favored Button.

Meanwhile, the NASCAR boys continue to run strong and take up most of the remaining top-10 spots. Tony Stewart's third-place finish at Darlington was enough to keep him third on the Unified Power Rankings grid, while Jeff Gordon's fifth-place finish allowed him to leapfrog Kurt Busch into fourth.

The Indy Racing League has not yet run five races this season, which is the minimum required for inclusion to this list, so none of their drivers will be included until after the Indy 500.

Three drivers, Mark Webber, Mark Martin and Fernando Alonso jumped nine positions between last week and this week to become the biggest gainers.

Justin Allgaier's impressive fifth-place finish in the Nationwide Darlington race allowed him to leap onto the grid in 45th, which Nick Heidfeld scored a seventh in the Spanish Grand Prix to sneak into 50th.

Unified Power Rankings


RankDriverCompetition PointsLast week+/-
1Jenson Button107.8010
2Rubens Barrichello96.0020
3Tony Stewart92.9230
4Jeff Gordon90.8251
5Kurt Busch89.554-1
6Denny Hamlin82.5071
7Jason Leffler82.20103
8Jimmie Johnson81.73124
9Timo Glock81.606-3
10Ryan Newman81.38133
11Ron Hornaday Jr80.809-2
12Jeff Burton78.94142
13Kyle Busch78.528-5
14Mark Webber78.40239
15Carl Edwards78.3311-4
16Greg Biffle77.40160
17Sebastian Vettel77.20247
18Matt Kenseth76.76191
19Juan Montoya74.3617-2
20Mark Martin73.83299
21Fernando Alonso73.80309
22Clint Bowyer73.1415-7
23Brad Keselowski72.73285
24Brian Vickers72.3820-4
25Kevin Harvick72.00272
26Dale Earnhardt Jr71.8021-5
27Matt Crafton71.8025-2
28David Reutimann71.4022-6
29Kasey Kahne70.0026-3
30Jason Keller69.60311
31Joey Logano69.50343
32Mike Skinner67.33364
33David Ragan67.0032-1
34Johnny Benson Jr67.00373
35Marcos Ambrose66.1833-2
36Lewis Hamilton65.20393
37Nico Rosberg65.20403
38Martin Truex Jr64.73457
39Jarno Trulli64.0018-21
40Casey Mears63.9135-5
41Reed Sorenson63.73410
42Scott Lagasse Jr63.7038-4
43Steve Wallace63.60430
44Regan Smith63.0042-2
45Justin Allgaier62.60NR
46Jamie McMurray61.5544-2
47Chad McCumbee61.20470
48Brendan Gaughan60.9046-2
49A J Allmendinger60.82501
50Nick Heidfeld60.80NR


The Unified Power Rankings are based on "percentage points." Starting with a 100 score for the winner of a Nationwide race, each subsequent position is decremented by a percentage that relates to the number of drivers in the field. In a 50-car field of potential qualifiers, the second-place driver receives 98 points, third-place gets 96 points, the 43rd-place driver gets 16 points (because he beat eight other driver to even get into the field) and so on until the last non-qualifier in 50th-place gets two points.

Only races run in the last three months count in this formula.

The Cup, IRL and Formula 1 series start at 110 points for a victory (since its so difficult to win one of these races) and then decrements 1/50th of 110 points for each subsequent position. It’s an unscientific way to determine who is the best in their series, while simultaneously trying to compare apples to oranges.


Previous Unified Power Rankings:

Week 20

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