The three major auto racing series ran one of the biggest races of their season last week when Formula 1 took to the streets of Monaco, the NASCAR Cup series ran the "Coke 341," and the IRL ran the granddaddy of them all: the Indy 500.
Each of those races carry bonus points. Instead of 110 points for a first-place finish, drivers receive 125, but we had to make some adjustments for the Cup race. Since several drivers remained on track and received better results than they earned through the strength of their cars, we based the Power Point system on average running position for this week.
No matter how count them, Jenson Button continues to be the hottest driver in auto racing having won his fifth Grand Prix in six starts. The twisty streets of Monaco make passing a near impossibility, so no one was surprised that he took the checkers after sitting on the pole. Rubens Barrichello continues to be his wing man and finished second in Formula 1 competition for the third time this season. He's going to be hard to dislodge from that spot, in fact, because he's swept the top-five alongside Button.
Tony Stewart had flashes of brilliance last week in the rain-shortened "Coke 341," but when the field was shuffled by the final rain storm he found his No. 14 Chevy stranded in 19th. Five top-fives in the previous six races, however, gave him enough momentum to stay third on the grid and first among Cup regulars.
Nationwide regular Jason Leffler ran a smart race in the Carquest Auto Parts 300 to finish sixth. That helped elevate him into the top 10 on the Unified Power Rankings scale since it was his sixth consecutive top-10 in recent races.
The Indy Racing League finally ran enough races to include them in this formula and despite winning the Indy 500, Helio Castroneves does not top their chart. There a reason for that; even though the series has run enough times, the driver has not since he was forced to sit out the Honda Grand Prix of St Petersburg while being his trial for tax evasion was going on.
Dario Franchitti gets that honor. After winning the Grand Prix of Long Beach and finishing in the top 10 in three of the first four IRL races this year, he's the best of class. He shouldn't get too used to the position, however; unless Castroneves crashes early next week at Milwaukee, he is virtually guaranteed to dislodge the Scotsman. Unified Power RankingsRank Driver Points Last week +/- 1 Jenson Button 110.67 1 0 2 Rubens Barrichello 99.83 2 0 3 Tony Stewart 91.67 3 0 4 Jason Leffler 88.50 7 3 5 Kurt Busch 88.45 5 0 6 Ryan Newman 85.93 10 4 7 Jimmie Johnson 85.91 8 1 8 Jeff Gordon 85.45 4 -4 9 Denny Hamlin 85.08 6 -3 10 Ron Hornaday Jr 83.75 11 1 11 Dario Franchitti 83.50 NR 12 Ryan Briscoe 83.50 NR 13 Mark Webber 82.00 14 1 14 Tony Kanaan 81.25 NR 15 Danica Patrick 81.00 NR 16 Dan Wheldon 80.75 NR 17 Jeff Burton 79.75 12 -5 18 Mark Martin 79.75 20 2 19 Kyle Busch 79.59 13 -6 20 Timo Glock 79.50 9 -11 21 Brad Keselowski 79.23 23 2 22 Carl Edwards 77.37 15 -7 23 Greg Biffle 76.54 16 -7 24 Fernando Alonso 76.17 21 -3 25 Joey Logano 74.89 31 6 26 Kasey Kahne 74.36 29 3 27 Matt Kenseth 74.19 18 -9 28 Scott Dixon 74.00 NR 29 Matt Crafton 73.75 27 -2 30 Juan Montoya 72.00 19 -11 31 Dale Earnhardt Jr 71.79 26 -5 32 Nico Rosberg 70.00 37 5 33 Brian Vickers 69.50 24 -9 34 Mike Skinner 69.50 32 -2 35 Johnny Benson Jr 68.75 34 -1 36 Jason Keller 68.25 30 -6 37 Scott Lagasse Jr 68.25 42 5 38 David Reutimann 68.23 28 -10 39 Sebastian Vettel 67.50 17 -22 40 Steve Wallace 67.38 43 3 41 Kevin Harvick 66.76 25 -16 42 Justin Allgaier 66.75 45 3 43 Clint Bowyer 65.92 22 -21 44 Jamie McMurray 65.91 46 2 45 Martin Truex Jr 64.00 38 -7 46 Rick Crawford 63.75 56 10 47 Lewis Hamilton 63.67 36 -11 48 Stacy Compton 63.00 53 5 49 James Buescher 62.00 62 13 50 Marcos Ambrose 61.91 35 -15
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