Week 23 Unified Power Rankings

With Formula 1 taking last week off, the two strongest drivers in auto sports remain at the top of our grid. Jenson Button and teammate Rubens Barrichello continue to be nearly unassailable with their strong showings on the international stage.

NASCAR driver Tony Stewart keeps hovering around the front of the field and last week's second-place finish in the Autism Speaks 400 kept him solidly in third on this grid. If Button and Barrichello stumble in this week's Turkish Grand Prix, "Smoke" could take the lead in the Unified Power Rankings just as he's done in the NASCAR point system. He hasn't been perfect, but then again with seven top-five finishes in his last nine attempts in Cup and Nationwide competition combined, he's about as close as you're going to get.

Dario Franchitti was last week's top Indy Racing League driver on our grid and he actually improved two positions from 11th overall to ninth on the strength of his third-place finish in the ABC Supply Co. / A.J. Foyt 225 at the Milwaukee Mile—and yet, he's no longer the king of his crowd.

The IRL honor goes to Helio Castroneves, who settles into fourth on the overall grid despite an 11th in that same race. He didn't actually leap frog Franchitti, however; Castroneves was not included in last week's grid because he had not yet run four races in 2009. His victory in the Indy 500 and a second in the Road Runner Turbo Indy 300 at Kansas Speedway was enough to place Castroneves fourth on the overall grid.

Mark Martin was the biggest mover in the top 10—or at least, he's in the top 10 now, after jumping eight spots from 18th with a 10th-place finish at Dover International Speedway. The biggest loser was Camping World Truck Series Ron Hornaday Jr., who dropped 19 positions from 10th to 29th after crashing early last week. He has a chance to snap back this week, however, since he starts from the outside pole for Friday night's companion race at Texas Motor Speedway with the IRL.

Hornaday's hardship can't compare to Tony Kanaan. His early-race crash at Milwaukee caused him to drop 21 positions from 14th to 35th.

Unified Power Rankings

Rank	Driver	Points	Last week	+/-
1	Jenson Button	110.67	1	0
2	Rubens Barrichello	99.83	2	0
3	Tony Stewart	96.00	3	0
4	Helio Castroneves	92.25	NR
5	Kurt Busch	91.91	5	0
6	Jimmie Johnson	90.45	7	1
7	Ryan Briscoe	87.80	12	5
8	Jason Leffler	87.56	4	-4
9	Dario Franchitti	86.80	11	2
10	Mark Martin	85.00	18	8
11	Ryan Newman	84.60	6	-5
12	Denny Hamlin	84.27	9	-3
13	Danica Patrick	82.60	15	2
14	Brad Keselowski	82.14	21	7
15	Mark Webber	82.00	13	-2
16	Scott Dixon	81.20	28	12
17	Jeff Gordon	81.09	8	-9
18	Kyle Busch	79.63	19	1
19	Timo Glock	79.50	20	1
20	Matt Kenseth	79.44	27	7
21	Carl Edwards	78.30	22	1
22	Jeff Burton	78.00	17	-5
23	Dan Wheldon	77.20	16	-7
24	Joey Logano	76.55	25	1
25	Fernando Alonso	76.17	24	-1
26	Kasey Kahne	75.27	26	0
27	Matt Crafton	74.60	29	2
28	Greg Biffle	73.29	23	-5
29	Ron Hornaday Jr	72.60	10	-19
30	Jason Keller	72.11	36	6
31	Juan Montoya	71.73	30	-1
32	Dale Earnhardt Jr	70.21	31	-1
33	Nico Rosberg	70.00	32	-1
34	Brian Vickers	68.20	33	-1
35	Tony Kanaan	68.20	14	-21
36	Sebastian Vettel	67.50	39	3
37	Kevin Harvick	67.28	41	4
38	Steve Wallace	67.11	40	2
39	Justin Allgaier	67.00	42	3
40	Clint Bowyer	66.50	43	3
41	Graham Rahal	66.40	59	18
42	Martin Truex Jr	65.82	45	3
43	David Reutimann	65.62	38	-5
44	Marco Andretti	64.80	52	8
45	Jamie McMurray	64.73	44	-1
46	Lewis Hamilton	63.67	47	1
47	Johnny Benson Jr	63.60	35	-12
48	David Ragan	63.17	55	7
49	Brian Scott	63.00	57	8
50	Paul Menard	62.63	54	4

Previous Unified Power Rankings:

Week 22
Week 21
Week 20