Week 22 Unified Power Rankings

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 Rankings

Rank	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

Dover Yahoo! preview

At one-mile in length with high banks and a rough, concrete surface, Dover is one of the most challenging tracks on the circuit. It's a rhythm track where drivers post long streaks of top-10 finishes. Check out this week's Yahoo! Fantasy Preview (.pdf) for a sneak peak at who'll be strong.

Johnson has Darlington chassis

This week at Dover, Jimmie Johnson will run the same chassis that he took from 42nd to second at Darlington two weeks ago, according to a team press release.

Our View: Don't worry overly if something happens to this car. His backup chassis is the same one he started and finished third at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Edwards finds success in the corners

Carl Edwards attributes success in the corners at Dover to success on the track, according to a team press release.

"Dover is pretty much a one-groove track so you need to handle well through the center of the corners in order to keep your position. We won this race in 2007, and we had two strong races there in 2008. My Aflac team is working hard and making some improvements."

Our View: If Edwards is going to turn his season around, this is a great place to do so. His last five efforts at Dover ended in finishes of third or better.

Kenseth's strong at Dover

It took a while for Matt Kenseth to get a hang of this track, according to a team press release, but once he did, the No. 17 has been one of the best cars on the track.

Our View: According to the team, Kenseth did not lead a single lap in his first nine starts at Dover, but he's been up front in seven of his last 11 attempts. He's turned that into five top-10s in his last six races.

IRL: New tire for Milwaukee

Firestone will bring a new tire to the Milwaukee Mile in an attempt to get rid of the tight condition that plagued teams last year, according to a press release from the company.

Our View: All cars will be on the same tire, which levels the playing field, but veterans usually adjust to new circumstances faster than Young Guns.

Gordon Dover preview

"Getting the car balanced right to maximize grip is pretty tricky here," said Jeff Gordon in this week's preview press release. "It's a one-mile track that is high-banked, fast and action-packed. And you're in the corners a lot here."

Our View: Gordon has been one of the strongest drivers on this concrete course during his career, but he has not posted a victory there since 2001. This is one of the most important tracks on his personal schedule, since sponsor DuPont is headquartered just up the road.