Elliott out, Gilliland in at Atlanta

According to a tweet from @NateRyan, David Gilliland will replace Bill Elliott in the No. 21 Wood Bros. Ford this week while Elliott heals from back problems.

Our View If you've lost track of the musical chairs, it has gone this way: Erick Darnell is in the No. 96 at Atlanta (and six more races), displacing Bobby Labonte (who is in the No. 71 for those same seven events), displacing David Gilliland who now is in the No. 21. This time of year is not known as the Silly Season without reason.

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Labonte may yet return to Yates in 2010

Yates Racing is still in negotiation with Ask.com to sponsor Bobby Labonte for 2010 and it is likely that their relationship with Roush-Fenway Racing will not comtinue next year, according to SceneDaily.com.

Our View Not sure how that effects Erik Darnell for 2010, so fantasy owners will need to stay tuned for further details.

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Darnell to race No. 96

Erik Darnell will race seven of the last 12 races in the No. 96 Ford beginning this weekend at Atlanta, according to a press release from Yates Racing. Bobby Labonte will fill the seat for the other five races. He also is scheduled to race at New Hampshire, Kansas, Talladega, Texas, Phoenix and Homestead.

Our View The young gun is the first official rookie to toss his hat into next year's ring, but this might also have other implications. It has been rumored that Roush Racing and Yates have been talking about making the smaller entity a satellite team and this could be the first step toward securing a ride for Jamie McMurray in 2010 as well.

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Week 26 Unified Power Rankings

For only the second time this year, there was chink in Jenson Button's armor, and unlike the Chinese Grand Prix where he still finished third, he struggled in last week's British Grand Prix. Finishing sixth still earned points in what remains a nearly insurmountable lead for the World Drivers Championship, but it opens the door for some alternate fantasy picks in coming weeks. If Red Bull Racing continues their assault, the game just got more interesting.

Tony Stewart remains the hottest NASCAR driver. Since the Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, he's finished outside the top 10 only twice and both require an asterisk. One poor finish came as the result of crash damage at Talladega SuperSpeedway—in a race that is more lottery than contest—and the other came in the rain-altered Coke 341 at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Otherwise, he's been as close to perfect as fantasy owners could want with seven top-fives in the other eight races.

In the Indy Racing League, Ryan Briscoe leapfrogged Helio Castroneves with a second-place finish versus seventh. Castroneves struggling came as little surprise since he has finished outside the top 10 in two of his last three races on IRL short tracks, (see Short Trackin' Indy Style), but Briscoe also had a spotty record on this track type last year. As the old adage goes, "that's why they run the race."

With a fourth-place finish in the Nationwide NorthenTool.com 250 at the Milwaukee Mile, Erik Darnell leapt into the top 10 and passed Brad Keselowski. That requires an explanation. Since the Unified Power Rankings looks at all the major series, Keselowski's position is currently being hampered by a failure to qualify at Dover International Speedway, for which he received minimal points. In the Nationwide Series, however, he's been great with a second- and two third-place finishes in his last three attempts.

Unified Power Rankings
Top 50

Rank	Driver	Points	Last week	+/-
1	Jenson Button	107.13	1	0
2	Tony Stewart	100.00	2	0
3	Ryan Briscoe	92.71	4	1
4	Helio Castroneves	92.67	3	-1
5	Dario Franchitti	90.86	8	3
6	Rubens Barrichello	88.63	9	3
7	Jimmie Johnson	87.92	7	0
8	Mark Webber	87.75	10	2
9	Erik Darnell	85.20	16	7
10	Brad Keselowski	85.13	14	4
11	Scott Dixon	85.00	12	1
12	Ryan Newman	83.81	11	-1
13	Kurt Busch	83.58	13	0
14	Mark Martin	83.54	5	-9
15	Jason Leffler	81.83	6	-9
16	Jeff Gordon	81.83	17	1
17	Danica Patrick	80.86	15	-2
18	Greg Biffle	80.47	22	4
19	Dan Wheldon	80.43	24	5
20	Denny Hamlin	79.83	19	-1
21	Carl Edwards	79.83	21	0
22	Matt Kenseth	79.13	25	3
23	Kyle Busch	78.96	18	-5
24	Joey Logano	78.90	27	3
25	Juan Montoya	78.17	26	1
26	Timo Glock	76.88	23	-3
27	Sebastian Vettel	76.75	32	5
28	Matt Crafton	75.29	20	-8
29	Nico Rosberg	74.50	30	1
30	Jeff Burton	73.29	28	-2
31	Kasey Kahne	73.00	31	0
32	Stephen Leicht	73.00	NA	NA
33	Ron Hornaday Jr	72.13	40	7
34	Jamie McMurray	71.42	44	10
35	Fernando Alonso	69.63	29	-6
36	Steve Wallace	69.55	37	1
37	Jason Keller	69.27	38	1
38	Brian Vickers	69.00	42	4
39	Tayler Malsam	68.29	41	2
40	Tomas Scheckter	68.00	NA	NA
41	Jarno Trulli	67.63	45	4
42	Justin Allgaier	67.45	36	-6
43	David Reutimann	67.36	33	-10
44	Marco Andretti	67.14	34	-10
45	Marcos Ambrose	67.00	47	2
46	Dale Earnhardt Jr	66.00	39	-7
47	Johnny Benson Jr	66.00	46	-1
48	Clint Bowyer	65.71	43	-5
49	Tony Kanaan	65.43	35	-14
50	Ricky Stenhouse Jr	65.00	NA	NA

Previous Unified Power Rankings:

Week 25
Week 24
Week 23
Week 22
Week 21
Week 20

N'Wide: Darnell on Milwaukee pole

Erik Darnell has captured the pole for the Nationwide race in Milwaukee. Brad Coleman is on the outside pole.

Our View: Last year, he qualified Carl Edwards's car 11th for this race, but he'll get a chance to race this week in the No. 6. In five previous Nationwide starts, he has one top-five, two top-10s and four top-15s.

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N'Wide: Kentucky lineup, with avg. start/fin

Qualification at Kentucky Speedway was about perfection. Joey Logano won last year's edition of this race from the pole and he's picking up where he left off. He'll lead the field to green with a lap of 174.865 mph and should be considered one of the favorites to win Saturday night.

The only other driver in his league was teammate Kyle Busch, who had the other car that broke the 174 mph mark. That gives Joe Gibbs Racing a perfect sweep of the front row and these two drivers will be each other's toughest competition.

The next four spots were all taken by rookies—which is as close to perfection as they are likely to find in their first year. Justin Allgaier qualified third, Michael Annett is fourth, Erik Darnell is fifth and Brendan Gaughan will start sixth.

Lineup, with average start/finish

Start	Driver	Avg. Fin	Avg. Start	Attempts
1	Joey Logano	1.00	1.00	2
2	Kyle Busch	14.67	5.00	4
3	Justin Allgaier		3.00	1
4	Michael Annett		4.00	1
5	Erik Darnell		5.00	1
6	Brendan Gaughan		6.00	1
7	Ricky Stenhouse Jr		7.00	1
8	Trevor Bayne		8.00	1
9	Brad Keselowski	4.00	11.00	2
10	Carl Edwards	22.50	9.40	5
11	Jason Leffler	19.25	16.20	5
12	Stephen Leicht	5.50	15.00	3
13	Steve Wallace	16.67	13.25	4
14	John Wes Townley		14.00	1
15	Scott Lagasse Jr		15.00	1
16	Jason Keller	16.57	11.63	8
17	Bobby Hamilton Jr	22.33	10.57	7
18	Burney Lamar	25.50	20.33	3
19	Kevin Hamlin	21.00	24.00	2
20	Kenny Wallace	23.33	23.71	7
21	Mike Bliss	12.75	14.40	5
22	Mark Green	23.50	28.00	5
23	Michael McDowell		23.00	1
24	Shelby Howard	27.00	21.50	2
25	Brandon Whitt		25.00	1
26	Chris Horn	38.33	37.25	4
27	Kevin Conway		27.00	1
28	Derrike Cope	31.00	31.50	2
29	Morgan Shepherd	42.25	32.60	5
30	Scott Wimmer	6.40	19.33	6
31	Johnny Chapman	36.00	34.00	2
32	Kenny Hendrick	26.33	33.75	4
33	Danny O'Quinn Jr	30.50	17.00	3
34	Brad Baker	18.00	38.50	2
35	Stanton Barrett	30.50	30.00	5
36	Ken Butler III		36.00	1
37	Eric McClure	34.33	38.25	4
38	Tony Raines	8.50	29.40	5
39	Chad Blount	22.00	30.50	2
40	Mike Harmon	38.67	34.50	4
41	Brian Keselowski	35.00	38.50	2
42	Kelly Bires	13.00	26.33	3
43	Justin Hobgood	38.00	32.00	2
DNQ	Jeff Green	31.00	2.00	1
DNQ	J C Stout
DNQ	Benny Gordon
DNQ	Blake Bjorkland
DNQ	Kevin Lepage	18.00	24.50	2
DNQ	Travis Kittleson

More Nationwide Newsbreakers

Diamond Hill Plywood 200 Results

Kyle Busch dominated the Diamond Hill Plywood 200, but he was denied the victory in the closing laps because of a cut tire from debris from a Scott Lagasse Jr. / Joe Nemechek crash late in the event. The accident occurred with two laps remaining.

Matt Kenseth was chasing him down at the time, however, and they would have had a heck of a battle.

Finish	Start	Driver	Laps	Laps Led	Status
1	6	Matt Kenseth	153	4	Running
2	7	Jason Leffler	153		Running
3	3	Carl Edwards	153	5	Running
4	5	Erik Darnell	153		Running
5	16	Justin Allgaier	153		Running
6	2	Ryan Newman	153		Running
7	19	Mike Bliss	153		Running
8	9	Jeff Burton	153		Running
9	31	Scott Wimmer	153		Running
10	10	Brian Vickers	153		Running
11	8	Brad Keselowski	153		Running
12	4	Joey Logano	153		Running
13	24	Scott Speed	153		Running
14	14	Steve Wallace	153		Running
15	11	Jason Keller	153		Running
16	1	Kyle Busch	153	143	Running
17	23	Patrick Carpentier	153		Running
18	17	Kenny Wallace	153		Running
19	15	Brendan Gaughan	152		Running
20	21	Brian Scott	152		Running
21	18	Tony Raines	152	1	Running
22	13	Scott Lagasse Jr	152		Running
23	32	Jeff Green	151		Running
24	29	Brian Keselowski	151		Running
25	30	Brandon Whitt	150		Running
26	25	Kevin Hamlin	150		Running
27	28	Danny O'Quinn Jr	150		Running
28	27	Eric McClure	149		Running
29	20	Michael Annett	149		Running
30	26	Jeff Fuller	148		Running
31	33	Morgan Shepherd	148		Running
32	22	Joe Nemechek	142		Accident
33	12	Michael McDowell	140		Running
34	35	John Wes Townley	117		Throttle
35	37	Kevin Lepage	57		Accident
36	36	Kenny Hendrick	54		Accident
37	43	Mike Harmon	36		Brakes
38	38	Travis Kittleson	19		Overheating
39	40	Mark Green	17		Quit
40	39	Kertus Davis	15		Quit
41	41	Terry Cook	13		Quit
42	42	Johnny Chapman	12		Quit
43	34	Casey Atwood	11		Transmission

Nationwide regulars run strong at Darlington

A Cup veteran, Matt Kenseth may have won the Diamond Hill Plywood 200, but Nationwide Regulars acquitted themselves well. Jason Leffler finished second, rookie Erik Darnell was fourth, rookie Justin Allgaier was fifth, Mike Bliss was seventh and Scott Wimmer came home in 10th.

Our View: It's been quite some time before three Nationwide Regulars finished in the top five and since these drivers command a lower salary cap, fantasy owners got a lot of bang for their buck.