Each week of the Sprint Cup season, ESPN The Magazine's Ryan McGee ranks the top 20 drivers in the series. Don't agree with McGee's list? Let him -- and the whole world -- know in the Conversation section at the bottom of the page. But remember, make your mama proud.

New this week
Michael Waltrip, Kasey Kahne.

Dropped out
Jeff Burton, Martin Truex Jr.

Biggest mover
Jeff Gordon jumped five spots from seventh to second, Kurt Busch 14th to ninth.

Biggest loser
Jeff Burton dropped from 11th to NR.

Also considered
AJ Allmendinger, David Reutimann, David Stremme, Donnie Allison, Possum Jones.

2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Power Rankings - Week 3
	RK(LW)	DRIVER	TOP 10s	COMMENT
	1 (3)	Matt Kenseth	2	A quick shout-out to all the people who sent me those polite "you're an idiot" e-mails for moving Matty up from 11th to third last week. Kenseth not only backed up his 500 win, he backed up our Power Rankings prognostication's prowess.
	2 (7)	Jeff Gordon	1	Remember when Muhammad Ali walked into the workout room before Rumble in the Jungle and started shouting "The Champ is here"? Don't look now, but that's what Four-Time is in the process of.
	3 (4)	Kyle Busch	1	In the nearly decade and a half that NASCAR has fielded three national touring series, only 19 drivers have won in all three. Shrub came within two positions of pulling off the hat trick in one weekend!
	4 (1)	Carl Edwards	1	Going back to Cali didn't turn out exactly how the defending race champ envisioned, but a nine-spot leap to ninth in points has the preseason title favorite exactly where he wants to be two races in.
	5 (4)	Jimmie Johnson	1	In case you were wondering who that was beating the drum behind Gordon's championship chanting, it's this guy. JJ has won three of the past four at our next stop, Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
	6 (8)	Tony Stewart	2	Show of hands: Who among you predicted that Smoke would post two top-10 finishes in his first two races as a driver-owner? Tony, put your hand down. Anyone else? No? That's what I thought.
	7 (10)	Greg Biffle	1	Car 16 led 16 laps and overcame a pit-road miscue for a fourth-place payoff. The Biff's average finish over his past four Las Vegas starts is a solid 8.2, including last year's third-place run behind Carl and Dale Junior.
	8 (2)	Kevin Harvick	1	The Pride of Bakersfield got another kick in the knee from his home track. A smoky explosion dropped his career Fontana finish to 19.4 in 14 tries. Happy's slightly better at LVMS with an average of 14th in eight races.
	9 (14)	Kurt Busch	2	Maybe the '04 champ and Penske Racing haven't forgotten how to do this after all. I know it's early, but KB sits second in the points standings, only the second time he's been this high since March 2005.
	10 (13)	Denny Hamlin	1	No. 11 slides into slot 10 thanks to a quietly solid sixth-place finish. Expect more of the same on The Strip, where the senior leader of Joe Gibbs Racing has posted three top-10s in three career starts.
	11 (5)	Clint Bowyer	1	Bowyer was so-so in SoCal, never running higher than 13th and finishing 19th. He's a bust in Vegas with finishes of 15th, 36th and 28th. Maybe replacing all that free Jack Daniel's with boxes of cereal will help.
	12 (9)	David Ragan	1	Dude, did you not get the memo that says all Roush Fenway cars are supposed to be stone cold money at Fontana? Can you see if Jamie McMurray lost his memo, too?
	13	Juan Pablo Montoya	0	JPM rolls into LVMS sitting 10th in NSCS points. OMG!
	14 (18)	Brian Vickers	1	Had BV not gotten the chrome horn at Daytona, the Fontana pole-sitter might be residing well within our top 10. He'll close one eye and hope to survive Vegas, while his other eye is focused on Atlanta.
	15	Kasey Kahne	0	Speaking of eyes, Ol' Blue Eyes makes his Power Rankings debut. Ladies rejoice! His career Vegas finishes, in order: 2nd, 38th, 4th, 35th, and 6th. If that pattern holds, it's going to be a bad day.
	16 (16)	Mark Martin	0	The bad news: He done blowed up at Fontana. The good news: He's had more great shows in Vegas than Danny Gans, with nine top-10s and five top-5s in 11 races.
	17	Michael Waltrip	0	The Mikey Probably Going To Be My Farewell Tour 2009 is off to a solid start with finishes of seventh and 15th. Sadly, this will probably last shorter than the Oscar campaign for "The Love Guru."
	18 (16)	Reed Sorenson	0	He keeps hanging around. Just like I told you he would.
	19 (20)	Elliott Sadler	1	The Big Guy started 19th, rode around in the back, and finished 25th. One more week of that and this slot will be taken away by someone else, likely his teammate (for now) AJ Allmendinger, David Stremme, or Marcos (Oy!) Ambrose.
	20 (19)	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	0	It was very nice of Junior to apologize to the fans for causing The Big One at Daytona. One more week of this disastrous season and he'll need to apologize to them for abusing their loyalties.