2008 Power Rankings: Darlington

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Each week of the Sprint Cup season, ESPN Insider and Dallas Morning News columnist Tim Cowlishaw will rank the top 20 drivers in the series. Don't agree with Cowlishaw's list? Let him, and the whole world, know in the Conversation section at the bottom of the page. Remember, no cussing and no beer can throwing.

Biggest mover
Clint Bowyer gained five spots.

Biggest loser
Jimmie Johnson, Juan Pablo Montoya and Matt Kenseth each fell three spots.

New this week
Travis Kvapil and Bobby Labonte.

Fell out
David Gilliland and Kurt Busch.

2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Power Rankings - Week 11
	RK(LW)	DRIVER	TOP 10s	COMMENT
	1 (2)	Kyle Busch	7	He didn't let Jeff Burton keep that top spot for long. Even though his lead on Burton is a mere 18 points, we can expect it to grow. Busch has finished in the top four six times in 10 races. Ridiculous.
	2 (1)	Jeff Burton	6	He has two wins at Darlington and has placed in the top 10 in 56 percent of his runs there. If only he could qualify better -- he has extended his streak to five races of moving up more than 20 spots from where he started.
	3 (8)	Clint Bowyer	7	Last week I said it was time for everyone to stop underrating the Jack Daniels driver. Then he went out and won at Richmond. So maybe we should try to overrate him? Hard to do, considering he is the only Cup driver with seven straight top-10 finishes.
	4 (4)	Denny Hamlin	6	I know he slipped in the driver points due to that 24th-place finish, but he led most of the laps at Richmond the day after winning the Nationwide race. The Virginian is flat coming on.
	5 (5)	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	7	He's really experiencing a season far different from what anyone anticipated. You figure with the move to Hendrick, he would have some great races and some maybe not-so-hot races. Instead, he has found more consistency than his two Cup champion teammates.
	6 (3)	Jimmie Johnson	4	He was a little off his mark this past Saturday night, so he tumbled in the driver points, but Johnson loves the Lady in Black. Two wins and eight top-10s in just nine trips to Darlington suggest he will move right back up the standings next week.
	7 (6)	Tony Stewart	6	How long before we see him explode after watching his teammates Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin win races and lead so many laps? Actually, it might be a while because Stewart is a solid eighth in points and usually doesn't heat up until the summer.
	8 (7)	Kevin Harvick	5	When you're the third Childress driver in points and you're fifth overall, it means things are clicking pretty well in your garage. Harvick hasn't made the big headlines he did a year ago with his sweep at Daytona, but five top-10s and consistent runs have him solidly in the Chase.
	9 (9)	Carl Edwards	6	His team had to be happy with a seventh-place finish on the short track at Richmond, an indicator that Roush is providing him with cars that are good beyond the intermediate tracks where he has been so dominant.
	10 (11)	Jeff Gordon	4	After winning six times in 2007, he won't quiet the critics until he gets back to Victory Lane. Don't rule out him repeating at Darlington, where he has captured seven titles.
	11 (10)	Greg Biffle	5	A top-15 run at Richmond helped but couldn't prevent this Roush driver from continuing his slide. He was second in driver points after five races but stands a rather shaky ninth now. He has had just one top-10 in the past five races.
	12 (13)	Ryan Newman	5	At least one of the Penske drivers is starting to find his groove after slipping in the wake of the Daytona win. Newman has three top-10s in the past four races, starting at Texas.
	13 (14)	Kasey Kahne	5	With all those Dodges starting near the front at Richmond, you knew some were bound for success. Kahne's 10th-place finish was his first top-10 since Bristol and slowed his slide, putting him back in the Chase ... for now.
	14 (15)	David Ragan	2	It took us only nine weeks to figure out that David Ragan is in fact not Regan Smith and is worthy of a top-20 ranking. He wasn't great Saturday night at Richmond but still moved up a notch to 14th in driver points.
	15 (12)	Juan Pablo Montoya	1	Those were pretty heady times a week ago, when the Ganassi driver found himself ranked in the top 12 in driver points. Even though he fell hard at Richmond, two road races before the Chase could put him back in the spotlight.
	16 (19)	Martin Truex Jr.	3	A fifth-place finish at Richmond got him back in the hunt for the Chase. He needed it, because he has yet to have a top-10 at Darlington.
	17	Travis Kvapil	2	Just because we're incapable of pronouncing his name doesn't mean we can't put him in the rankings for the first time in 2008. Four of the past five races, he has finished in the top 20 to start climbing the driver points standings.
	18 (16)	Brian Vickers	2	He still is way more hit-and-miss than he should be in the Red Bull Toyota, but he remains 17th in driver points and has a ton of talent.
	19	Bobby Labonte	0	The driver of the 43 car hasn't qualified well at all, starting 30th or farther back the past five races, but he has managed to climb in the points by finishing in the top 20 of those races three times.
	20 (17)	Matt Kenseth	4	We can't drop the man who has been Roush's most consistent driver completely off the charts. But Kenseth is going through an unprecedented run of bad luck with three straight finishes of 38th or lower. Weird.