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Topsy Turvy NASCAR Top 20

4/3/08: SOZ Studios, MI - By Dennis Michelsen "DMIC" (RaceTalkRadio.com)

Yes indeed racing fans the Earth is rotating at the correct speed on its axis…Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson are both firmly inside the Chase after race number six. But the panel of experts assembled for the RaceTalkRadio NASCAR Top 20 is more confused than ever after Martinsville! Kyle Busch stays on top with the best overall score but he has fewer first place votes so his hold on the top spot is slipping. Eight different drivers have earned first place votes from our thirty-five voters this week. The battle for number one is crazier than ever in Cup racing!

Parity NASCAR Style

Nineteen different drivers earned top 12 votes this week from our thirty-five NASCAR writers and broadcasters. In the three-year history of our attempt to reach a beat writer/broadcaster consensus this is a new all time record! Usually by the sixth week of the season there are three or four drivers that have risen to the top. But this year the field is wide open. Only twenty races remain before the playoffs are set and there are very few locks this year. In the NFL they have cheered that teams with losing records one year have rallied to make the Superbowl the next year. NASCAR's equivalent is making the Chase and we might have as many as five drivers that made the Chase last year miss the Chase this season! That is parity NASCAR style.

COT Cause or Effect

There are more competitive teams in NASCAR this season than ever before! But is this just a coincidence that this is also the first year of the Car of Tomorrow being raced full time? In the past one or two teams have always seemed to find that magic tweak to the setups that helped them dominate the sport. Just one year ago Hendrick Motorsports won have the races and this season they are winless! While the same four teams have dominated the top tens again this season, the gap between those teams is tighter than just one year ago. We lack the "Control" to know whether the COT design is responsible for any of this or if it is just NASCAR evolution!

Rising and Falling

The top two finishers in the Goody's Cool Orange 500 were also the biggest rising stars in this week's NASCAR Top 20. Jeff Gordon surged four spots to seventh with Denny Hamlin up a week six high six spots to ninth! Expect more volatile movements upward this week with guys like Jeff Gordon, Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin, and Jimmie Johnson outside of the top five. After a quick start this season winning the Daytona 500, Ryan Newman has been dealt a mess of bad luck since. Newman is among the drivers having the biggest drop in the NASCAR Top 20 this week down four spots to thirteenth. Matt Kenseth is also down four spots with Kasey Kahne the only other driver dropping three spots to eleventh.

In and Out

New to the NASCAR Top 20 this week is Bobby Labonte who returned to the NASCAR Top 20 at nineteenth. Labonte replaces Reed Sorenson who fell out of the NASCAR Top 20. Twenty-five different drivers have earned a spot in the NASCAR Top 20 for at least one week this season. The dynamic duo of Mark Martin and Aric Almirola in the US Army Chevy hold down the last spot in this week's pole. More changes are likely next week after the race at Texas Motor Speedway with Juan Pablo Montoya, Robby Gordon, and Casey Mears so close to making the RaceTalkRadio NASCAR Top 20!

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