By Bill Marx
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
 
The drivers atop the top 12 should be feeling good with nine races to go before the Chase field is set. But from sixth place on down, not so much—and we have a restrictor-plate race coming up, which could knock out any one of those seven drivers. Here’s our weekly breakdown of the top 12:
 
1. Tony Stewart, 2,524. Stewart’s fifth-place finish Sunday gives him nine top fives—he had 10 all of last season—and improves his average finish to a series-best 8.2. His career best is 9.9 when he won his second Cup championship in 2005.
 
2. Jeff Gordon, 2,455. Gordon finished second for the fourth time this season. It was the 256th top five of Gordon’s Cup career, moving him past Cale Yarborough into sole possession of sixth on the all-time list.
 
3. Jimmie Johnson, 2,355. For the first time since the fourth race of the season, someone other than Kyle Busch has led the most laps. Johnson led a race-high 93 laps Sunday to give him 887 laps led this season to Busch’s 808. Together, they have led 33.7 percent of all laps.
 
4. Kurt Busch, 2,254. Busch finished third for his fifth top five of 2009—he had five all of last year. His duels with Gordon on seven of the race’s 10 restarts provided some of the most exciting moments Sunday.
 
5. Carl Edwards, 2,157. After Edwards’ four-win breakout season in 2005, he went winless in 2006 when much was expected of him. He won nine times last year and much was expected this year. Edwards finished 19th Sunday to remain winless. Are we seeing a repeat of 2006?
 
6. Denny Hamlin, 2,132. Hamlin finished 15th and lost 11 points of his lead over the 13th-place driver, Kasey Kahne, who finished 10th. Hamlin begins a logjam of drivers on the Chase bubble. He has an 84-point lead on Kahne, who is one point behind No. 12 Juan Pablo Montoya. Clint Bowyer in 16th is 94 points behind Montoya. Wins are great, but from here through Richmond, unless he builds a big enough cushion, Hamlin is racing the guys behind him in the standings.
 
7. Ryan Newman, 2,127. Newman finished 29th and had a terrible points day, going from 132 ahead of Kahne to 79. That’s a lot to give up in one race. For Newman’s immediate strategy, see Hamlin.
 
8. Kyle Busch, 2,108. Busch broke out of his “slump” with a seventh-place finish, his first top 10 in five races. Just in time, too. It stalls the talk of, “Could Kyle Busch really not make the Chase?” Even when he’s off his game, Busch is still one of the most feared drivers on the track. He leads Kahne by 60 points.
 
9. Greg Biffle, 2,106. Here’s an eye-opener: Biffle was the top Ford driver Sunday, even though he finished 18th. He lost a bunch of ground and now leads Kahne by 58 points.
 
10. Matt Kenseth, 2,054. From Kenseth through No. 14 David Reutimann, a mere wiggle on a late lap can mean the difference from being inside the top 12 or scrambling to get back in. Kenseth is six points ahead of Kahne and 17 ahead of Reutimann. Kenseth finished 22nd for his fourth straight finish outside the top 10. That Kenseth has been in the top 12 all season is a minor miracle. He has been teetering on the brink since the fifth race of the season.
 
11. Mark Martin, 2,052. How important is every point? Martin is in the top 12 only because he led one lap while finishing 14th Sunday. Take away those five bonus points, and he is 13th in the standings. Next up is Daytona, where he is winless in 48 Cup starts. He finished 16th in the 500 but crashed after six laps at Talladega in the season’s second restrictor-plate race and finished last. An early DNF Saturday night for Martin—or any of the bubble drivers—could be disastrous.
 
12. Juan Montoya, 2,049. Montoya’s top-10 streak ended at three with his 12th-place finish. But wasn’t it Montoya who said at Lowe’s in May he needed to average a 14.5 finish through the end of the regular season to make the Chase? So far, so good, even if he is in the top 12 by a point.

(Photo Credit: Drew Hallowell/Getty Images)