Back-to-back wins out West push Edwards atop table

Each week SI.com's Tom Bowles will evaluate and rank the 10 best drivers in NASCAR. (Send comments to siwriters@simail.com)

NASCAR Power Rankings Rank Last Week Driver 1 5 Carl Edwards Edwards continued his rocket-like ascent to the top of the Sprint Cup standings Sunday, catching a lucky break on pit road to sweep the circuit's two-week West Coast swing. During a late race stop, Edwards' crew let a tire roll out of the pit box for a second time that day. However, replays showed a cameraman got in the way of a crewman trying to catch the tire, and the interference led NASCAR to allow Edwards to stay on track -- paving the way for a trip to Victory Lane. The win has the 28-year-old leading the points for the first time in his four-year Cup career; but after his car failed post-race inspection due to a missing oil tank cover, expect the happiness to be short-lived -- some serious points, fines and crew suspensions could come as early as Tuesday afternoon. 2 1 Kyle Busch For the second time in three races this season, Busch dominated early only to watch the win slip through his fingers. Leading 56 of the first 115 laps after snagging the pole at his hometown track, Busch appeared to be the man to beat in Vegas. But a litany of handling and tire-related issues had him fading to the middle of the pack at race's end. Winding up 11th, Busch is now second in points and leads all drivers with 156 laps led. On the flip side, his old No. 5 team at Hendrick Motorsports sits 34th in points, with Casey Mears failing to finish two of the first three events. Think Hendrick has any regrets letting this kid go? 3 6 Ryan Newman Slowly but surely, I'm beginning to jump on the Newman bandwagon. Sure, his race at Vegas wasn't pretty. But after solving several handling issues, the No. 12 Dodge quietly coasted home 14th, as Newman raced within reason while avoiding the trouble that affected several of the sport's superstars. That leaves him third in the standings, sustaining the momentum after the ultimate high of winning the Daytona 500. 4 9 Kasey Kahne After Kahne's disappointing 2007, who would have guessed that he'd be the only driver to start 2008 with three Top 10s? Certainly not me. The driver of the Gillett Evernham Dodge has run off finishes of seventh, ninth and sixth to start his year off right. Now fourth in the points, Kahne needs to focus on the next step of getting back to Victory Lane; he's led just two laps on the year. There's a clear difference between consistency and actually challenging for the win. And while we're at it, here's another piece of advice for Kasey: No amount of money is worth being forced to dance to '80s music in a driver's suit with pink hearts. I'll never listen to "Rock It Like A Hurricane" the same way again ... 5 8 Matt Kenseth How can a driver finish 20th and still move up three spots in the rankings? By being an innocent victim, that's how. Kenseth was set to battle teammate Edwards for the win at Vegas, but found himself spun out by rival Jeff Gordon after the No. 24 car lost control while trying to pass on the inside. After the wreck, Kenseth was livid, claiming Gordon had laid back on the restart in order to get a run. "Jeff is kind of famous for [that]," said a frustrated Kenseth. "NASCAR has a rule that you can't lay back more than a car length or you can be black-flagged, but it's usually not enforced. Whether it was on purpose or not, [that move] just wiped us out." Kenseth has had a car capable of winning each of the races this season. 6 3 Jeff Gordon If it's any consolation for Kenseth, Gordon's mistake in Vegas led to the No. 24 getting the worst of it; in fact, the resulting hit to the inside wall was one of the hardest of his career. With parts and pieces lying all over the backstretch, NASCAR red-flagged the wreck for cleanup. In the meantime, Gordon came out dazed at the severity of the wreck, then criticized track officials for not installing the SAFER barrier where he smacked the concrete. "I looked down [to see] where the transmission was and it was no longer there," said Gordon after his crash. "I tell you what, that kind of hit shouldn't happen. There is no reason why any track we go to should have that. I could have been really hurt bad, and fortunately it turned out OK." What's not OK is Gordon's 2008 season to date: he's now just 22nd in the overall standings. 7 NR Dale Earnhardt Jr. While his Hendrick teammates stumble, Junior's No. 88 team may be the best of that four-car program. At a venue where he once had to pull off the race track for driving too slowly -- Junior had just two Top 10 finishes in eight Vegas starts entering Sunday -- NASCAR's Most Popular Driver pulled a surprising run to the front. After using an off-sequence pit strategy to acquire the track position it needed, the No. 88 car was in perfect position to challenge for the win. But that's where Junior's nerves got in the way; he spun the tires on some late restarts, all but handing the victory to Edwards and extending his winless streak to 65 points-paying races. However, at this point, it doesn't seem like that will last much longer ... 8 2 Jimmie Johnson Instead of coming to the table with pocket aces, the three-time defending Vegas champ arrived with a 7-2 offsuit type of race car ... and paid the price for it. The Lowe's Chevrolet just wasn't quite right virtually all weekend long. Nothing crew chief Chad Knaus threw at it seemed to fix their problems, and Johnson wound up falling two laps off the pace just a week after challenging for the win at California. Say it with me now, everyone ... in-con-sis-ten-cy ... 9 4 Tony Stewart Gordon may have taken the hardest hit on Sunday, but Stewart's incident was almost as bad. After blowing a tire on the Home Depot Toyota, Stewart slammed the outside wall with little warning. A hit coming at over 150 miles an hour was enough to leave him grimacing in pain while getting out of the car. Stewart is supposedly uninjured -- but there's no doubt he woke up Monday morning sore as he could possibly be. 10 NR Greg Biffle How about The Biff? A third-place finish Sunday was the latest in a string of signs that suggests the No. 16 team has gotten its act together. The only Ford to finish in the Top 10 at Daytona, Biffle has yet to finish outside the Top 15 this season. It's a boon that puts him solidly in sixth in the standings. As long as Biffle's contract situation doesn't get in the way -- he still hasn't signed on the dotted line for Roush in 2009 -- this could be a team that plays spoiler throughout 2008.