1. Kyle Busch  Slump? What slump? Busch gets win No. 8 after consecutive runs of 15th and 36th. No one mentions that he won two in a row before that...

2. Carl Edwards  Another top-10 run for Carl. That makes 11 in the last 13 races. Not too shabby.

3. Jimmie Johnson  Kyle, Carl and Jimmie are head and shoulders above the rest right now. The Chase will even things up a bit, but one of these three is your champ.

4. Tony Stewart  Consecutive runner-up finishes prove Tony & the boys are refocused after a summer of uncertainty. Leading darkhorse candidate to crash the aforementioned trio’s title party.

5.  Kevin Harvick  Two crashes not of his making are the only thing keeping Harvick from nine straight top 15 runs.

6. Dale Earnhardt, Jr.  Another weekend, another blown strategy call while running up front. You can’t win a title — or be considered a legit contender — when you make mistakes like that consistently. Just ask Greg Biffle.

7. Matt Kenseth  Scorching run up the standings complete, Kenseth finding the goings a bit tougher now that he’s in the top 12.

8. Denny Hamlin  Empty fuel tank at Pocono only reason Hamlin has not produced three consecutive top-10 finishes.

9. Jeff Burton  Slipping bad at the same time he did last season. Sustained consistency — of the Burton variety — is nearly impossible to, well, sustain.

10. Jeff Gordon  Think twice before calling out the points-leader again, Jeff. You’ll only make him madder.

11. Mark Martin  Didn’t race at The Glen, so he doesn’t move on this list. Betcha he goes top 10 at Michigan this weekend, bowtie and all.

12. Kasey Kahne  Only facetime he got at The Glen was during those dancing Allstate commercials. “Can I get you anything else?” Yeah, how about a top 5.

13. Greg Biffle  Give him credit, he’s somehow hanging in at 10th in the point standings.

14. David Ragan  Bad weekend all around at The Glen. He’ll rebound at Michigan, bank on it.

15. Martin Truex, Jr.  With contract negotiations behind him, he can concentrate on, oh, I don’t know ... actual racing, maybe?

Just off the lead pack: Clint Bowyer, Kurt Busch, Elliott Sadler, Ryan Newman, Brian Vickers.

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