1. Jimmie Johnson  Three Chase wins and Martinsville is next. This could get ugly.

2. Mark Martin  His first hiccup in the last two months is a costly one.

3. Jeff Gordon  Four straight top-6 runs and still trailing Johnson by 135 points.

4. Juan Pablo Montoya  The driver that wouldn’t go away went bye-bye at Charlotte.

5. Tony Stewart  Average finish of 8.4 in the Chase good, but not good enough to keep pace with the 48.

6. Kurt Busch  Wonder if it’s time to make that crew chief change yet?

7. Kasey Kahne  Strong finish in Charlotte nothing new for these guys.

8. Clint Bowyer  Five top 15s in the last six races.

9. Ryan Newman  11th-place finish at Charlotte about par for the course for this bunch.

10. Denny Hamlin  What’s up with this team’s engine program?

11. Matt Kenseth  Still one of the guys to beat on the big intermediate tracks.

12. Carl Edwards  11th-place average finish in the Chase gave way to an ugly 39th at Lowe’s.

13. Greg Biffle  Uncharacteristic performances at the big tracks the last two weeks.

14. Kyle Busch  Charlotte proves he’s still capable of jumping up and grabbing a nice finish.

15. Casey Mears  Funny how a guy’s performance improves when he’s auditioning for next season.

Just off the lead pack: Marcos Ambrose, Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick, David Reutimann, BrianVickers

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