1. Jimmie Johnson: With less than 20 laps to go at Talladega, it seemed that Johnson might have some competition for the championship. He was running in 24th on lap 180, while Jeff Gordon was in sixth and Mark Martin was in fifth. But, Johnson made it through the pitfalls that doomed his teammates, managing to avoid the final big one to finish sixth, and come out of the only weekend that threatened to derail him with an almost 200-point lead. He's now posted seven consecutive top 10s in the Chase, and is coming off a second-place finish from Texas this spring. All but one of his 12 Texas starts have resulted in finishes of 15th or better. He has the best average finish of all drivers at the track.

Season-to-Date Driver Rating: 113.6
Point Standing: First
Last Week's Ranking: First

2. Jeff Gordon: With the third best average running position (10.6) at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, Gordon was in contention for the victory until he ran out of fuel during a late red flag period. A resulting pit stop put him in the wrong place when a multi-car incident broke out on lap 191. The 20th-place finish knocked him to 192 points out of the lead. But he's coming off his career first NASCAR Cup Series win at Texas Motor Speedway, which is his only victory this season.

Season-to-Date Driver Rating: 102.1
Point Standing: Third
Last Week's Ranking: Second

3. Juan Pablo Montoya: Montoya gained one spot in the Cup standings with a 19th-place finish at Talladega. He ran in the top 10 for some of the race and led three laps but couldn't make his way up to the front by the end of the race. Montoya's coming off his best career finish at TMS this spring. His seventh-place result was his second top-10 finish in five starts there.

Season-to-Date Driver Rating: 94.1
Point Standing: Fourth
Last Week's Ranking: Third

4. Jamie McMurray: McMurray made it to victory lane for the third time in his career after he led a race-high 32 laps. It's his second superspeedway victory after he won in Daytona in 2007. The victory comes on the tails of a sixth-place result in Martinsville, and marks the only back-to-back top-10 finishes for the Roush driver this season. He'll try to make it three in a row at TMS, where he has six top 10s in 11 starts, including a third-place result last fall.

Season-to-Date Driver Rating: 70.4
Point Standing: 22nd
Last Week's Ranking: 10th

5. Joey Logano: Logano scored his third top-five finish of the season with a third-place finish at Talladega. The result is his second top-five finish in the last three races, and he's finished 14th or better in the last four races this season. He hasn't fared well at Texas in two starts there, though, with an average finish of 35.0.

Season-to-Date Driver Rating: 68.1
Point Standing: 19th
Last Week's Ranking: Ninth

6. Mark Martin: Martin saw his championship charge diminished when he was caught up in the final accident of the day at Talladega. His 28th-place finish lost him another 66 points on Johnson and he now sits 184 points out. The finish was disappointing considering Martin was running in fifth before the accident broke out. He'll try to turn things around in Texas where he's coming off a sixth-place finish this spring. In 17 starts there, his average finish is 13.8 with one victory in 1998.

Season-to-Date Driver Rating: 99.8
Point Standing: Second
Last Week's Ranking: Fourth

7. Kasey Kahne: Kahne grabbed two spots in the standings with a strong runner-up finish at Talladega. It didn't look like he was going to make much of the day after losing the draft a couple of times but in the last 20 laps he avoided an accident and had a great restart to grab the top-five finish. But over the last five races of the Chase, he's been on a yo-yo pattern, backing up top 10s with finishes of 30th or worse. His statistics at Texas don't bode well for a successful upcoming weekend, with only two top 10s in 10 starts and an average finish of 21.9.

Season-to-Date Driver Rating: 88.3
Point Standing: Ninth
Last Week's Ranking: N/R

8. Tony Stewart: Stewart slipped in the rankings and lost a spot in the standings to Montoya with his 35th-place finish Sunday at Talladega. He was caught up in a multi-car accident on lap 182 that saw his employee, Ryan Newman, come to rest upside down in the grass on the backstretch. Stewart is now 279 points behind Johnson heading to Texas where he finished fourth this spring in his first Stewart-Haas outing at the track. It was his best finish there since his victory in the fall of 2006.

Season-to-Date Driver Rating: 100.3
Point Standing: Fifth
Last Week's Ranking: Fifth

9. Greg Biffle: Biffle managed to stay clean and bring home a fourth-place finish at Talladega. It was his first career top-five at the track in 14 starts. He's coming off two consecutive top-five finishes at Texas Motor Speedway, where he won in the spring of 2005.

Season-to-Date Driver Rating: 88.4
Point Standing: Seventh
Last Week's Ranking: N/R

10. Jeff Burton: Burton was thankful for luck following Sunday's AMP Energy 500, as he was able to miss all of the late incidents to finish in fifth. His third consecutive top-10 finish at the track, and first top-five finish since Richmond in the spring puts him on the power rankings for the first time this season. He now heads to Texas, where he's a two-time winner, and is coming off five consecutive finishes of 13th or better.

Season-to-Date Driver Rating: 74.5
Point Standing: 17th
Last Week's Ranking: N/R