Tomorrow night, NASCAR visits Lowe's Motor Speedway, where picking against Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne in recent years has not been a very wise decision.  Johnson is coming off his 2nd win of the Chase, taking over the points lead with a dominating performance at California.  That lead is still smaller than Nicole Ritchie's waistline though, only 12 points after 4 races.  The flip-flop at the top this week should come as no surprise, but what about the rest of the drivers?  Honorable mentions go to Dale Jr. and Elliott Sadler who were having excellent runs, well up into the top 10.   Unfortunately, Sadler got into the back of Junior with a handful of laps to go and triggered a mini Talladega-like wreck, which gave 5 drivers (himself included) a DNF.  Oh, and Brad Keselowski drops out since he wasn't in the race, and Brian Vickers drops out thanks to having a miserable day, finishing 29th, and all but ending his championship hopes for 2009.  Check out this week's rankings...

NEW THIS WEEK: David Ragan, Casey Mears
DROPPED OUT: Brad Keselowski, Brian Vickers
ON THE GAS: Carl Edwards, Clint Bowyer
ON THE BRAKES: Kasey Kahne, Denny Hamlin, A.J. Allmendinger

20. A.J. Allmendinger (-5): A.J. was in the wrong place at just the right time.  The accident with 6 laps to go ended what had been a pretty darn good day for him to that point.

19. Marcos Ambrose (-2): 23rd, crikey, he ran in the middle of the pack all day.  Well, at least he was consistent.

18. Casey Mears (previously NR): Casey took the checkered flag just outside the top 10 in 11th, but hovered in or around the top 10 all day long.  In the last few weeks, RCR seems to have done a complete 180, and that's a welcome sight.

17. Matt Kenseth (+3): Kenseth worked his way towards the front, but faded late.  He still had a much more impressive run than he has for 95% of the 2009 season to date.

16. Kevin Harvick (+3): Happy was happy-go-lucky in his home state, starting in 7th position, running in the top 10 all day, and coming home a respectable 10th to cap off a very solid day.  Runs like that for non-Chasers are great confidence builders.

15. David Ragan (previously NR):

David has had an abysmal season.  After nearly making the Chase a year ago, he's now 28th in points with only 2 top 10 finishes.  However, that 2nd top 10 finish came at California where he came from 31st starting spot all the way into the top 10, and stayed there.  Ragan finished 7th and had the kind of day we saw from him a lot last year.

14. Clint Bowyer (+3): Bowyer started next to Harvick on the grid in 8th, and at day's end finished 1 spot ahead of him in 9th.  If not for Jeff Burton getting caught up in the last crash, all 4 RCR cars may have finished right together.

13. Kasey Kahne (-4): Kasey was very adamant about NASCAR and their phantom debris cautions.  This time, for once, he was wrong, as there really WAS debris.  Unfortunately for Kasey, he became a victim of Kurt Busch's visit with the wall off turn 4, and he and Biffle went sliding through the grass.  If that wasn't bad enough, the Allstate Girls are counting down the days till the misery is over after he got caught up in that late crash and officially all but ended his hopes to win the championship

12. David Reutimann (+1): Reutimann finished 18th at California.  That's not terribly impressive...until you discover he started the race in 42nd position.

11. Kyle Busch: Shrub was sick with the flu all weekend.  David Gilliland pulled a start n' park so he could be Shrub's relief driver.  David brought the #18 home to a 24th place finish, 2 laps down.

Check page 2 for the top 10.