NASCAR 2012 Power Rankings

[6 Shooter]

The 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup season is so ... two days ago. There are only 95 days until the Daytona 500 and everyone except those mitigating their post-Tony Stewart championship hangover is already working on 2012.

SI.com

 

[Hib Halverson]

Not sure I agree with Johnson being ranked so high and Stewart and Harvick ranked so low but...it was an interesting look to next season.

I also think going to EFI may scramble things a bit. The teams which adapt to that change quickly will have an advantage.

 

[jrose7004]

I imagine that the larger teams will get EFI figured out way sooner than the smaller ones.

 

[6 Shooter]

Digital - Dial it in and go!

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[Tom Bryant]

SI has been pretty much a rah rah Jimmy Johnson site anyhow so this doesn't surprise me. This is just one man's opinion and there seems to be a lot of assumptions made. Even Chad recently admitted that late in 2010 they seemed to be loosing something that he couldn't put his finger on and that continued through 2011. Maybe they will figure it out over the winter or maybe they will continue to slide and have a couple of off years like so many others of the best have experienced. This SI writer seems to be in denial that Jimmy/Chad may be heading into a moderate slump.

I would move Carl to #1 just because of his amazing consistency. He only lost the championship by less that 1.5 seconds. Tony seems to have finally found what he was looking for. It seems silly to believe that he can't continue where he left off this year. Who knows what another year of experience will do for Brad also. He just keeps improving. SI is also expecting a lot out of Kasey in his first year with a new team. I expect Kasey to do better also but I don't understand how, with only one win and improving finishes in the latter part of the season, Kasey has a "rush of momentum" but with a record 5 chase wins and the championship for Tony "recapturing such swagger and performance will be difficult".

Tom

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