Johnson win consolidates his position
23 February 2010
It seemed that the best that Jimmie Johnson could do in the Castrol Rankings last weekend was not move back. With a sizeable score from last year's NASCAR Sprint Cup second round at California Speedway to discard, the four-time champion was looking under threat to drop two places from sixth to eighth.
Instead, Johnson moved forward resoundingly. Okay, it didn't mean he made up any positions, but the Hendrick Motorsports man's victory at the Fontana oval edged him away from the threatening Mark Webber and into a much-more-secure sixth place than he enjoyed before the weekend.
A disappointing race for Johnson's team-mate Jeff Gordon, who had a spark-plug problem, produced the highest change for the weekend in the Castrol Rankings. Gordon finished 20th in the race, meaning that he drops two places from 13th to 15th, behind Tony Stewart (ninth in California) and F1 racer-turned-rallyman Kimi Raikkonen.
Similarly, Denny Hamlin was out of luck in California. He finished down in 29th and now drops behind F1 veteran Jarno Trulli and into 17th position.
At the bottom end of the top 50, there were rich pickings for the Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet team. Jeff Burton moved up five places and into 45th thanks to finishing third, while Kevin Harvick is up three to number 50 after taking second position in Sunday's race. Harvick, the form man of the early-season races this term, is now leading the Sprint Cup.
Also in California, Kyle Busch consolidated his 20th position in the Castrol Rankings. He won the Saturday Nationwide Series race, but scored less points for this lower-weighted series than he did for taking 14th in the Sprint Cup race on Sunday.
Australia's V8 Supercar Series also got underway, with Jamie Whincup taking up where he left off in 2009 (and 2008 for that matter) by winning both races at Abu Dhabi's Yas Marina circuit. Whincup's Triple 8 team has switched from Ford to Holden for this season, but the transition was seamless as Whincup leapt up eight places to 106th in the Castrol Rankings.
Second places went to Whincup's team-mate Craig Lowndes (who moves up 18 places to 195th in the Rankings) and Ford Performance Racing's Mark Winterbottom (up 16 at 176).
It was a bad weekend for the factory Holden team, with Garth Tander plummeting 13 places to number 172 in the Rankings and Will Davison down two to 186th during a weekend to forget.
The Castrol Rankings is based on drivers' measurable performance over the last 12 months, including everything from their grid position to fastest laps. For further information on how the Castrol Rankings scores are calculated, click here.
