Johnson stakes his claim to the top five
2 March 2010
Jimmie Johnson is frankly the daddy of US stock car racing right now. In fact, it wouldn't be exaggerating to describe his current run of success as the stuff legends are built from.
Over the past four years NASCAR Sprint Cup fans have become accustomed to the Hendrick Motorsports driver taking his Chevrolet to a string of victories during the business end of the season, but this year, he's already taken two wins from the first three.
Although his 49th Sprint Cup victory, at Las Vegas last weekend, did not move him up from sixth place in the Castrol Rankings, it did gain him over 400 points - leaving him one good result away from taking Mikko Hirvonen's fifth place. It could happen at Atlanta next weekend.
Johnson's early-season form means he easily retains his spot as NASCAR's highest-placed driver, five places ahead of team-mate Mark Martin.
Another Hendrick driver, Jeff Gordon, re-gained some of the points he lost last week with his second-place finish in Vegas. That moved him back up a spot to 16th. Pole-sitter Kurt Busch crept up a spot to complete the top 20, but his younger brother Kyle, who had a maximum haul to discard from last year, did so spectacularly, finishing outside the top 10 and dropping to 22nd in the Castrol Rankings.
The GP2 Asia crown was won by iSport driver Davide Valsecchi at Sakhir last weekend, and the Italian's third win of the season - in the feature race - helped him to gain six spots, moving him up to 60th overall.
Frenchman Charles Pic took his first win at GP2 level in the sprint race, helping him to make a big leap of 23 spots. He now lies 105th. Nico Hulkenberg, who had some sizeable scores from last year's series to drop, did so, and lost 14 places in the process. He is now 50th with no points to gain for his fine F1 testing form at Jerez.
Sakhir also played host to the second round of the Australian-based V8 Supercar Championship. Double champion Jamie Whincup continued his sensational start to the season - and a seamless transition from Ford to Holden machinery - with another double win aboard his Commodore.
He moved up four places to 102nd, while Ford Performance Racing's Mark Winterbottom - his closest challenger in the desert - hauled himself up 21 spots to 155th overall.
The biggest climber anywhere in the Castrol Rankings is NASCAR Nationwide Series driver Josh Wise, up 175 places to 1773rd. The biggest faller, meanwhile, is former grand prix winner Jean Alesi. The Frenchman drops 489 places to outside the top 1000, by virtue of losing the points he gained this time last year in the now defunct Speedcar Series.
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.
