Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Newman are taking their battle for the Winston Cup rookie of the year title to the top of the series standings.

Both are in striking distance of winning the 2002 series championship with only nine races remaining. And both have set new standards this season for rookie years.

Jimmie Johnson, left, is congratulated by car owners Rick Hendrick, center, and Jeff Gordon after winning the pole for the 2002 Daytona 500.

Of the two, Johnson, 27, appears to have the best shot at the NASCAR championship. He’s third in the Winston Cup standings, 40 points behind leader Mark Martin. Sterling Marlin is on Martin’s tail, trailing by only six points.

Newman, 24, just scored his first win of the season at last Sunday’s rain-shortened New Hampshire 300. His strong performance over the past two months has moved him into championship contention. He’s eighth in the points race, 192 behind Martin entering Sunday’s MBNA All-American 400 at Delaware’s Dover International Speedway.

If either Johnson or Newman won the title, it would mark the first time a rookie snared the Winston Cup championship.

Johnson got into position for a run at both titles early in the season, when he posted seven top-seven finishes including a win at California in the first 10 races. He moved into the top five in series points in March and has not fallen below seventh since. However, Johnson has had only two top-seven finishes in his past 10 races.

“When we started points racing, it affected the way we approached everything and our mental aspect of the races,” Johnson said. “We have told ourselves as a team that we weren’t going to worry about the points and that we’d just do the best we could.

“That’s how we were able to win a couple of races at the beginning of the season. We’ve got four or five tracks coming up here that are strong tracks for us. Hopefully we can get some top-fives or a win.”

Ryan Newman celebrates his victory in the 2002 No Bull Sprint race, which qualified him to run in The Winston. Last week, Newman won his first Winston Cup race, the New Hampshire 300.

Newman is in the hunt mostly because of his recent successes.

In his first 10 races, he had three top-seven finishes and fell to a low of 21st in the points race after a 43rd-place finish at Talladega in April. In his past 10 races, he has been the series’ best performer with eight top-seven finishes, including three seconds and last weekend’s win.

“To boost our lead in the rookie points and to move up to eighth in Winston Cup points to get that track (qualifying) record and lead the most laps we almost conquered everything here this weekend,” Newman said Sunday following his victory.

“Next weekend it could be a total invert, so we’ll just have to see how things go.”

Although Johnson is clearly in a better position to win the Winston Cup title, ironically it is Newman who leads the rookie race, 328-304.

The rookie system uses a complicated formula (see box), and Newman benefits most from that system’s removal of a driver’s 15 worst finishes when calculating points. Newman has five finishes of 37th or worse, but those are among the ones dropped. The remaining results give Newman a higher average finish than Johnson, even though Johnson has two wins to Newman’s one this season.

In essence, the possibility exists for Johnson to win the championship and Newman to win the rookie points race. However, a voting panel that oversees the rookie race will allocate additional points at season’s end.

“I know who’s leading the rookie battle after each event, but not as far as keeping up with exactly how the points pay out,” Johnson said.

“I know it has its own point scale and system in the way it works and that it’s different from the championship points system, but who’s leading at the end of the year is what’s important.”