Making the grade

KRT motorsports writer David Poole measures Nextel Cup drivers' progress at midseason

Halfway through the 2005 Nextel Cup season, three drivers have put themselves at the head of class.

Jimmie Johnson, Greg Biffle and Tony Stewart get the top grades on thatsracin.com’s annual midseason report cards after working their way to the top of the standings.

As things stand, with just eight races to go before the Chase for the Nextel Cup, the 400-point window would not come into play and only 10 drivers would advance into the championship battle. With Johnson, Biffle and Stewart running so well, all three of them would most likely have to stumble before the 400-point window opens back up.

Midseason grades:

A Johnson, Biffle and Stewart: Johnson leads the circuit with eight top-five and 13 top-10 finishes in 18 races. Biffle is Nextel Cup’s biggest story so far this year with five victories, while Stewart is unquestionably the hottest driver at the midpoint riding a streak of four straight top-five finishes, with two wins in that span.

A- Rusty Wallace and Mark Martin: Neither of these veterans has won a points race yet – Martin did win the Nextel All-Star Challenge – but you’ve got to give them both a little extra credit for putting themselves in the thick of the race to the Chase with their solid first-half performances in their final full Nextel Cup seasons. Each has nine top-10 finishes, and Wallace is now fourth and Martin sixth in the standings.

Stewart

B+ Carl Edwards, Kurt Busch, Elliott Sadler: Even though he’s slipped to 12th in the standings, Edwards does have two victories in the first half of his first full season in the Cup series. Aside from the top three, Busch is the only other driver with a win who’s currently in the top 10 in points with eight other top-five finishes in addition to his Phoenix victory. Sadler is fifth in the points with only one top five, but he has finished between sixth and 10th eight times. While that strategy for making the Chase might not be terribly exciting, it has been effective so far.

B Ryan Newman, Jamie McMurray, Jeremy Mayfield: They’re in the top 10 with eight races left before the Chase. Newman does have five poles, but none of these guys has won a race. With so much emphasis on the Chase – too much, as opposed to winning races, if you ask us – it’s hard to count that against them too much.

B- Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick: Gordon has three wins, while Earnhardt Jr. joined Harvick on the victors’ list at Chicagoland. But Gordon has been in a free fall that’s lasted more than two months now. Harvick has had trouble putting together any stretches of good finishes. Earnhardt Jr.’s win Sunday pulls him up into this grouping.

Johnson

C+ Kasey Kahne, Dale Jarrett, Kyle Busch: Kahne’s struggle since he got his first win at Phoenix is one of the season’s big mysteries. If Jarrett’s team could find a way to get a win soon, that might be enough to break it out of the logjam that’s around the Chase cutline right now. Kyle Busch gets a half-grade bump for being the odds-on favorite to be rookie of the year.

C Matt Kenseth, Jeff Burton, Joe Nemechek, Michael Waltrip, Brian Vickers, Ricky Rudd: Kenseth showed signs at Chicagoland of breaking out of his season’s funk. Vickers and Rudd have had strong cars at times that put them in position to finish well, but not as often as they’d like. Anyone of these guys could win a race in the second half, and you’d frankly be surprised if at least one or two of them didn’t.

C- Sterling Marlin, Scott Riggs, Casey Mears, Ken Schrader, Bobby Labonte: Each of these guys has three top-10 finishes in the season’s first half. Of the group, Schrader should get the most credit for that level of performance because he’s done it with a one-car team. Marlin’s out of the No. 40 at season’s end, while Mears and Riggs have options they’ll be considering. Labonte has finally made it into the top 25 in points in what can only be considered a disheartening first half.

Biffle

D Dave Blaney, Travis Kvapil, Kyle Petty, Mike Bliss, Jeff Green, Scott Wimmer, Mike Wallace, Kevin Lepage: Except for Lepage, each has done well enough to keep his team in the top 35 in owner points. That’ll be an important race within the race as the season winds down, since that means guaranteed starting spots for the first few races next year. Although Lepage has made just more than half the races so far, he can’t be given a failing grade for fighting the uphill battle against the lack of resources so gamely.

F Jason Leffler, Bobby Hamilton Jr., Robby Gordon: Outside the top 35 and simply not getting the job done.