Each week of the Sprint Cup season, ESPN The Magazine's Ryan McGee ranks the top 20 drivers in the series.
Don't agree with McGee's list? Let him -- and the rest of the world -- know in the conversation section at the bottom of the page. But remember, make your mama proud.
VIDEO PLAYLIST 
New this week
Joey Logano, Aric Almirola
Dropped out
Jamie McMurray, AJ Allmendinger
Biggest mover
Marcos Ambrose jumps four sports, from 20th to 16th.
Biggest loser
Juan Pablo Montoya falls four sports, from 15th to 19th.
Also considered
Regan Smith, Mark Martin, David Pearson
| 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Power Rankings - Week 12 | ||||
| RANK | DRIVER | TRENDING | TOP 10s | COMMENT |
| 1 |  MattKenseth | 1 Last Week: 2 | 7 | Mr. Stealth has quietly eased into second place in the standings, only two points back. And guess who won the last race run at Charlotte Motor Speedway? |
| 2 |  GregBiffle | 1 Last Week: 3 | 7 | Why do they call Darlington the Track Too Tough To Tame? The Biff became the 24th consecutive pole winner not to win there. Only two pole sitters have won there since 1990. |
| 3 |  DennyHamlin | 1 Last Week: 4 | 6 | Very cool to see Cale Yarborough at Darlington, checking out Hamlin's No. 11 tribute paint scheme. Hambone is 0-for-13 at Charlotte, but he does have three straight top-10s. |
| 4 |  DaleEarnhardt Jr. | 3 Last Week: 1 | 8 | That window of favorable racetracks where he's most likely to end the winless streak is starting to close. |
| 5 |  KyleBusch | -- Last Week: 5 | 6 | Had the third best car at Darlington, trailing only winner Jimmie Johnson and Hamlin. He's never won a Cup race at Charlotte, which quite frankly shocks me. And him. He has three top-3s in his last four Charlotte starts. |
| 6 |  MartinTruex Jr. | -- Last Week: 6 | 7 | It's official. He's not going away. Career Charlotte stats are highly generic, but that hasn't mattered to him all year. It's the same for Jeff Gordon, just in the opposite direction. |
| 7 |  JimmieJohnson | 3 Last Week: 10 | 8 | If the strength with which he blew away the field on the final restart felt like a message, that's because it was. Not the cash money Charlotte lock he once was, but still not bad. |
| 8 |  TonyStewart | -- Last Week: 8 | 5 | Smoke's struggles at Charlotte have always been a bit baffling. Since his lone win in 2003 he has 12 double-digit finishes over his last 16 starts, though he did finish eighth in October. |
| 9 |  KevinHarvick | 2 Last Week: 7 | 5 | Happy seems to have solved his longtime Charlotte issues, with four straight top-11 finishes. He inherited his Coca-Cola 600 win one year ago in the final turn, but I didn't have to tell Dale Junior fans, did I? |
| 10 |  BradKeselowski | 1 Last Week: 9 | 5 | Finished a disappointing 15th at Darlington. Don't expect much more at Charlotte, where he's never finished higher than 12th, which came in his first start there, three years ago. |
| 11 |  CarlEdwards | 1 Last Week: 12 | 7 | Career average finish of 12.6 is second only to Johnson among Cup drivers with at least 10 Charlotte starts. Unfortunately, he has zero wins to Jimmie's six. |
| 12 |  KaseyKahne | 2 Last Week: 14 | 5 | His average finish over the season's first six races -- 28.5. His average finish over the past five -- 6.4. That's how you go from 31st to 16th in points. |
| 13 |  ClintBowyer | 2 Last Week: 11 | 5 | Did a nice job clawing his way to an 11th-place finish at Darlington. The pride of Emporia, Kan., has a paltry three top-10s in a dozen Charlotte starts. |
| 14 |  RyanNewman | 1 Last Week: 13 | 3 | So, Rocket Man, what you're saying is you don't like Talladega ... and you REALLY don't like Kurt Busch. |
| 15 |  PaulMenard | 1 Last Week: 16 | 3 | At this point we should no longer be surprised when Menard is the highest finishing Richard Childress Racing car. But when it happens, I still kind of am. Aren't you? |
| 16 |  MarcosAmbrose | 4 Last Week: 20 | 1 | Ambrose is desperate to get his first oval win. That storm might be brewing. He's finished 16th or better in four of the past six races and earned top-10s in both Charlotte races last year. |
| 17 |  JeffBurton | 1 Last Week: 18 | 3 | The Mayor owns three Charlotte wins, including two in the 600, but in the six races since his October 2008 victory, he's posted an average finish of 20.5. |
| 18 |  JoeyLogano | 3 Last Week: NR | 3 | Some of Logano's crew are getting tired of hearing rumors about JoLo's future with Joe Gibbs Racing. A win might make that go away. He has four top-10s in six Charlotte starts with a series-best average finish of 8.2. |
| 19 |  Juan PabloMontoya | 4 Last Week: 15 | 1 | Speaking of guys who need to start winning. |
| 20 |  AricAlmirola | 1 Last Week: NR | 1 | Don't look now, but The King's car is just one point outside of the top 20 -- and three spots higher than Jeff Gordon. |
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