Each week of the Sprint Cup season, ESPN The Magazine's Ryan McGee ranks the top 20 drivers in the series. Below is his first installment of 2012, the always anticipated preseason list. Last week's rankings in parentheses are last year's final power rankings, as are the Top-10s.
Don't agree with McGee's list? Let him -- and the whole world -- know in the Conversation section at the bottom of the page. But remember, make your mama proud.
Also considered
Jamie McMurray, Joey Logano, Regan Smith, Fireball Roberts
| 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Power Rankings - Week 1 | ||||
| RANK | DRIVER | TRENDING | TOP 10s | COMMENT |
| 1 |  JimmieJohnson | 7 Last Week: 8 | 21 | The 48 team spent the winter refurbishing aspects of the team it had been afraid to touch during The Streak. What they didn't do was mess with the core leadership group atop the pit box. |
| 2 |  KevinHarvick | 1 Last Week: 3 | 19 | Another year, another third-place points finish. They're hoping the addition of crew chief Shane Wilson, with whom Happy won the '06 Nationwide Series title, will put the black Bud car over the top. |
| 3 |  CarlEdwards | 1 Last Week: 2 | 26 | A lot of people seem convinced that Cuz will suffer from the same crushing emotional letdown that plagued Denny Hamlin last season after fumbling away the Cup in 2010. I am not one of those people. |
| 4 |  MattKenseth | -- Last Week: 4 | 20 | The Wisconsin Kid has rediscovered the groove missing since crew chief Robbie Reiser's promotion out of the team. It'd be just like Mr. Stealth to get a second Cup nearly a decade after his first. |
| 5 |  JeffGordon | 6 Last Week: 11 | 18 | It's Drive For Five: Part 11 as he races toward fall's 20th anniversary of his Cup debut. The Artist Formerly Known As Wonder Boy is giddy about sharing a shop with new teammate Kasey Kahne. |
| 6 |  BradKeselowski | -- Last Week: 6 | 14 | Psst. Hey, Brad, if the season starts to founder, you can always break the other leg. That seemed to work pretty well last year. |
| 7 |  DennyHamlin | 3 Last Week: 10 | 14 | Hambone ended last season with momentum -- four top-10s in the final six races -- and was the big winner of Silly Season, landing just-crowned Cup champion crew chief Darian Grubb. |
| 8 |  DaleEarnhardt Jr. | 1 Last Week: 9 | 12 | In 2009, he finished 25th in points. In 2010, he finished 21st. Last year, he finished seventh. So spare me all the "Junior is washed up and should retire" emails. And yes, I get those all the time. |
| 9 |  TonyStewart | 8 Last Week: 1 | 19 | He'll win races and make the Chase, but he can't replicate what happened last year, right? If things do go south, at least new crew chief Steve Addington has had plenty of practice being yelled at. |
| 10 |  KaseyKahne | 5 Last Week: 5 | 15 | This is really the first time Ol' Blue Eyes has been in a financially stable ride since 2007. Time to finally cash in on all that early-career promise and potential. |
| 11 |  GregBiffle | 7 Last Week: 18 | 10 | Speaking of early promise, the Biff is entering his 10th, perhaps watershed, Cup season. The clock is ticking on his push to become NASCAR's first Trucks-Nationwide-Cup triple championship winner. |
| 12 |  AJAllmendinger | 1 Last Week: 13 | 10 | The Dinger's five-year career arc -- with points finishes of 43rd, 36th, 24th, 19th, and 15th -- would seem to be timed out perfectly with his arrival to Penske Racing. Stay tuned. |
| 13 |  KyleBusch | 7 Last Week: 20 | 18 | I'm not saying he won't be near the top of the Power Rankings most of the summer. He probably will. But, by fall, he'll likely be right back here. The past four years, his average points finish is 10.75. For reals. |
| 14 |  RyanNewman | 2 Last Week: 12 | 17 | The good news? The Rocket Man dodge his annual springtime slump. The bad news? It happened in the fall instead. Until he can eliminate slumps altogether, he'll keep bouncing on the Chase bubble. |
| 15 |  JeffBurton | 1 Last Week: 14 | 5 | Kind of feels like now or never for The Mayor, doesn't it? |
| 16 |  ClintBowyer | 9 Last Week: 7 | 16 | The Pride of Emporia, Kan., joins MWR via a salary tiff with RCR. Crew chief Brian Pattie is here because he was tired of testy JPM at EGR. Will a change in alphabet, er, address, do the two some good? |
| 17 |  MarcosAmbrose | 1 Last Week: 16 | 12 | You know he's good on road courses. But did you realize that he also earned 10 top-10s on ovals, including four of the last eight? |
| 18 |  PaulMenard | 3 Last Week: 15 | 8 | Posted eight top-10s in last year's 36 races, one more than the seven he had scrounged up over his previous 147 starts. |
| 19 |  MartinTruex Jr. | 2 Last Week: 17 | 12 | Remember what I said about Biffle and Burton entering watershed years? And what I said about Biffle and Kahne needing to finally cash in on their potential? All of that applies here. |
| 20 |  Juan PabloMontoya | 1 Last Week: NR | 8 | And here. |
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