Here are the Nascar Sprint Cup Series Power Rankings for the upcoming race in Texas. One thing to keep in mind this weekend is how well the tires will do, as they were a handfull at Atlanta, Texas' sister track. Without further delay, here are the rankings:

1. Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Another race, another top-10 finish for Jr. at Martinsville, where he led the most laps and says he could have contended for the win if he had just been a little more patience. Jr. goes to Texas looking for his first win in 68 races, the same track where he earned his first career victory.

2. Jeff Burton

He is showing that he can contend for wins every week, as last week in Martinsville he was just a few tenths behind leader Denny Hamlin in the closing laps, but lapped traffic slowed his progress and allowed Jeff Gordon to get bye. However, Burton is one of the favorites at Texas, as he is the only driver with multiple victories at the track, including a victory in this race last year.

3. Carl Edwards

Surprising well at Martinsville with a 9th place finish, now he goes to Texas where can again contend for the win. At Atlanta earlier this year, it was his race to lose until he lost the motor. Expect him to run out front at Texas as well.

4. Kyle Busch

He didn't exactly shine at Martinsville, having rear-end gear trouble and finishing at the tail end of the pack and losing the point lead. However, Texas is a good place for Shrub to rebound, as he won at Atlanta earlier this year.

5. Greg Biffle

He was an also-ran at Martinsville, but Texas is a good place for the Biff to flex his muscles, as he's won here before.

6. Jeff Gordon

Comes out of Martinsville silencing critics, for the time being, however he'll have to perform at Texas to keep them quiet, a place that he has struggled at in the past, though last year he was the car to beat in the spring race. However, most of the time he is just an average car, as he has an average finish of 15.7.

7. Denny Hamlin

Hamlin earned a victory in front of a crowd of fellow Virginians for the first time, something he has looked forward to doing since his career started. Expect a good finish at Texas out of Hamlin, he has an average finish inside the top-10.

8. Tony Stewart

Recovered from his late-race wreck at Bristol to finish 5th at Martinsville, and he heads to Texas looking for more success. In 12 starts he has 7 top-10's, and a win here back in the fall race of 2006.

9. Clint Bowyer

The two short tracks were kind to Bowyer, as he finished 3rd at Bristol and then 10th at Martinsville. At Texas Bowyer only has a best finish of 16th, though he has improved lately at intermediate tracks.

10. Jimmie Johnson

He's back in the top-12 in points after recovering from a spin to finish 4th at Martinsville. The challenge for Johnson is the same as Gordon, to perform well at Texas. Earlier this year at Atlanta, Johnson was lapped twice en-route to a sub-par 13th place finish, thanks to well timed cautions. Johnson and crew need to figure out what to do with the car if they want to avoid falling out of the top-12 after this race, as a bad finish could find them out of it once again.

Other Notables:

11. Matt Kenseth- Had a temper tantrum at Martinsville, something we rarely see out of the 2003 champion. He finished runner-up in both races at Texas last year.

12. Martin Truex Jr.- He has failed to contend this year, but Texas could be where he turns things around. He has an average finish of 6.6 in 5 starts.

13. Jamie McMurray- Back in the top-35 after finishing 8th at Martinsville, but needs to continue to perform if he wants to stay in the top-35 or, more importantly, keep his job after the end of the season.

14. Kasey Kahne- Finished 17th at Martinsville, off the lead lap, but should perform better at Texas, where he won in 2006.

15. Regan Smith- He had the best finish of his young career at Martinsville, finishing 14th. He's now locked into the show at Texas, as he is 35th in points. Maybe the rookie can come up with another solid finish.

Denny Hamlin has come so close to winning many races in the past couple of years, only to be thwarted by incidents out of control, including two weeks ago at Bristol when he was leading during a green-white-checkered restart when a fuel pick-up issue left him with a disappointing 6th place finish.

However, Hamlin found himself in a victory lane he's been seeking since he started his Cup series career, the one in Martinsville, a track located in his home state of Virginia.

"First Virginia win for me," Hamlin said. "Finally. The curse is over, I think. I hope. We've had such bad luck over these first few weeks."

Hamlin earned the victory by rebounding from an early mis-communication when he came down pit road virtually by himself and fell back in the running order. After making his way back into the top-5, he got the track position he needed by taking fuel only on his final pit stop.

That put him behind just Jeff Burton, Brian Vickers and Carl Edwards, who all had chose not to stop. Hamlin cut underneath each to catapult into the lead, and held off a final charge from Jeff Gordon, who was recovering from an early race accident, to claim his first victory of the year and fourth of his career.

"It finally feels good to come here and get a win," said Hamlin, a native of Chesterfield, Virginia. "Can't wait, man. This is a sign of things to come, I believe."

As expected, Hendrick Motorsports was the team to beat at Martinsville, as Gordon won the pole and the team led a combined 371 of the 500 laps run on the .526 mile track. However it was Hamlin who led the final 74 laps. It was still a good day for the organization that hasn't had much going for it this season, as it had all four cars in the top-10, with Gordon 2nd, Jimmie Johnson 4th, Dale Earnhardt Jr. 6th and Casey Mears 7th.



Burton followed his Bristol win with a 3rd place finish, but after the race was upset with the driving of rookie Michael McDowell, who was making his first career start.

"We had one driver that I thought was real inconsiderate," Burton said of McDowell, who Burton thought could have done a better job of getting out of the leader cars' way in the final laps. "He better learn some manners or he's going to get tossed."

Burton will leave Martinsville the point leader after Kyle Busch suffered from rear-gear troubles that put him several laps down and left him with a 38th place finish, falling to 5th in points.

Michael Waltrip finished 35th in the race that took place just a few days after Jack Roush, co-owner of Roush/Fenway Racing, accused Waltrip's team of stealing a sway bar from a Roush team at Dover last fall.

"We wound up with a swaybar there somehow," Waltrip said. "I promise you no one went to their tool box and swiped it. This is not intellectual espionage."

Roush, however, had ideas of his own.

"I found out about it and I wanted to go supersonic," Roush said. "[I said,] 'We're going up there. We're going to get a search warrant. We're going to get the bar. It's intellectual espionage that's going on here. They've stolen the part. They've got access to it. They've had an opportunity to see what it does, see what its efficiency for weight and function are, and we've been damaged. We've been harmed by this theft.'"

Many drivers, such as Jeff Gordon, merely laughed and joked about Roush's accusation, but one driver did support the owner, and it was Gordon's teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr.

"Another team walked over to their pit box and stole something off of it?" Earnhardt Jr. said. "That really happened? Wow. If that happened, whoever did it ought not to have a hard card (to access the garage area) anymore, hands down....No second chances there."