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"&lt;p&gt;NASCAR Power RankingsThis week's power rankings take a long, hard look at the Chase prospects of some of the sport's most notable names, Roush-Fenway's love of the spoiler and a missing inductee into NASCAR's Hall of Fame. Have a comment? Send to siwriters@simail.com. You can also follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/brantjames&lt;/em&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&amp;nbsp;                                                     1                            &lt;strong&gt;Denny Hamlin's Chase prospects&lt;/strong&gt;Granted, Denny Hamlin hasn't driven the past seven weeks with a new pacemaker, but a reconstructed knee has its challenges. Yes, &lt;b&gt;Ricky Rudd&lt;/b&gt; probably would have just taped it and kept stomping the floorboard and &lt;b&gt;A.J. Foyt&lt;/b&gt; would have just numbed it by some erroneously applied horse tranquilizer, but Hamlin does earn some toughness points since having his left knee repaired. Given that he's raced 2412 miles in two series, won twice in Sprint Cup and swept the slate at ultra-tough Darlington this weekend since returning from surgery, he deserves the tip of the autographed Victory Lane cap. And just to think that the real impressive stuff may still be in the future. Crew chief &lt;b&gt;Mike Ford&lt;/b&gt; said his No. 11 Toyota team is formulating sea-changing nefariousness back in the Joe Gibbs Racing labs for the Chase, which begin in a mere 15 races. Hamlin -- who is sixth in driver points -- would already start atop the Chase standings with &lt;b&gt;Jimmie Johnson&lt;/b&gt;, having tied the four-time defending champion with three wins. Hamlin was ordained as the main challenger to Johnson's record fifth straight title, following his finish to the 2009 season. &lt;b&gt;Carl Edwards&lt;/b&gt; and &lt;b&gt;Kyle Busch&lt;/b&gt; have been ordained the same and failed. Hamlin is far from the confetti-speckled champion's podium at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but he is a viable contender, more viable every week.          &amp;#160;                                                          &amp;#160;                                2                  &lt;strong&gt; Jimmie Johnson's good thing spoiled&lt;/strong&gt;This feels weird. Johnson has been average -- barely -- since NASCAR relegated the rear wing to some future display in the Hall of Fame and reintroduced the spoiler. Since the new/old aerodynamics device was reinstalled at Martinsville, Johnson has produced a worse result each week, with the exception of a 10-place result at Richmond. He's had DNFs in two of the last three weeks. His exit after just 179 laps and 36th-place finish on Saturday at Darlington was expedited when &lt;b&gt;A.J. Allmendinger&lt;/b&gt;'s No. 43 Ford did a Patriot missile routine on his No. 48 Chevrolet, but Johnson was already struggling. Has crew chief &lt;b&gt;Chad Knaus&lt;/b&gt; been out-schemed by Ford? Up is down, left is right. Johnson is struggling.                                  &amp;#160;            3                  &lt;strong&gt;Joe Gibbs Racing playing the spoiler&lt;/strong&gt;In six races since the spoiler's implementation, JGR has four wins (three by Hamlin, one by Kyle Busch, pictured at left), three top-5s and four top-10s.             \t    &amp;#160;                4                  &lt;strong&gt;Kevin Harvick&lt;/strong&gt;The 10-year veteran, two-time Nationwide Series champion and successor at Richard Childress Racing to the late &lt;b&gt;Dale Earnhardt&lt;/b&gt; had an eventful week. His eighth top-10 in 11 starts allowed him to expand his points lead from 10 to 110 points on Johnson just days after Childress predicted he would re-sign with the team within the next few weeks.             \t    &amp;#160;\t    \t    \t    \t     5                                    &lt;strong&gt;Jeff Gordon&lt;/strong&gt;All these missed opportunities for wins have surely had an effect on Gordon. His emotions have trended from surly to sullen as he continues to lead bushels of laps with no victories as reward. On Saturday, a failed entry onto pit road cost him track positions and ultimately helped push him to a fourth-place finish as laps ran out before he could work back through the field. Missing such opportunities are troubling, but they would be devastating in the 10-race Chase. For now, Gordon is fourth in points (147 out) and sliding into a highly competitive car each week. Resume-bolstering is eluding him, but it could be worse.                   &amp;#160;                    6                  &lt;strong&gt;The Roush-Fenway conundrum&lt;/strong&gt;Roush is winless and so is Ford. &lt;b&gt;Matt Kenseth&lt;/b&gt; (fifth), &lt;b&gt;Greg Biffle&lt;/b&gt; (seventh) and &lt;b&gt;Carl Edwards&lt;/b&gt; (11th, pictured at left) are in the Chase fold, but are flying under the radar this season. They don't lead many laps and they haven't yet been serious threats to win. Owner &lt;b&gt;Jack Roush&lt;/b&gt; sounded confident in the preseason, saying he had corrected a team-wide slump in 2009, where Kenseth claimed two of the team's three overall wins in the first two weeks, but the funk continues.                               &amp;#160;              7"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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