Power closing on top five spot

1 September 2010

Will Power could make it into the Castrol Rankings top five if he wins this weekend's IndyCar Series race at Kentucky.

The Australian has never won an oval race, but has been getting closer all year and was denied a second place at Chicagoland last weekend when the Penske squad underfuelled him at mid-race, forcing him to make an unscheduled stop late on.

A victory would not only increase his chance of becoming champion, it would pull him into seventh place in the Castrol Rankings ahead of Formula 1 champions Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso as well.

Fifth place could be his, but to take that spot he will need to rely on Ganassi driver Dario Franchitti - his main title rival - finishing outside the top 10 and NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson retiring early at Atlanta.

As Power did not take part in the corresponding race last year, he is guaranteed to boost his score just by qualifying for the event. For Franchitti (pictured) though, the situation is not so simple.

The British driver, sixth in the Castrol Rankings, needs to finish on the podium to boost his score, but even that is unlikely to move him ahead of Johnson unless the Hendrick Chevrolet man has a real disaster.

Ryan Briscoe and Scott Dixon, team-mates to Power and Franchitti respectively, will both lose big points hauls from 2009, and need to finish in the top two to maintain their scores. Briscoe has had a poor last 12 months on the Castrol Rankings, having fallen from second to 15th while Dixon remains 10th.

With no F1 or World Rally Championship events taking place this weekend, Sebastian Vettel is guaranteed to hang onto his top spot in the Castrol Rankings for a 24th week in a row as fifth placed Johnson is too far away from him to become number one himself.

Johnson will remain as the highest-ranked NASCAR driver no matter what happens at Atlanta, although Sprint Cup leader Kevin Harvick (11) and Roush Fenway Ford driver Carl Edwards (30) - the series' top performing driver in August - are both closing in.

The Castrol EDGE Rankings are based on drivers' measurable performance over the last 12 months, including everything from their grid position to fastest laps. For further information on how the Castrol EDGE Rankings scores are calculated, click here.