Where there is Smoke, there is an ambulance. Three Sprint races, three wrecks. A 19-year old driver got carted away with a back injury after Stewart caused a July 16th crash in New York. He flipped five times in a race July 29th in Ontario. Now we have this one where the flashing lights were for Smoke himself in Iowa. The three-time former champ will be back, but it will not be Sunday at the Glen, it will not be at Michigan or Bristol or probably anytime earlier than October at best.
Bad news for Tony, good news for Ryan Newman. As Stewart sinks in the standings and out of the Top Twenty, Newman sits next in line for his wild card berth in the Chase, as things stand now. Of course, there are five more races to run before the Chase begins, races that could be won by Jeff Gordon, Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch, Jamie McMurray, or Joey Logano.
Oh, Logano has been making some noise lately. Over the past ten events, he has seven Top Tens, and only Kevin Harvick has done better. The trouble is, Logano has yet to lead a single lap at the Glen, with a fifth place finish sandwiched between a couple beyond 30th. Newman was second in 2002, but has just a couple of Top Tens since. Maybe the one to watch on Sunday, the one to take advantage of Stewart’s misfortune might be the guy who finished second to Marcos Ambrose each of these past two years at Watkins Glen. That would be one Brad Keselowski.
The defending champ has not done much of anything lately, but he remains poised to get back into contention on Sunday. He has a lapped car on a Sprint track in Iowa to thank for the opportunity.
| Name | Points | Pos. | LW | Rank | W | T5 | T10 |
| Kevin Harvick | 360 | 1 | 1 | (4) | 1 | 3 | 8 |
| Jimmie Johnson | 349 | 2 | 2 | (1) | 2 | 3 | 6 |
| Clint Bowyer | 346 | 3 | 3 | (2) | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| Tony Stewart | 341 | 4 | 4 | (11) | 1 | 5 | 7 |
| Kurt Busch | 326 | 5 | 6 | (13) | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| Kyle Busch | 321 | 6 | 5 | (6) | 0 | 4 | 7 |
| Carl Edwards | 309 | 7 | 7 | (3) | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Joey Logano | 302 | 8 | 12 | (17) | 0 | 2 | 7 |
| Ryan Newman | 299 | 9 | 9 | (15) | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| Dale Earnhardt, Jr. | 297 | 10 | 10 | (5) | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| Jeff Gordon | 291 | 11 | 11 | (9) | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| Greg Biffle | 288 | 12 | 14 | (10) | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Kasey Kahne | 286 | 13 | 16 | (8) | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| Martin Truex, Jr. | 283 | 14 | 13 | (14) | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Matt Kenseth | 274 | 15 | 8 | (7) | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Jamie McMurray | 271 | 16 | 15 | (16) | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Brad Keselowski | 266 | 17 | 20 | (12) | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Marcos Ambrose | 265 | 18 | 19 | (22) | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Jeff Burton | 249 | 19 | 17 | (20) | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Juan Pablo Montoya | 238 | 20 | 18 | (23) | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Aric Almirola | 237 | 21 | 22 | (18) | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Paul Menard | 217 | 24 | 24 | (19) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
