It would appear that Tony Stewart is not the only dog who can bark in the SHR dog pound. Gene Haas not only has a share of the team, but his own money to spend on sponsorship, and he was not going to spend it on Ryan Newman. Kurt Busch was his man, and he got him. It might not have been what Stewart wanted, but without a sugar daddy of his own, Newman got shown the door and Kurt found himself a new team for 2014.
Ironically, Newman is the only one from the current roster with a Chase place, as he holds the second wild card spot going into Atlanta. Stewart is gone with his broken leg, while Danica Patrick has not been seen near the front much since February. Harvick remains hot as his swan song for RCR should be as a Chaser, while Busch needs to jump six track positions ahead of Joey Logano to move in himself for Furniture Row. If he does, that could very well mean Newman would be out of the mix, just to add insult to injury. The way things are going, with the Earnhardt Ganassi opening going to Kyle Larson, maybe Ryan could at least replace Kurt at Furniture Row. If nothing else, maybe Gene Haas could use a smart guy behind the counter. You know neither he nor Juan Pablo Montoya are going to end up as start and parkers.
Clint Bowyer takes over point this week, and while he has not been setting a blazing pace he has avoided any big disappointments since March at Fontana. The big mover this past week was Matt Kenseth, as his Bristol win powers him nine positions to the good, as runner-up Kasey Kahne jumps eight. Jimmie Johnson may still be the season leader, but his performance as of late has been ice cold. Picking up 13 big points in total over the past two races does not exactly equate into momentum.
Here are our hottest drivers over the past ten races.
| Name | Points | Pos | LW | Rank | W | T5 | T10 |
| Clint Bowyer | 351 | 1 | 2 | (2) | 0 | 4 | 6 |
| Kyle Busch | 327 | 2 | 4 | (5) | 1 | 4 | 6 |
| Kevin Harvick | 326 | 3 | 1 | (4) | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| Matt Kenseth | 318 | 4 | 13 | (6) | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| Joey Logano | 316 | 5 | 8 | (10) | 1 | 3 | 7 |
| Kurt Busch | 305 | 6 | 5 | (12) | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| Greg Biffle | 303 | 7 | 10 | (9) | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| Kasey Kahne | 301 | 8 | 16 | (8) | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| Jimmie Johnson | 300 | 9 | 3 | (1) | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| Martin Truex, Jr. | 299 | 10 | 9 | (14) | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| Carl Edwards | 298 | 11 | 6 | (3) | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| Ryan Newman | 296 | 12 | 7 | (15) | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Jamie McMurray | 284 | 13 | 12 | (16) | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Brad Keselowski | 283 | 14 | 11 | (11) | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Jeff Gordon | 281 | 15 | 15 | (13) | 0 | 2 | 6 |
| Dale Earnhardt, Jr. | 275 | 16 | 14 | (7) | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Marcos Ambrose | 269 | 17 | 17 | (21) | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Juan Pablo Montoya | 253 | 18 | 19 | (22) | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Paul Menard | 253 | 19 | 23 | (17) | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Aric Almirola | 239 | 20 | 21 | (18) | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Jeff Burton | 236 | 21 | 20 | (20) | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Tony Stewart | 216 | 24 | 18 | (19) | 0 | 3 | 4 |
