Ryan Newman continued to rocket up the “Best Of The Rest” Cup standings this week – straight to the top, in fact.
New Leader Atop SB Nation’s ‘Best Of The Rest’ Cup Standings After California
Newman finished fifth at Auto Club Speedway, taking advantage of Jamie McMurray’s off day (17th) to take the lead in SB Nation’s non-Chase playoff for the first time.
AJ Allmendinger remained third, but Mark Martin overtook Paul Menard for fourth after Martin finished sixth at Fontana.
A reminder of the rules: We reset the points at the start of the Chase, giving 10 bonus points for regular season wins. The “Best Of The Rest” Cup champion gets a red plastic cup with his name on it and a drink of his choice with which to fill it.
The standings after four races:
| Driver | Points | Behind | ||
| 1 | Ryan Newman | 587 | 0 | |
| 2 | Jamie McMurray | 566 | 21 | |
| 3 | AJ Allmendinger | 506 | 81 | |
| 4 | Mark Martin | 484 | 103 | |
| 5 | Paul Menard | 474 | 113 | |
| 6 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 471 | 116 | |
| 7 | Joey Logano | 470 | 117 | |
| 8 | Juan Montoya | 448 | 139 | |
| 9 | Kasey Kahne | 417 | 170 | |
| 10 | Elliott Sadler | 415 | 172 | |
| 11 | Regan Smith | 408 | 179 | |
| 12 | David Reutimann | 406 | 181 | |
| 13 | Brad Keselowski | 390 | 197 | |
| 14 | Martin Truex Jr. | 381 | 206 | |
| 15 | David Ragan | 370 | 217 | |
| 16 | Sam Hornish Jr. | 362 | 225 | |
| 17 | Reed Sorenson | 357 | 230 | |
| 18 | Scott Speed | 319 | 268 | |
| 19 | David Gilliland | 317 | 270 | |
| 20 | Casey Mears | 304 | 283 | |
| 21 | Marcos Ambrose | 301 | 286 | |
| 22 | Travis Kvapil | 279 | 308 | |
| 23 | Dave Blaney | 250 | 337 | |
| 24 | Bobby Labonte | 229 | 358 | |
| 25 | Tony Raines | 177 | 410 | |
| 26 | Michael McDowell | 174 | 413 | |
| 27 | Kevin Conway | 171 | 416 | |
| 28 | Landon Cassill | 163 | 424 | |
| 29 | Joe Nemechek | 140 | 447 | |
| 30 | JJ Yeley | 111 | 476 | |
| 31 | Andy Lally | 107 | 480 | |
| 32 | Robby Gordon | 90 | 497 | |
| 33 | Bill Elliott | 88 | 499 | |
| 34 | Patrick Carpentier | 87 | 500 | |
| 35 | Mike Bliss | 83 | 504 | |
| 36 | Jason Leffler | 34 | 553 |
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