NASCAR LATE MODEL POWER RANKINGS AFTER MAY 6

1st Ron Kline, No. 3
Last week: 2nd (+1)
The champion is starting to open up the point standings early in the season. Ron has not finished worse than 6th this season. Ron already has one win to his credit in 2006 and there should be a couple more headed his way.

2nd Brian Shuey, No. 5*
Last week: 1st (-1)
Brian found trouble again this week on a lap seven caution. Shuey restarted at the tail of the field, and came back through to finish 10th. We have said this before and we will say it again: championship teams are made when they can overcome adversity, and this team has overcome it a couple of times this season. This is still a championship-contending team. We love how Brian races and believe that he is one of the most underrated drivers at Grandview.

3rd Harry Neiman, No. 34
Last week: 5th (+2)
Neiman is the best driver in the division to not win a Late Model race yet. Though the SKH team is knocking on the door with their excellent finishes thus far. They have not finished lower than 7th all season. With these kinds of finishes the points and the wins will come to them.

4th Chuck Schutz, No. 1
Last week: 4th
Chuck had another solid top five this weekend and is definitely not too far off for that first win of the season. No finishes lower than 10th have this team in 2nd place in the point standings. No surprise there, Schutz has always been a top runner.

5th Randy Stoudt, No. 22
Last week: 3rd (-2)
If it was not for Randy's 21st place finish last week he would be higher in the rankings right now. There are just so many good teams in this division this season that it is just tough to rank some of these drivers. But make no mistake about it, Stoudt is still one of the championship cars for 2006. Never count this guy out of a feature win or the title.

6th Mike Kellner, No. 57
Last week: 6th
Mike found trouble on the fourth lap of the feature, relegating him to a dismal finish of 24th this week. Though this team has run extremely well. Kellner is still learning a lot as a driver and it will only make him a better driver as the season progresses.

7th Rick Todorow, No. 93
Last week: NR
Rick is one of the good guys of this division. Not only is he a strong competitor, but he is also one of those drivers that could bust through at any moment and win his first of the season. In the last two weeks Rick has had two top ten finishes and has moved himself up to 7th in the points. Good turnaround to the start of the year after finishes of 20th and 13th. The Juniper team is headed in the right direction.

8th Buddy Wharton, No. 7B
Last week: 8th
Buddy and the Wharton Motorsports team are a bit inconsistent, but the 7B car is fast this season. Buddy has kept the fenders on the car for all but one race and has been doing a great job. Could it be a career first for him this year? Time will tell.

9th Greg Hoffmaster, No. 69
Last week: NR
Consider this. Hoffmaster Motorsports has one of the fastest cars at Grandview every week, hands down. Greg had been involved in a series of altercations throughout these first four races, but has managed to finish decent. Greg captured his first career win on Saturday, and a popular win it was. Congratulations to the entire team. Could they win more than one this year? Absolutely. Again, time will tell.

10th Dean Schaeffer, No. 39
Last week: NR
It has been a quite surprising year thus far for Dean Schaeffer. We have all expected him to come out of the box and be as consistent as he was last year, but so far he has not been consistent at all. He has not even run up front. But he pulled off a much-needed 7th place finish on Saturday. He has qualified for every feature so far, and he has the talent to keep moving up in the rankings. We would like nothing more than to see this car visit victory lane.