I headed to El Paso last week thinking that two awesome stadium shows in conditions similar to what we’ll see on the track at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas at NGK Spark Plugs World Finals 11 might give me a firm handle on who will be the favorites to grab this year’s titles. I was wrong. Those two events at the UTEP Sun Bowl, witnessed by more than 70,000 raucous fans, only proved how competitive the Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam series really is these days and how wide open the battle for championships is sure to be.

Along with the fact that the El Paso track constantly changes throughout the weekend as Vegas is known to do, this was the chance to see Dennis Anderson and Tom Meents go head to head along with Jimmy Creten, Alex Blackwell, Lee O’Donnell, Frank Krmel, and other top racers. Because there are now so many high profile stadium shows week to week in the first quarter of the season we had not seen several of these top superstars on the same track so far this year, but after two days of competition the only thing that is clear is that it could be anybody’s day when we get to Las Vegas in a few weeks.

Let’s start with Dennis, who you could say had the best weekend of all, winning the freestyle competition Saturday night and then the racing trophy on Sunday. The Grave Digger driver was strong all weekend, but in Saturday night’s Championship race, with the track surface holding together and solid, Creten drove Bounty Hunter to a convincing win over the icon. On Sunday afternoon it was a totally different story. A sunny, windy, warm afternoon created a looser, dusty surface and the Bounty Hunter horsepower was too much for the track as Creten spun out in a first round loss. The rest of Sunday O’Donnell was the fastest in Ironman round after round until the finale, when Anderson mustered up a brilliant run to take the victory.

Then there’s Meents. You can really say that Tom’s only losses of the weekend came to his equipment. A broken shock took him out Saturday night, and despite more problems holding the piece together Sunday he still grabbed the freestyle win. So the scorecard for the weekend was Dennis 2, Jimmy 1, and Tom 1. Things are pretty much as clear as mud when trying to figure out the Vegas favorite.

El Paso was also my first chance to see the newest driver with the sport’s most famous name in action. And all I can say is WOW. Again proving that there must be something to genetics in this sport, 20-year old Ryan Anderson, like his brother, 2008 World Freestyle Champion Adam, is a chip off the old block. On Saturday night Ryan put on a freestyle show in his Monster Mutt that had pit crew members high fiving each other and some 45,000 rising to their feet in a deafening roar of approval. What amazed me was the kid’s concept of how to not only thrill the fans, but to score points with the judges. He started by backing to the edge of the track and opening the run with a massive air leap over the biggest obstacle on the floor. He was nailing brilliant cross threads :30 into the run. An amazing save then really got the crowd fired up and he just kept attacking, filling both regulation time and the bonus period with non-stop excitement. Had his father not wrapped up bonus time by planting the Grave Digger on its tailgate, just sitting there at rest pointed toward the Texas sky, Ryan would have won the competition. Make no mistake about it, this kid is special. The fact that he rolled after one huge leap Sunday just reminded everyone that despite his amazing run Saturday and the previous weekend in Oakland, he is still a rookie. And we know that can happen to even the best of the best at times. So forget the disappointment of Sunday. Saturday night Ryan showed what he is capable of, and frankly, the sky’s the limit. Ryan Anderson is just an amazing natural talent.

So here I sit, beginning to work on the lengthy process of establishing my annual odds for this year’s finals and El Paso did not provide me with much guidance. I know this. When I do publish the handicapping in a couple of weeks there should be plenty of room for argument. My odds will be one thing, but there will be plenty of other cases that can be made to dispute my listing. Of course that’s part of the fun in Las Vegas. The best of the best go at it, and at the end of the night one or two drivers will rise to the occasion on the sport’s biggest stage and add their names to the history books. We’ve seen that it may be a new star breaking through or an established legend adding to his or her trophy case. I can’t wait for the 11th edition of the NGK Spark Plugs World Finals to arrive.

By the way, this week’s Power Rankings reflect the parity, especially at the top of the chart where the top players are so close that literally a change in one voter’s opinion can move a driver up or down. For the most part, with no clear cut dominator coming out of El Paso, the ratings stay pretty much unchanged. By the way, this will be the last week for the Power Rankings until after Las Vegas. With all the big stadium shows completed for the first quarter and many drivers not running again until the finals, the ratings aren’t likely to change over the next couple of weeks so after Vegas I’ll get the panel’s input again and we’ll post the final Power Rankings for the 2010 season after we settle the contests for this year’s crowns.

ADVANCE AUTO PARTS MONSTER JAM POWER RANKINGS MARCH 8, 2010

Pos   LW  Driver                Power Rating         Comment
1        1   Dennis Anderson          18.9               2 wins in El Paso holds top spot
2        2   Tom Meents                  18.5                 Wicked winning freestyle Sunday in Texas
3        3   Adam Anderson           18.4               Great weekend in Winnipeg
4        4   Charlie Pauken             15.7                Has always shown up big in Vegas
5        7    Pablo Huffaker              15.6               Total domination in Tucson
6        6    Jim Creten                      14.7              Saturday night race win over Dennis in El Paso            
7        5   Damon Bradshaw          14.5               Big homecoming for the champ this week
8        9    Linsey Weenk                 13.9              Will this finally be his year in Vegas?
9        8   Neil Elliot                        13.0              THE Comeback story of 2010
10      10   Alex Blackwell              11.0              Looked strong against best in ELP
11      12   Scott Hartsock                9.3              Won all 3 Biloxi races
12      11   Chad Tingler                    8.1              Grabbed another FS win in Canada
13      14  George Balhan                 7.2              Strong all year
14      13  Cam McQueen                 6.3             No wins in Winnipeg but still a top contender
15      15  Jim Koehler                       6.0             Watch out for the ’03 champ at WF 11
16      19  Ryan Anderson                4.0              A star is born
17      16  Lupe Soza                         3.9              All about Vegas for the AAP team
18      18  Frank Krmel                     3.0              Excellent runs in El Paso    
19      17  Carl Van Horn                  1.7              Another race win last weekend
20      20  Candice Jolly                    1.3              Hangs on to top 20 spot     

Just missing the top 20: Marc McDonald, Jon Zimmer, Randy Brown, Chad Fortune, John Seasock, Steve Sims, Lee O’Donnell, Kreg Christensen, Gary Porter