Benny Parsons

The Nextel Cup Series runs its first road-course event of this season on Sunday at Infineon (Calif.) Raceway, and I think the winner will come from among three drivers: Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, and Robby Gordon. 

Working in the trio's favor
Last year at Infineon Jeff Gordon probably had the best car. He led for 32 laps before the transmission on his No. 24 Chevrolet started acting up. Those transmission problems led to a 33rd-place finish.

The four-time Cup champion loves racing on road courses, especially this one as it's not far from his hometown of Vallejo, Calif.

Along with four wins at Infineon, the Hendrick Motorsports driver has five poles, eight top-fives, nine top-10's, and he has led 393 laps in 13 starts. In six of these races, he has led the most laps, including 92 of 110 laps during his last win at Infineon in 2004.

Gordon's history at Infineon should be the envy of every other other Cup driver, and so should the honor that will be bestowed upon him this weekend.

Gordon will be inducted into the Infineon Raceway Wall of Fame, a distinction he will share with only three others: Speedway Motorsports, Inc., Chairman O. Bruton Smith (to be inducted with Gordon), and previous inductees Mark Martin and Rusty Wallace.

Stewart won this race a year ago with a performance that saw him lead for 39 laps, and make the winning pass on Ricky Rudd with 10 laps remaining. He did that while dealing with a transmission issue (his car would not stay in fourth gear) that required him to hold his No. 20 Chevrolet in gear with one hand and steer with the other.

The Joe Gibbs driver has won the last three Cup road-course races, sandwiching last June's victory at Infineon with triumphs at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International in August of 2004 and August of last year. In these three wins, the defending Cup champion has led 58 percent of the laps.

This will be Stewart's eighth career Infineon start, and he has never come home worse than 15th at the California road course.

Physically the Rushville, Ind. native does not look compromised in his racing by a fractured right scapula he sustained four weeks ago in a wreck during a race in Charlotte.

Robby Gordon's road racing savvy helped him sweep the Cup road courses in 2003. Since then he hasn't fared all that well at Infineon or Watkins Glen, save a second-place finish in upstate New York last August.

Gordon is in his second season as an owner/driver, and he's hoping his single-car operation can get a boost from a big day at Infineon. In this event a year ago, the Bellflower, Calif. native crossed the checkers 16th as he like many others had transmission issues.

The only negative I see for the former Richard Childress racer at Infineon is he might want the win too badly, and push things too much inviting trouble, especially from a mechanical standpoint.

Other drivers to watch
As in every Cup race at Infineon or Watkins Glen, the field will include drivers who are road-racing specialists. Among the more well known members of this group are Boris Said, Scott Pruett, and Ron Fellows.  

Slide show   Hot wheels Click to see images of NASCAR's hottest drivers on the circuit including Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart.

In six Infineon starts, Said has two top-10 finishes and one top-five result. The difference for Said this year is he will attempt to qualify for the race at Infineon and three other events on the Cup schedule with a team owned by himself, Mark Simo and Frank Stoddard.

The team will get technical support, cars, and engines from the Roush Racing organization, where Stoddard as a crew chief visited Victory Lane 14 times.

I believe Said will run well at Infineon, but he has to hope that his pit stops don't turn into potentially lethal weapons aimed at his chances of a strong result.

Pruett slides into the seat of David Stremme in the No. 40 Dodge of Chip Ganassi Racing. In two starts last year, Pruett had a top five (fourth at Watkins Glen), and also a 31st-place result in this event after he began ninth. He has not made a Cup start in 2006.

Fellows is a longshot if for no other reason than inactivity. He made just two Cup starts last year -- one of which was at Infineon where after starting last he recovered well enough for an eighth-place finish. This is his first Cup event this year.

Besides Stewart and Jeff and Robby Gordon, the field of top contenders will include other drivers who while not considered road-course masters can be expected to make a seamless transition to racing on the 1.99-mile road course.