Johnny Benson

After a weekend off for Easter, the Nextel Cup Series resumes this Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway and it's back to a familiar look.

Following two races with the Car of Tomorrow the traditional car returns, and Tony Stewart's the driver to beat.

Since NASCAR's top series began racing at this 1.5-mile oval in 1997, no one has won more than once. Stewart will be looking to change that.

The two-time defending Cup champion, who captured last November's event at this venue in dominating fashion, will be looking to make it back-to-back trips to Victory Lane in Texas.

Working in Stewart's favor
In the early season he's run well and his team at Joe Gibbs Racing has been strong. Outside of a couple of hiccups at Daytona and Bristol, Stewart has finished eighth or better in his other four races including a second-place result at Atlanta.

The track at Texas is one that suits Stewart very well. Besides his win last fall, his 10 Lone-Star starts have also produced three top-fives, and seven top-10s. And never has he been more dominant at Texas than in his win when he led for 278 of the 339 laps, and had the lead on eight different occasions.

Stewart will stick to what works at this oval. He'll be in the same car he used to post his impressive victory last November, and that chassis has two other wins -- at Kansas and Atlanta. Stewart drove it to three wins in the last eight races last year after he missed out on the Chase for the Nextel Cup.

This season the chassis has raced three times and come away with three top-10 results, including a superb performance on March 18 at Atlanta -- a sister track to Texas -- where Stewart led five times for 121 laps. This Sunday the car will have a new engine, the R07, which has been nine years in development.

Stewart and his crew chief Greg Zipadelli are about the best on the Cup circuit at being able to adapt to whatever comes their way during races, especially those at intermediate venues such as Texas. In short, the driver nicknamed "Smoke" stands a good chance at again smoking the field in this event.

Other drivers to watch
With wins in three of his last four races, Jimmie Johnson is the hottest driver on the circuit. He'll give Stewart a run for his money.

In 2006, Johnson was the top-ranked driver at intermediate tracks. He led in seven of his 16 races at these types of venues, and although he did not post a win, he did register six top-fives and 11 top-10s.

The El Cajon, Calif. native crossed the checkers fifth in this event last year. At Texas, he has two top-fives and five top-10s in six starts, and has completed all 2,343 laps. He has an average starting spot of 10.7, and an average finish of 7.3.

Johnson is part of Hendrick Motorsports, which has improved its overall performance on intermediate tracks so look for two of the defending Cup champion's teammates, Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch, to be strong contenders as well on Sunday.

Gordon has the points lead, and has finished third or better in four of his last five races. On the season, he has fared no worse than 12th. The four-time Cup champion has never won at Texas, but has posted four top-fives in 11 starts.

In his career Gordon has 75 Cup victories, but he has never won a Cup race at Texas so expect him and his team to be on a mission. He has fared well this season on intermediate tracks so don't sell him short of getting to Victory Lane on Sunday.

Last November Busch chalked up a fourth-place finish and posted the fourth-best driver rating at Texas Motor Speedway. It was the young driver's career-best result at this oval in Cup competition so it's reasonable to expect another solid if not superior showing from him this time out.

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Jeff Burton ranks right up there with Stewart and Johnson as the top threats to win the race. Burton ranked sixth last year on intermediate tracks, posting a win, six top-fives, and nine top-10s. He led in six of his 16 races on intermediate layouts.

One of Burton's teammates at Richard Childress Racing, Kevin Harvick, should be good and steady throughout the 501 miles. Harvick has two top-five and three top-10 finishes at Texas.

Last year Kasey Kahne was dynamite on intermediate tracks, where he led the Cup circuit in wins, top-fives, laps led, and races led. Kahne won this event in 2006, but so far his 2007 performances have been nothing to shout about.

Kahne doesn't have the finishes to prove how well he's actually run before problems and bad luck have set in. His last five results: 25th, 19th, 39th, 35th, and 38th. Two of those were DNF's, but Texas should be a strong track for him and barring any more misfortune look for a top-10 finish out of the Evernham Motorsports driver.

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