Johnny Benson

The battle to get to Victory Lane on Sunday in the Nextel Cup 400-miler at Chicagoland Speedway figures to come down to a veteran, who's won four championships, and a sensational sophomore, who was last year's Rookie of the Year.

Jeff Gordon vs. Denny Hamlin -- and race fans have to be licking their chops at the prospect of this kind of duel to the finish line.

Close finishes have been the norm this season, and there might be another one this weekend. Chicagoland can serve up nailbiters, just look at last year when Gordon held off Jeff Burton by 0.461 seconds.

Working in Gordon's and Hamlin's favor
It was at Chicagoland last year when Gordon put a charge into his season and he's been riding that surge ever since. Last July Gordon came to this venue 12th in points, and looking like he might miss the Chase for the Nextel Cup for the second consecutive season. But his tight win over Burton propelled him to 10th in points -- and he hasn't dropped below that since.

Gordon, who leads in points, has a streak of 37 consecutive weeks in the top 10, and with the way he's running expect that streak to continue for the rest of the season. The prospect of being out of contention in a race never seems to cross Gordon's mind this season even with his crew chief, Steve Letarte, serving a six-race suspension for violations that led to a failed car inspection at Infineon Raceway last month.

Gordon has been a tough cookie at Chicagoland, where to go along with his win he has a pole, four top-fives, and four top-10s in six Cup starts. His average start is 12.2, and his average finish is 10.2. For him not to be in position for a win or for him to come up short of these numbers on Sunday would be a surprise.

Hamlin is second in points. He won at New Hampshire a couple of weeks back, and he's been close to victories on more than a few occasions this season. He'll be running Chicagoland for just the second time. Last year he came home 14th due to a loose wheel that put him a lap down late in the race. Hamlin has made two Busch Series starts at Chicagoland, finishing in the top 15 both times.

Hamlin's No. 11 Chevrolet team is a young team, but it has shown a lot of maturity under the leadership of crew chief Mike Ford. Given his youth Hamlin has made some mistakes, but not nearly as many as some of the drivers he is racing against. Last weekend at Daytona, Hamlin wrecked with Tony Stewart, one of his teammates at Joe Gibbs Racing. That drew Stewart's ire after the race, but he has cooled down since and said of Hamlin earlier this week: "I love the kid like a little brother."

Hamlin will put the Stewart incident behind him. It will be long gone from his mindset by Sunday. He's got that kind of makeup, and with such a strong team behind him, keeping him out of Victory Lane at Chicagoland should be one tall order.

Other drivers to watch
Dale Earnhardt Jr. won at Chicagoland in 2005, and he had even a better set-up last season when he started 25th, worked his way through the field, led for 27 laps, and wound up fifth. Besides his win two years ago, Junior has two top-fives and three top-10s in six Cup starts at this venue. He finishes (14.5 average), much better than he starts (22.7 average) at Chicagoland.

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Junior, who is leaving Dale Earnhardt Inc. at the end of the season to compete for Hendrick Motorsports starting in 2008, has seen his team really pull together despite all the publicity surrounding the future of NASCAR's most popular driver. The team of the No. 8 Chevrolet is really focused, and race to race they just go out and get their jobs done.

Matt Kenseth's the all-time lap leader in Cup racing at Chicagoland, leading 292 laps in six races. In last year's event the Roush Fenway Racing driver led the most laps (112) and was in front with 27 laps remaining. But he got spun out with only four laps to go, and then ran out of fuel, dropping to a finish of 22nd.

In 2005 Kenseth came up just short of a victory at Chicagoland. He started fourth, and led for 176 laps, but on his final pit stop he took four tires while other teams took two. He had to play catch up, but ran out of time in his attempt to get in front and he finished second.

Jimmie Johnson turned in a sixth-place result last year at Chicagoland. The defending Cup champion, who is fourth in points had the pole in this event in 2005, and he led for 21 laps on his way to a third-place result. In his five Cup races at Chicagoland, Johnson also has finishes of third, second, third, and fourth. He has completed all 1,338 laps.

Jeff Burton had the pole and the second-most laps led (60) in last year's event on his way to placing second to Gordon. Burton's had his highs and lows over the last six weeks, but he's fifth in points and always likes his chances at Chicagoland.

While Gordon's 37-week streak of being in the top 10 is impressive, it's only the second-highest active streak. Burton has been in the top 10 for 44 consecutive weeks, going back to Darlington last May.

Carl Edwards calls Chicagoland a "fun" track. He's racing the layout for only the third time, but his previous finishes haven't been fun at all -- 20th last year, and 39th in 2005. But Edwards runs well at tracks similar to Chicagoland. Michigan is one of those venues and on Sunday Edwards will be in the chassis that took him to Victory Lane earlier this season at Michigan.

Kevin Harvick is the only driver to have won two Cup races at Chicagoland (2001 and 2002). Additionally the Richard Childress Racing competitor has three top-fives, and four top-10 results in his six Chicagoland starts. His starting average is 13.2, and his finishing average an impressive 8.7.

Kyle Busch has the third-best running position (8.7) at Chicagoland. Kyle, who is leaving Hendrick Motorsports at the end of the year, was upset with his teammates after his second-place finish last Saturday at Daytona, claiming they didn't work with him in the race he lost by inches to Jamie McMurray. Kyle didn't help his teammates in the early stages of last weekend's race, and that could be the reason he didn't get the help he was looking for coming down the stretch.

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