Since the start of June Martin Truex Jr. has a win and four top-threes in six races. He's moved up to 10th in points, and although he'll be racing Chicagoland for just the second time he should not be taken lightly since he's beginning to show he's up to the challenge of battling for top finishes week in and week out.

My darkhorse is McMurray, who has come on over the last month. His consistency and results have improved. McMurray, who is 13th in points, is making a push to qualify for the Chase, which begins on Sept. 16 at New Hampshire International Speedway.

Keys to success at Chicagoland
This 1.5-mile tri-oval is the newest track on NASCAR's top circuit, and it's hosting its seventh Cup race. All cars want to run on the bottom of the track since the wait continues for the track surface to age enough for a second groove to fully materialize. That second groove is just now starting to come about and widen so there will be times when cars are running two and three wide. In last year's race there were passes made on the outside. Look for the second groove to prove more beneficial to drivers later rather than earlier in Sunday's race.

Chicagoland's turns are all banked at 18 degrees, but in the future they might be reconfigured to be 18 degrees at the bottom, 19 degrees in the middle, and 20 degrees on top. Variable banking is a good thing for tracks, although Chicagoland is fine in its present state, and if a poll were taken among drivers figure on most of them not advocating any major changes to the venue.

At Chicagoland fuel mileage is always in the back of each crew chief's mind. It could play a factor on Sunday like it did in 2003. In the race that year cars averaged about 65 laps on a tank of gas. Ryan Newman and Kevin Harvick both took fuel on Lap 198 so they both had 69 laps to the checkered flag. Newman made it home a winner while Harvick -- who had won this race in 2002 by getting 69 laps out of his final tank of fuel -- ran out of gas and wound up 17th.

For those who elect to play a gambling game with fuel mileage, it could all boil down to getting lucky when it comes to caution flags. One reason why fuel mileage can be such a factor at intermediate tracks like Chicagoland is that these venues are wide and smooth, and usually there are not a lot of cautions. A lot of the time it's green-flag racing.

With eight races remaining before the cutoff for qualifying for the Chase, there will be a handful of drivers who won't even consider gambling with fuel mileage because of where they stand in points in relation to making the 10-race playoff. Those who may gamble on fuel mileage are those very high in points who are feeling comfortable over their chances at making the playoff.

Chicagoland has safer barriers in place, but they have not taken away from the racing line since at this track the drivers don't race that close to the wall.

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