Burton will be in the same Richard Childress Racing car that he drove to a sixth-place finish at Charlotte in May and a fifth-place result last month at Pocono Raceway.

In four previous Brickyard starts, Kahne has a pair of top-five finishes and was the runner-up in just his second start at the track in 2005.

Harvick battled with Stewart at the Brickyard during several parts of last year’s race before fading to a seventh-place finish. But he did win this event in 2003 and only Busch and Stewart have a higher average finish among drivers with at least two Cup starts at Indy. Harvick has three top-fives and five top 10s in seven starts at the track.

My darkhorse pick is the surprising Brian Vickers, who has posted four top-fives this year (including a runner-up finish at Pocono in June) and is just 95 points out of 12th place in the standings — the final spot for qualifying for the Chase.

Keys to success at Indianapolis
The track surface is abrasive and track position means a whole lot at this venue. Every move a driver or a team makes — whether on the track or in the pits — is done with track position in mind.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway is a tough track to drive because there is only one real groove that being down low. On some tracks if a driver's car doesn't handle well in the fastest groove, he can search around until he finds a different line to run but that's not often the case at Indianapolis.

This track is also unique in that it is shaped like a rectangle with two long straightaways connected by a pair of short chutes at both ends. With four very tight corners, there won't be much side-by-side racing in the turns, which further reduces the chances to pass while emphasizing the importance of track position.

The driver who can get low going into the corner and who can keep his car’s momentum coming out of the corners will be the fastest car down the straightaways.

Pit stops will see some drivers changing two tires instead of four because a crew can put on two tires in eight or nine seconds while the fastest change of four tires is around 13 seconds — and gaining four seconds at Indy can seem like gaining an eternity.

But don't look for any two-tire stops until later in the race when a good deal of rubber has been put down on the track, making it less abrasive and opening the door for some strategic decisions regarding how many tires to change on a pit stop.

Also pit road at Indianapolis is narrow and I wouldn't be surprised to see a top car have its chances of winning the race eliminated because of it getting caught up in an accident on pit road.

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