Concord, N.C. ? Tony Stewart is the man to beat over the last six races in the Winston Cup season. Maybe.

Stewart took the lead in the close title chase last week, moving 72 points ahead of Mark Martin going into today’s UAW-GM 500. But no one has emerged as a dominant force.

Matt Kenseth, Martin’s Roush Racing teammate, is tied with four-time champion Jeff Gordon for sixth place, 201 points behind. That’s still in the chase, mathematically.

“It’s been such a weird year because everybody’s had so many problems,” Kenseth said Saturday. “There really haven’t been many cars run consistently good all year.”

The proof is Stewart, in the lead despite starting the season with a last-place finish in the Daytona 500 and failing to finish five other races.

Now he is considered the favorite, mostly because the series closes out the season at six tracks on which Stewart has had considerable success.

The fourth-year Winston Cup star also has been a champion before, although not in stock cars. He has won the Indy Racing League title, four U.S. Auto Club championships, as well as the World Karting Association National title and an International Karting Grand National championship.

“Being the favorite doesn’t mean a thing to me, to be honest,” Stewart said. “We’ve gained some momentum, but I think there are still a couple of teams out there that have found a little bit more at these tracks than we have.”

Stewart said his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Pontiac has a handicap, too.

“We’re still racing a 6-year-old car that we’re trying to get caught up with everybody else,” he said.

The Fords apparently have no such problem at least at Lowe’s Motor Speedway and nobody would be surprised if a Roush Taurus wins today on the 112-mile oval.

Tony Stewart sits in his car in the garage area during practice Saturday at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C. Stewart is the man to beat over the last six races in the Winston Cup season. Stewart took the lead in the close title chase last week, moving 72 points ahead of Mark Martin going into today's UAW-GM 500.

Martin, who won the Coca-Cola 600 in May, is expected to be strong again, while teammates Kenseth, who finished second, Jeff Burton and Kurt Busch are also among the favorites.

Roush cars have won at least one race at the suburban Charlotte track each year since 1998. That includes two victories by Martin, two by Burton, and one by Kenseth.

“We’ve got good depth and great strength among our drivers,” team owner Jack Roush said. “Mark has been a cornerstone to everything we’ve been able to do, but Jeff Burton has had his peaks and he’s on his way back up again now. Matt is still on the rise. … and Kurt Busch is coming on like gangbusters, so we’re really feeling good about the mile-and-a-half tracks, wherever they are.”

Chevrolet’s best chance at the championship is rookie Jimmie Johnson, who led the points for a week before Stewart took over. Johnson is having perhaps the greatest first year ever in NASCAR’s top stock car series with three victories, 13 top-fives and 18 top-10s in 30 races and is just 82 points behind Stewart.

“We’re just as amazed and shocked as everyone else, but we have an opportunity of a lifetime and we’ll just see what happens,” Johnson said.

Teammates and Ford drivers Ryan Newman and Rusty Wallace are fourth and fifth, respectively, in the closest championship race in NASCAR history.

Newman, another precocious rookie, has been almost as good as Johnson, with one win and a series-high 19 top-10 finishes.