The Chase for the Nextel Cup comes to the desert Sunday, with five drivers and five teams all within 100 points of the championship lead going into the Checker 500 at Phoenix International Raceway.
Those five drivers head into the weekend, and into the season's final three races that will determine this year's champion, with somewhat dissimilar motions propelling them.
Kurt Busch: Rebounding
Busch, who very easily could have lost all of what was a 96-point lead with a 42nd-place finish last week at Atlanta, still has a 59-point edge but is looking to bounce back as he goes as close to home as he'll get during the Chase.
"Phoenix is a track where we finished fourth last year," said Busch, a native of Las Vegas who is no stranger to this track. "It has been a great racetrack for me just because of the experience level that I have -- racing in the Southwest Tour and Trucks. And, of course, I enjoy the West."
The most similar track on the circuit to the relatively flat, 1-mile Phoenix course is New Hampshire International Speedway, where Busch won both races this season.
Jimmie Johnson: Rolling
Johnson doesn't seem to mind where he's racing these days. He comes into Phoenix on the strength of three straight victories -- at Charlotte, Martinsville and Atlanta. He's looking to become the first driver since Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon, in 1998, to string together four straight victories.
"When we have to go out there and work for it and fight for it and really get in the ditches and dig in, that is where this team comes in and really shows what we are made of," said Johnson, who before his three-race winning streak was ninth in the standings and 247 points behind Busch. "I think at this point, with three races to go, nobody can play defense. Everyone is going to have to be on offense, and that is where this team shines the best."
Jeff Gordon: Wobbling
Gordon, a four-time Cup champion, was 74 points behind in his "Drive for Five" going into Martinsville. He struggled for much of the day there, but finished ninth.
Last weekend at Atlanta, Gordon's struggles continued. This time, he couldn't battle through them, however, and he wound up 34th.
But with Busch blowing his engine early and finishing 42nd, Gordon actually gained ground while falling back from second to third in the standings. He's now 72 behind Busch.
"It's anybody's race right now," Gordon said. "When Jimmie's team got in trouble in the Chase they just went for broke and it has certainly been paying off for them."
As though the championship drive won't provide enough motivation, Gordon comes to the desert with something else spurring him.
Phoenix is one of the few tracks on the circuit where Gordon still has never won a Cup race.
Mark Martin: Battling
Martin's second-place finish at Atlanta moved him from 224 points back to just 81 behind Busch in the standings, renewing his chances to claim a first career Cup title.
That points pickup, however, wasn't enough to satisfy Martin's disappointment after he lost a race he led for 227 laps before caution flags and pit strategy worked against him and left him one spot short of his second race win this season.
"It's closer than it was," Martin said. "There are three races to go and we should run well at all of them. We're doing what we do. ... I'm so proud of my team and what they've done and I appreciate the opportunity they've given me to drive race cars that run like mine did at Atlanta. Hopefully, we can keep running like that and maybe we can win some of these last three races."
Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Defending
Earnhardt Jr. won at Phoenix last year, and after that race he said that if his team stayed together for 2004, he knew good things would happen.
"If they stick around next year," he said that day, "every single one of them is going to win the championship, I can guarantee you."
Earnhardt Jr. will have to make up 98 points and pass four drivers over the next three weeks to make good on that guarantee.
But the fact that he's still in the hunt after finishing 33rd the past two weekends shows just how unpredictable this new format is.
Earnhardt Jr. was running fourth late in last Sunday's race, but as he tried to pass Carl Edwards for third their cars got together, and the No. 8 Chevrolet crashed.
A fourth-place finish would have left Earnhardt Jr. a mere two points behind Busch going into this weekend.
"I am not worried about the points," he said. "We could have gained a lot of points and that would have been nice, but it is hard for me to race like that. I had a car that was good enough to win the race and that is what I was trying to do."
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