Check out a short list of favorites for Sunday's Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 at Darlington, S.C.

Jeff Burton
Darlington may be too tough to tame for some, but the No. 99 Ford has had some success at the track; won both races at the track in 1999, one of three drivers to sweep both races at a track that season -- Dale Earnhardt (Talladega) and Bobby Labonte (Pocono) were the others; then followed three straight races with results of 37th and lower before a sixth last September; tested well here recently and looks to get back in the mix; stands ninth in the points after four races.

	Burton

Ward Burton
Victory in the 2000 Mall.com 400 was the first time a Pontiac Grand Prix had won a Winston Cup race at Darlington in the modern era since 1972; last March missed a top-10 finish in 12th, but on the next visit to the track in September, won the Mountain Dew Southern 500 to give Dodge its first win in the modern era at Darlington; started the year by winning the Daytona 500 last month for his fourth career victory.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Better results in the past two events, including second at Atlanta behind Tony Stewart, boosted Dale Jr. up to 14th place in the points table; led the race five times for 38 laps but was unable to make a pass for the victory in the end; in four Winston Cup starts at Darlington, 10th (spring 2000) was the best start and 11th (fall 2000) highest finish; look for the team to be more competitive this time around and improve on those positions.

Bill Elliott
"The spring race never seems to be as kind to me as the fall race," said the veteran whose first career pole came at the track on April 10, 1981. "But I've run pretty well at Darlington throughout the years."; Darlington is one of his favorite tracks; in 47 starts he leads all active drivers with five poles and is tied with Jeff Gordon for most victories, 5th among active racers; also leads in top fives with 20, top-10s with 31 and has led 937 laps; winning the inaugural Winston Million at Darlington in the 1985 Southern 500 was probably Elliott's most memorable victory at any track; was just 23rd in this event last year, but up to fifth in the September race (qualified in the top 10 in both races).

Jeff Gordon
Along with Bill Elliott, they lead all active drivers with five victories at Darlington Raceway; came home second to Ward Burton last September; won this race in 1996; has not scored a top five since winning the Protection One 400 at Kansas Speedway last September, a span of 12 races; while he began this season with two top 10s, the defending NASCAR Winston Cup champion has finished 17th (Las Vegas) and 16th (Atlanta) in the last two races and is 11th in the points standings; qualifying has been good to Gordon at Darlington, or perhaps he has been good at qualifying at the egg-shaped track; started from the pole four times and has qualified outside the top 10 only three times in 18 starts; his race stats may be even more impressive, as five of his 58 career victories have come at the "Track Too Tough To Tame."; has win sat 19 of the 23 tracks currently on the schedule, but no more than four wins at any single track other than Darlington, "This track has been good to us," he said. Also took a new role late last year and continued this season as part-owner of the No. 48 car driven by Rookie of the Year candidate Jimmie Johnson; joined the elite company of Richard Petty and the late Dale Earnhardt as the only drivers to win more than three Winston Cup championships; Gordon claimed his fourth title last year in dominant fashion; won six races, six poles, had 18 top-fives, 24 top-10s and collected over $6.5 million.

	Jarrett

Dale Jarrett
Drives much better at Darlington in the spring race than fall; in 13 starts in the first race he has three wins, seven top-10s and seven top fives, with one pole as well; in 15 starts in the fall, he has only three top fives, five top-10s, with a pair of pole positions; is the defending champion of the Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 when he emerged as leader ahead of Steve Park on lap 279 following the sixth and final caution of the race; it was his 25th career victory, but he has had three more wins since.

Jimmie Johnson
Kicked off his 2002 rookie season in stellar fashion by becoming only the third rookie to win the pole for the Daytona 500; finished 15th that race, but did better the past two starts, with third in Atlanta last weekend as top result; stands 10th in the points after four races and second in the Rookie of the Year standings, one point behind Ryan Newman (55-54).

Sterling Marlin
Best driver after four races tops the series standings by 74 points over rookie Ryan Newman; no finish lower than ninth (Atlanta) and a win scored in Las Vegas; also was runner-up at Rockingham a week before winning in Las Vegas; was fifth in this race last year and down to 16th in the second visit at the track; winner of this event in 1995.

Mark Martin
Three top-10 finishes in the season;s first four races is the kind of start the veteran driver was looking for; started with a sixth place finish at Daytona, followed that with a slight decline of 21st at Rockingham, then a solid third in Las Vegas and eighth at Atlanta this past Sunday; has 20 top-10s in 32 career starts and won the Southern 500 in 1993; 557 points earned puts him fourth in the standings.

Jeremy Mayfield
This weekend's race marks his 16th career start at Darlington where he is without victory, but has one pole, five top five finishes including third last March, five top-10s and has led seven races for a total of 320 laps at the track; his best finish at the raceway was second in March 1999 when he led four times for 48 laps on the day; since the Daytona 500, Mayfield has moved up 20 positions in the championship points race from 39th to 19th; his best finish in th points race came in the 1998 season when he ranked seventh at the end of the year.

Tony Stewart
The 43rd (last) place finish at Daytona is long behind; climbed up to fifth place in the Winston Cup standings on the heels of a fourth-place finish at Rockingham, a fifth at Las Vegas and a win at Atlanta last Sunday; it was his first career 500-mile victory; in those races, he led 219 laps, nearly four times the amount of laps he led in the first 10 races of his three previous seasons in Winston Cup; Stewart would like to continue the run of positive results at Darlington where he has had some measure of success; in six starts he has recorded four top 10 finishes, with fourth as best last spring and the fall of 2000; observers said that if Stewart can start the season strong he'll be a top contender for the championship; owns 13 Winston Cup victories in three full years on the circuit.