Check out a short list of favorites for Sunday's Food City 500 at Bristol, Tenn.:

Ward Burton
Winner of the Daytona 500, has only one other top-10 finish, that a seventh at Atlanta couple of weeks ago; up to eight place in the standings, 185 points behind leader Sterling Marlin; pretty efficient at the short track of Bristol, Tenn. where he was fifth last year and third in 2000 in the Food City 500.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Last year he limped to a 31st-place finish in the spring race after being swept into a multi-car crash on lap 380; the Bristol race marked the lowest point of the season for the Bud team in the points standings down to 26th; this season, he comes to Bristol with momentum and going in a positive direction; posted two straight top-five finishes with a fourth last week at Darlington Raceway and second the previous event at Atlanta; the good results boosted him up to 10th in the Winston Cup points standings; in four starts at Bristol Motor Speedway his best start was ninth last spring and highest finish 14th in the fall of 2001.

Jeff Gordon
Although he finished ninth at Darlington Raceway last Sunday for a good effort, he is still without a top-five since winning the Protection One 400 at Kansas Speedway last September, a span of 13 races; the news he made last weekend was that his wife Brooke filed for divorce after seven years of marriage. "As you are probably well aware, Brooke has filed for divorce. Being a personal matter, I hope that everybody will respect our privacy as we work through this difficult time," he said in a released statement; won this race four consecutive times between 1995-98 (never won the night race at Bristol); a new role he got involved with this year is as co- owner of the No. 48 car driven by Rookie of the Year candidate Jimmie Johnson, who is having a good start to the season.

Dale Jarrett
Captured his first career short-track victory at Bristol in the fall of 1997; top results in the Food City 500 were third-place finishes in 1998 and 1999; not a good early part of the season, with seventh place in Las Vegas as best finish; only 21st place in the series points standings after five races; 1999 Winston Cup champion.

Jimmie Johnson
His first two Winston Cup races were rather unimpressive despite claiming the pole for the Daytona 500; but his last three races he came up with a third place in Atlanta and two sixth-place finishes; improved to fifth place in the points standings, impressive for a rookie.

Bobby Labonte
The Food City 500 will be his 300th career NASCAR Winston Cup start, "It's cool that I am making it to my 300th start and all," he said. "But when you look at what Terry (Labonte -- 715 starts this weekend) has done, it really doesn't mean that much."; the task of winning at Bristol will be tough, considering he has never won on a short-track in his Winston Cup career; has only one top-five finish to his credit at Bristol in a Winston Cup car, but he did score his first Busch series win at the track in 1991.

Terry Labonte
Won races at Bristol in the fall of 1995 and 1984; 32 top-10s in 45 starts at Bristol; finished sixth in the Food City 500 last year and was 10th in the Sharpie 500 in late August; without a top-10 result in five races this season.

Sterling Marlin
Captured the Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 for his second victory in the past three races; it was his 10th career win and fifth straight top-10 finish this season, the only driver to to finish every race in the top 10; overall he has eight top-10 results dating to last year; the best start of his career which puts him top of the NASCAR standings with 825 points, 99 clear of rookie Ryan Newman.

Mark Martin
One of six drivers with three top-10 finishes in the first five races; those efforts puts him ninth in the series points standings; is a good racer on short tracks; in 30 starts at Bristol he has two victories, 20 top-10 finishes; last year he finished out of the top 30 spots.

Tony Stewart
Was injured in a pretty hard crash at Darlington when Jimmy Spencer had nowhere to go and hit Stewart's Pontiac quite hard; Stewart was airlifted to a local hospital where he underwent X-rays and CT scans of the head, neck, chest and pelvic area; was kept overnight for observation, but all tests were negative; won the Sharpie 500 at Bristol last August, but was not in contention in the Food City 500; has three top-10 finishes this season in the first five races including the victory at Atlanta for his first career 500-mile win; owns 13 Winston Cup victories in three full years on the circuit; 1999 NASCAR Rookie of the Year.

Rusty Wallace
The master of short tracks; leads all active drivers with nine victories at Bristol Motor Speedway; is the most recent driver to win both races at the track in the same year (2000); also had good efforts last season by placing seventh in this race and fifth in the second event; started both times in the top 10.