Check out a short list of favorites for Sunday's Protection One 400 at Kansas City, Kan.

	Elliott

Bill Elliott
In what is the closest championship race in the modern era of the Winston Cup, the veteran is 257 points behind leader Mark Martin in ninth; a two-time winner this season, with four poles and 11 top-10s overall in 28 races; the wins came after just one in seven previous years; will use the same Dodge he won with at Pocono and Indianapolis; last year at Kansas, led for 33 laps before engine troubles forced out on lap 134 to a 40th-place finish; has not finished in the top 10 in the standings since placing eighth in 1997.

Jeff Gordon
Winner of the inaugural race at Kansas Speedway en route to his fourth Winston Cup championship last season; it was his fourth victory in nine inaugural races that have been added to the schedule since his rookie year in 1993; won by 0.413 seconds over Ryan Newman after passing Mark Martin with 22 laps to go; needs a strong finish this weekend to keep alive his hopes of winning a fifth title; notched back-to-back wins at Bristol and Darlington to jump into second place in the standings, but luck turned for the worse as he did not finish in the top 10 in the last three races; with two wins, eight top-fives and 14 top-10s this year, he is 190 points behind Mark Martin in fifth place.

Jimmie Johnson
Held off a late charge by points leader Mark Martin and tied the Winston Cup record for victories by a rookie when he earned his third of the season at Dover, Delaware; the 27-year-old California native matched Tony Stewart's 1999 mark for wins by a first-year driver; also became the first driver since Stewart in 1999 to sweep both races at the "Monster Mile," where Johnson won in June; is 30 points behind Martin in the standings for the championship race; has been highest finishing rookie 14 times this year, but trails Ryan Newman 331-315 in the Rookie of the Year award; also has won four poles this year.

Sterling Marlin
A 21st-place finish at Dover this past Sunday was his third straight lower than 20th and ninth result outside the top 15 this season; has lost 176 points in the last four races and fell from first place to fourth; still just 81 points behind leader Mark Martin in the standings; led the series from Rockingham through Richmond, a streak of 25 races, before his struggles; after two wins in the year's first five races, is winless since the spring race at Darlington and has not finished better than third; finished fifth at Kansas Speedway in the initial race at the track last year.

Mark Martin
A runner-up finish at Dover kept him in front of the standings by 30 points over rookie winner Jimmie Johnson; tied with Johnson and Ryan Newman for most top-10 finishes with 17; last time he led the standings for two straight races was races 26 and 27 in 1990; he lost that championship to Dale Earnhardt by just 26 points; all but had victory in site last year at Kansas Speedway, but Jeff Gordon passed him with 22 laps to run; eventually finished sixth in the inaugural race at the track.

Ryan Newman
Leading candidate for the Rookie of the Year title; has 16 points on Jimmie Johnson with eight races remaining; comes off an eighth-place finish at Dover, where he finished in the top 10 in both races in 2002; his 13 top-five finishes are the most of all drivers in the series; seventh in the overall standings, 225 points out of first place; first career Winston Cup victory was the rain-shortened New Hampshire 300; has finished second four times this season.

Ricky Rudd
Mediocre results over the past 12 races have kept him from improving in the points standings; since winning at Sonoma, California at the end of June, has finished nine times outside the top 10, caused a drop from sixth to 10th in the points, 281 out of first place; owns 10 top-10 finishes this year; was solid in last year's race at Kansas Speedway, finishing third after starting eighth.

Tony Stewart
Gained one position to third in the points after a fifth-place finish at Dover; comes to a track where he qualified seventh and finished eighth last year; only 74 points behind first place Mark Martin, Stewart is in strong position to compete for his first Winston Cup championship; has finished 16 times in the first 10 positions and 12 among the top five - both second best in the series; winner of three races and two poles while failing to finish just six races.

Rusty Wallace
Led the most laps and had the car to beat in last year's Protection One 400, but a penalty for speeding on pit road dashed his chances and relegated him to fourth; has not finished better than 15th in six of the last seven races which has reduced his chances for the title; is 198 points out of first place; has gone 54 races without a victory; last win came at California in April 2001; top finishes this year were second at the Brickyard 400 and the Sharpie 500.