Check out a short list of favorites for Sunday's Checker Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix.

Johnny Benson

	Benson

Won for the first time in 226 Winston Cup starts last week when he held off Mark Martin at the Pop Secret 400; led the final 28 laps after passing Kurt Busch; finished second behind Busch last month at the Old Dominion 500 at Martinsville Speedway; moved up one spot in the standings to 29th with 2,888 points; finished a career-best 11th last season, when he had six top-five finishes; has seven top-10 finishes this year; started 13th and finished 10th in the Checker Auto Parts 500 last year.

Jeff Burton
Two-time defending champion of the Checker Auto Parts 500; led five times last year for 102 laps to earn extra bonus points as he fended off a strong run by Mike Wallace at the end; in 2000, he led 105 of 312 laps; a modest season by his standards, going without a victory in 35 races with four top-fives; had a good run last week at Rockingham, finishing fourth after starting 29th; placed third twice for his top results; is 12th in the Winston Cup standings.

Kurt Busch
Winner of three races this season, including two in a row at Martinsville and Atlanta; led before finishing third last week at North Carolina Speedway; has recorded 11 top-fives and 18 top-10 finishes this year; finished 22nd at Phoenix as a rookie last season; is fifth in the standings, 248 points behind Tony Stewart for the lead.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.
His streak of five top-five finishes ended last week at Rockingham, where he placed 34th; has not performed well at Phoenix in his last two starts; although he passed some 20 cars last year, debris damaged his radiator and caused an engine failure that dropped him to 37th; best result at this track was 27th in 2000; despite a well-documented midseason slump, is enjoying the most productive season of his three-year career; his team has equaled or surpassed last season's numbers with 10 top-five finishes, 15 top-10s, 917 laps led, 20 races led, two poles and 17 top-10 starts.

Jeff Gordon
Phoenix is the only track at which the four-time Winston Cup champion has not won; captured a Busch series race here, however; in nine Winston Cup starts at Phoenix, he has three top-fives and seven top-10s; finished sixth last year and seventh in 2000; is nowhere near the position he was last year in the Winston Cup standings, trailing Tony Stewart by 267 points; one of four drivers with three wins this year (Matt Kenseth leads the circuit with four).

Dale Jarrett
Has enjoyed decent runs at Phoenix the past two years, placing ninth in 2001 and 10th the season before; a slow start this year ended his title aspirations; has put together better runs over the latter half of the season; won the Pocono 500 and the Pepsi 400 to bring his career total to 30 victories; also finished second once and third three times in the second half; moved up to ninth in the standings Jimmie Johnson
A second straight bad race cost him even more points in the standings, dropping him 219 behind Tony Stewart for the lead; finished 22nd in Atlanta and 37th at Rockingham last week; still enjoying a tremendous rookie season with three wins and is tied with Stewart and Mark Martin with 20 top-10s (fellow rookie Ryan Newman tops the series with 21); trails Newman by 20 points in the Rookie of the Year race due to eight fewer top-five finishes.

Matt Kenseth
Leads all Winston Cup drivers with four wins this season; one of eight drivers with double digits in top-five and top-10 finishes; eighth in the standings, 340 points behind Tony Stewart; had impressive run at Phoenix last year en route to a fourth-place finish after starting 38th on the grid with a provisional assignment.

Bobby Labonte
Making his 10th appearance at Phoenix, where he has been running at the finish every time; in his last three starts at the one-mile oval, is averaging roughly a sixth-place finish; third was best finish in 1999 and fifth two years ago; a disappointing season by his standards, with lone victory coming in April at Martinsvile; has just four top-fives and seven top-10s.

Mark Martin
Despite leading the most laps last week at Rockingham and finishing second, a post-race inspection uncovered a problem with the front coil springs on his Ford, and he was penalized 25 points in the Winston Cup standings; instead of closing the gap on Tony Stewart to 87 points, he trails by 112 with two races remaining; held points lead after New Hampshire race; only victory this year was the Coca-Cola 600 in May at Lowe's Motor Speedway; 1993 winner in Phoenix, he has posted 11 top-10 finishes and seven top-fives at this track; finished 19th last year; leads Winston Cup with $5 million in earnings this season.

Ryan Newman
Leader in the Rookie of the Year battle, 20 points ahead of Jimmie Johnson; won his second pole in the last three races and fourth of the season last week at Rockingham; led the first 40 laps, then faded to 23rd place in the Pop Secret 400; has finished in the top-10 in eight of the last 10 races; won the New Hampshire 300 for his first career Winston Cup checkered flag; owns a series-high 21 top-10 finishes and has placed among the top five 14 times, one fewer than points leader Tony Stewart.

Ricky Rudd
In contention to win at Phoenix the past two years; in 2000, a group of lapped cars wrecked in front of him with 19 laps to go; last year, he came on strong at the end after starting 21st but made move too late and settled for third place; winner at Sonoma this year and started from the pole at other road course in Watkins Glen, New York; finished third in two of the last five races; sits 10th in the standings.

Tony Stewart
Said he drove the worst-ever car last week at Rockingham but finished 14th after starting 24th; has a 112-point lead over Mark Martin in the Winston Cup standings heading to Phoenix, where he finished fifth last year; did one better in his first start at the track in 1999, when he won with a record speed of 118.132 miles per hour; since winning at Watkins Glen in mid-August, the former IRL champion has scored six top-five and nine top-10s for an average finish of eighth; in the process, he has improved from fourth to first in the standings; took the points lead after a runner-up showing in early October at Talladega; tops the series with 15 top-fives and is one of three drivers with 20 top-10s.

Rusty Wallace
Led 196 of 257 laps in a rain-shortened race en route to win here in 1998; finished second in 1997, third in 1999 and fourth two years ago; last season, he qualified fourth but finished 15th; has two chances left to extend his streak of winning at least one race to 17 seasons; is tied with Ricky Rudd for the modern-era record with a 16-year run; he remains the only driver among the top 11 in the standings without a victory; trails Tony Stewart by 266 points in the standings.