Check out a short list of favorites for Sunday's Banquet 400 at Kansas Speedway:

Kurt Busch: Rebounded from worst season finish of 38th at Dover to take sixth at Talladega last Sunday; remained eighth in points, exactly 700 behind leader Matt Kenseth; posted two top-10s in last seven starts, including a win at Bristol, fourth of this year; completed 206 laps in last year's stop at Kansas to finish 31st.

	Earnhardt Jr.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Gave DEI teammate Michael Waltrip a good chase over the final laps at Talladega, but did not have enough to win race; settled for second place after making up a lap; started 38th after a post-qualifying inspection found a rear quarter panel to be too low; holds qualifying record of 177.924 mph set last year at this speedway; led twice for 10 laps en route to sixth-place finish; trails points leader Matt Kenseth by 384 points in third place.

Bill Elliott: Will make third start at Kansas Speedway; started third here in 2001, but did not finish due to engine problems; started and finished fifth here last year; is the only driver with two top-five starts at this track; recorded his fifth top-five finish of the year at the Sylvania 300 in New Hampshire; has not had six top-five finishes in a year since 1992, when he had 14; is 15th in the points standings, 194 out of 10th.

Jeff Gordon: Two-time defending champion; an increased horsepower engine allowed him to a victory over Ryan Newman for the second straight year; took lead from Bill Elliott on lap 147 and led all but five laps the rest of the way in the 267-lap event; at Talladega last Sunday, finished fifth for the second straight race; has not qualified lower than seventh in the last four races; 10 top-fives and 14 top-10s are good for sixth place in the standings; but 520-point gap is probably too large to contend for championship in the last seven races.

	Harvick

Kevin Harvick: Seventh-place finish at Talladega was seventh top-10 in the last nine races, half his season total; led four laps at Talladega to extend his streak to seven consecutive races of leading laps and collecting bonus points; second in standings for the second week in a row and gained 82 points on Kenseth; is 354 points behind Kenseth, the closest anyone has been to the points leader since Dale Earnhardt Jr. trailed by 351 points following Bristol on August 23; has not recorded a top-10 finish in two career starts at Kansas, but had a solid outing in his last appearance.

Jimmie Johnson: Engine woes and a spin were the reasons for a 34th-place finish at Talladega, the lowest result in last 16 races; dropped one position to fourth in standings, 92 points behind Earnhardt Jr.; has been among the top 10 in standings for 29 weeks and is only driver in the top 10 all season; dating to last season, has been ranked in the top 10 for 62 consecutive race weeks; strong in Kansas Speedway debut last season, starting on the outside pole and finishing 10th.

	Kenseth

Matt Kenseth: Winston Cup points leader failed to finish a race for the first time this season at the Talladega race; the engine on his Ford failed on lap 158 and ended up in 33rd place; had not finished lower than 22nd in previous 29 races; still a comfortable 354-point lead over Kevin Harvick and 384 more than Earnhardt with seven races left; this is the closest any pursuer has been to Kenseth since he led Earnhardt Jr. by 351 following Bristol on August 23; leader for the 26th consecutive race week, dating to Atlanta in early March; has one top-10 finish in two starts at Kansas Speedway, finishing seventh last season; if able to win at Kansas, will earn a record $300,000 Winston leader bonus; 22 top-10s recorded this year tops the series.

Bobby Labonte: Slump continued as he finished 11th at Talladega despite being involved in a final-lap incident; has just two top-10 finishes since taking fifth at Daytona on July 5; since then, he has been out of the top 15 seven times and failed to finish three times; despite the struggles, is seventh in points standings, which marks the 20th consecutive race week he is among the top 10, dating to California in late April; trails Jeff Gordon by 179 points for sixth place; has not cracked the top 20 in two starts at Kansas Speedway; was 29th in 2001 and 27th last season.

Terry Labonte: Placed 22nd at Talladega for his lowest finish since a 25th at Sonoma in late June; stayed in the top 10 for fourth race week in a row (Tony Stewart moved past him into ninth); finished 12th in last year's race at Kansas, but did not finish inaugural event in 2001.

	Newman

Ryan Newman: Runner-up to Jeff Gordon in both races held at this new venue; continued tremendous second-half run at Talladega with a fourth-place result for his series-best 12th top-five finish of the year; won previous race at Dover, his series-leading seventh victory of year and eighth career; swept both events at Dover this year; has scored 14 top-10 finishes, six of them victories, in the last 17 races; improved from 27th in the points to fifth.

Tony Stewart: Defending Winston Cup champion followed up the third-place finish at Dover with another at Talladega; was fifth top-three performance of the season and third in the last seven races; moved ahead of Terry Labonte for ninth place in points standings, his highest position since being ranked the same after New Hampshire in July; qualified and finished among the top 10 in both career starts at Kansas Speedway; started seventh and finished eighth in 2001, followed by a start and finish of eighth last year.

Michael Waltrip: Solid run down the final laps to hold off charge from DEI teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. to win Sunday's EA Sports 500 for career victory No. 4 four; averaged 156.045 miles per hour in ninth restrictor plate win for team in last 12 such races on the circuit; opened season with win at Daytona 500; still could not break back into the top 10 in the standings; remained 11th, 10 points behind fellow veteran Terry Labonte.