Johnny Benson

The best bets to get to Victory Lane at the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday are the top drivers at Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendrick Motorsports.

That's a group of four: Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin (Gibbs), and Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon (Hendrick).

Working in their favor
Stewart has done some of his best racing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In his eight previous Brickyard starts, he has a win, a pole, three top-fives, and five top-10s. His average starting position has been 16.5, and his average finishing position has been 8.4. He has completed every lap of every race he's run at Indy.

Stewart is coming off his first win of the season (at Chicagoland Speedway on July 15). He also has five top-five finishes and 12 top-10s. Six times during the 13-year history of Cup racing at Indy the winner of the Brickyard wound up winning the championship. Stewart did it in 2005, and he hopes to do it again this year.

Hamlin was nothing short of spectacular as a rookie last year, making the Chase and finishing third in points. He is second in the standings this season. He was 10th in this event last year, and would have fared even better had it not been for engine woes which had a major impact on his performance.

With four previous Brickyard wins (1994, 1998, 2001, and 2004) Gordon has shown that he has the measure of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The four-time Cup champion has finished eighth or better in 10 of 13 career races at this venue. He is seeking to become the first five-time winner in the track's 95-year history.

Johnson won at the Brickyard last year. Previous to that the defending Cup champion had struggled at Indy so you can bet he's really pumped up to try and make it back-to-back wins at this historic venue.

Other drivers to watch
In six Cup starts at Indy, Kevin Harvick has four top-10 finishes including a win from the pole at the 2003 Brickyard 400. He was third in this event last year. Harvick will drive the chassis he took to Victory Lane last season in the November race at Phoenix International Raceway and the September race at New Hampshire International Raceway.

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One of Harvick's teammates at Richard Childress Racing, Jeff Burton, started from the pole at Indy last year, led a race-high 87 laps, but faded late and crossed the checkers 15th. The veteran is fourth in points and that was his best Brickyard finish in the last six years.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. took a gamble last year at the Brickyard by choosing not to pit on the final caution. It paid off as Junior made something of a miserable day by placing sixth. It was one of his two top-10s in seven Cup starts at Indy.

Matt Kenseth was second to Johnson a year ago at Indy. The Roush Racing driver has four top-fives, and four top-10s in seven Cup starts at the Brickyard. Kenseth has been real competitive in this event with an average running position of 5.8.

My darkhorse is Tony Raines, who finished an impressive 11th in this event in 2006.

Keys to success at Indianapolis
The track surface at Indianapolis is abrasive, and track position means a whole lot at this venue. Every move a driver or a team makes -- whether on the track or in the pits -- is done with track position in mind.

Indianapolis is a tough track to drive because there is only one real groove that being down low. On some tracks if a driver's car doesn't handle well in the fastest groove, he can search around until he finds a different line to run, but that's not often the case at Indianapolis.

This track is also unique in that it is shaped like a rectangle, with two long straightaways connected by a pair of short chutes at both ends.

With four very tight corners, there won't be much side-by-side racing in the turns, which further reduces the chances to pass while emphasizing the importance of track position.

The driver that can get low going into the corner will be the fastest car coming out of the turn and down the stretch.

Pit stops will see some drivers changing two tires instead of four because a crew can put on two tires in eight or nine seconds while the fastest change of four tires is around 13 seconds -- and gaining four seconds at Indy can seem like gaining an eternity.

But don't look for any two-tire stops until later in the race when a good deal of rubber has been put down on the track, making it less abrasive and opening the door for some strategic decisions regarding how many tires to change on a pit stop.

Also pit road at Indianapolis is narrow, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a top car have its chances of winning the race eliminated because of it getting caught up in an accident on pit road.

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