Leaders Gordon, Johnson chasing first win at Texas

Since inception into the Cup schedule in 1997, Texas Motor Speedway has been a wild card. Of the 13 races at Texas, only Jeff Burton has won more than once. Four of the 12 Chase drivers have reached Victory Lane at Texas.

Of the other eight drivers in the Chase that haven't won at Texas, site of Sunday's Dickies 500 (3 p.m. ET, ABC), the most surprising are the top three drivers in the standings.

• Jeff Gordon has five top-fives at Texas, the most of any Chase driver. Earlier this season, Gordon started on the pole and finished fourth.

"I can honestly say this is one of the first times I'm excited about racing here from a competitive standpoint," said Gordon, who has six victories this season and 81 wins during his 15-year career, but none at Texas. "I've always loved the facility, but it's been hit or miss for us.

"We've been close to victory the past couple of times. But for whatever crazy reason -- whether it's an electrical problem while leading or me smacking the wall off Turn 4 while leading -- we just haven't won."

• Jimmie Johnson has closed the gap between first and second to only nine points with back-to-back wins. Johnson has three top-five and six top-10 finishes at Texas.

• Clint Bowyer hasn't won at Texas in the Cup Series, but he has been to Victory Lane there in the Craftsman Truck Series. He currently is 111 points behind Gordon and 102 points behind Johnson.

"If Jeff or Jimmie have one bad race, we could be right there. We've just got to keep doing what we've been doing," Bowyer said. "We gained a few points on those guys in Atlanta but we struggled the whole race. We got lucky and ended up with a decent finish and that's something that we've gotten a lot better at.

"A top five is the number one goal but it seems like we need to win to compete with the guys we're racing for a championship. We're improving on our best finishes at just about all of these tracks since the Chase started so if we can do that in Texas this weekend, that'll be a good day for us."

These next four Chase drivers have grabbed elusive Texas wins:

• Tony Stewart won the Dickies 500 last year on a late-season run when he won three of the last 10 races in 2006. Stewart dominated the race starting eighth and leading 278 of the 334 laps.

"We had a car that was good all day long from start to finish. In my 28 years of racing it's rare that I've had a car that good," Stewart said. "It puts you in a positive frame of mind when you go to a track knowing that you've run well there before. Zippy (crew chief Greg Zipadelli) knows how to find the kind of balance I like in the car that makes me comfortable. The more comfortable I am, the faster we go."

• Burton captured his only win of this season at Texas in the spring, becoming the first driver to repeat at the track. He was the first driver ever to win at the 1.5-mile track. Currently in eighth, Burton had a boost this past weekend with a fifth-place finish at Atlanta -- his second top-five in the Chase.

• Carl Edwards captured a second-place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway last weekend, moving him up to fourth in the Chase standings. That top-five just might be the spark to get the 99 team turned around to make a late run at the championship. Edwards won at Texas in 2005 by edging teammate Matt Kenseth and then teammate Mark Martin. Earlier this year Edwards finished 12th at Texas.

• Kenseth is coming off his second consecutive top-five. Of the Chase drivers, Kenseth has the second-most top-fives at Texas with four, and earlier this season finished second there.

"We've put together back-to-back solid finishes, which is something, it seems like, that we haven't done in a long time. I thought we had a car capable of winning at the end, and we haven't been able to say that in while, because, basically, we haven't been able to get to the end. But, it was another solid performance by our guys and hopefully that can carry over into this weekend," Kenseth said.

"We're taking the same car to Texas that we did in the spring and it's been pretty good for us all year," crew chief Robbie Reiser said. "It last ran at Kansas and was probably a top-five or top-eight car, but we got caught a lap down by the rain and then got caught up in the wreck on the restart afterwards. But, it's been repaired, the damage was minimal and we should be good to go."

In that spring race, Kenseth led 16 laps and was on his way to his second victory of the season before Burton passed him on the final lap.

"Racing Kenseth for the lead is something I will never forget," Burton said. "He's a great racer, a smart racer and a clean racer. Drivers dream about winning a race on the last lap and that was cool -- not only for me, but for the whole team as well."

With only three races to go, time is of the essence for the Chase drivers to make up every point they can on standings leader Gordon. All 12 Chase drivers are still mathematically eligible for the championship, though Gordon and Johnson are setting a devastating pace. The Hendrick Motorsports teammates have won the past four races and have the closest point margin between first and second since the Chase's inception in 2004.

"All we can do right now is put up the best numbers and performance on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the next three events and hope that's enough," Gordon said. "I think we have a team capable of winning the championship."

Outside the Chase: Junior still winless

Drivers outside the Chase are lining up to play the role of spoiler this week at Texas. At the head of the line is Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Earnhardt is suffering through a 59-race winless streak dating back to May 2006 at Richmond, but he should have a good chance of ending the slump this Sunday. Texas is the site of his first win in the Cup Series (April 2, 2000). Earnhardt has won at least once in all of his first seven seasons of competing in the Cup Series making these last three races critical for him if he wants to keep the streak alive.

"We've done so many good things this year as a team and I've been given the most consistently fast cars of my career and the only thing lacking is a victory," Earnhardt said. "Texas is definitely a place where we can resolve that problem. There are so many good memories for all of us at that place -- not just the first win -- but almost every race since then we've been a top-10 car."

Earnhardt has seven top-10 finishes at Texas.

On the bubble: Blaney looks to get back on track

Consecutive top-10 finishes at Talladega and Lowe's Motor Speedway put the No. 22 Toyota comfortably in the top 35 in owner points, but recent struggles at Martinsville and Atlanta have put its guaranteed spot in the field in jeopardy.

The No. 22, owned by Bill Davis and driven by Dave Blaney, has failed to crack the top 30 in each of the past two races and now sits only 82 points ahead of the No. 21 Ford (owned by Glen Wood and driven by Bill Elliott) in the owner standings.

Though Blaney's best finish at Texas was sixth in 2001, he hasn't landed in the top 20 in any of the past five Texas races.

Elliott's best Texas finish was ninth in 2002. His last race there was in 2005, a 32nd-place finish.

Also looking to stay in the top 35 is the No. 45 Dodge owned and driven by Kyle Petty. The No. 45 is 86 points ahead of the cutoff.