Front-runners expect to be challengers at Desert Mile

The Sprint Cup Series return to the track this weekend at Phoenix:

The Top 5: Where the elite meet

A classic battle is shaping up at the top of the Cup Series standings. It's a "battle royal" if there ever was one: Four of the top five drivers are former series champions.

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• Four-time champion Jeff Gordon leading the pack and coming off his first win since November 2007.

• Three-time defending series champion Jimmie Johnson is second in points, after finishing second to Gordon in Texas.

• Kurt Busch is third in the standings.

• And two-time champion Tony Stewart -- in his first year as an owner-driver -- is fifth in points.

The total number of points separating Gordon from Stewart: 216.

Gordon now has wins at 21 of 22 tracks

With his victory at Texas, Gordon has at least one win at 21 of the active 22 tracks on the Cup schedule. He needs only a win at Homestead-Miami Speedway -- the site of the season finale Ford 400 -- to complete the active track sweep.

Only three drivers have won at every active track in a given season's schedule: Richard Petty, David Pearson and Cale Yarborough.

Petty boasted a win at every track run from 1981-1985. Pearson had a win at every track from 1976-78 and again from 1982-85. Yarborough also did it from 1981-85.

On the Move: Closing in on the Top 12

Montoya

Here's the beauty of the Chase: Drivers may be out of the top 12 right now but by no means are they out of championship contention.

The top 12 drivers in points after Race No. 26 at Richmond will qualify for the Chase, which consists of the season's last 10 races.

A number of drivers are on the move in the standings:

• Juan Montoya, whose seventh-place finish at Texas boosted him to 13th in the points. Montoya is bidding to make the Chase for the first time.

• Greg Biffle, an expected championship contender, finished third at Texas and is up to 15th.

• The disastrous start experienced by Dale Earnhardt Jr. is finally being balanced by some consistency. Earnhardt is up to a solid 16th.

• Ryan Newman, the other half of the new Stewart-Haas team, is likewise coming around after a very slow start. He's up to 17th.

• And then there's Mark Martin, a series veteran who returned from semi-retirement to full-time driving this year for Hendrick Motorsports. Martin had a top-10 run at Texas and he's now 18th in points.

Driver Rating: Harvick should make Top 12 return

A 27th-place finish at Texas two weeks ago bounced Kevin Harvick out of the top 12. But the statistics suggest a return will come sooner than later -- most likely this weekend.

Harvick, 14th in the series standings and 39 points outside the top 12, is strong at Phoenix. He swept both races in 2006, posting a perfect Driver Rating of 150.0 in that season's fall event.

During the past eight Phoenix races, Harvick has a Driver Rating of 105.4 (second-best), an Average Running Position of 7.9 (second) and a Laps in the Top 15 percentage of 84.6 (second).