Stewart: looking to improve on his recent Dover form. (LAT photo) MORE NASCAR PHOTOS » More Photos

MATT KENSETH If this race were run with the old-style NASCAR car, instead of the COT, Kenseth would be a prohibitive favorite to win in his Roush Fenway Racing Ford Fusion. Instead, he's only one of the co-favorites, as the Roush COT program to date has clearly been lagging relative to Hendrick, Gibbs and Childress.

Still, Kenseth is the defending spring Dover winner, and in the fall race here last year, he led 215 of 400 laps before running out of gas with two laps to go while in second place. Kenseth knows how to get around Dover and has ever since he made his Nextel Cup debut here in 1998, finishing sixth while subbing for Bill Elliott.

TONY STEWART Stewart was awful at Dover in 2005 and '06, failing to finish higher than 15th in four races over those two seasons. But before then, he was solid gold: In 12 Dover starts from 1999 to 2004, Stewart amassed two victories and two runner-up finishes, along with one third-place, two fourths, two fifths, one sixth, one seventh and one 11th. Stewart's average Dover finish of 8.875 is tops among all drivers in the field.

Has this been Stewart's year? No, not at all so far. But he's too good a driver on too good a team to not get things turned around sooner rather than later. And already this season, he's led the most laps twice in COT races with his Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolets.

JEFF GORDON Gordon has driven his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets to four Cup victories at the Monster Mile, tied for best among active drivers with Mark Martin and Bill Elliott. And Gordon's performance in the COT races to date has been nothing short of amazing: Two victories and finishes of second, third and fourth in just five races. You have to figure that some way, somehow, Gordon will be in the mix at the end of 400 long miles on Sunday.

Also, Gordon always likes to run well here, given that Dover is the home track of his sponsor, DuPont. And he certainly wants to regain his momentum after getting knocked out of the Coca-Cola 600 due to an early crash last Sunday.

JIMMIE JOHNSON Johnson's COT record is virtually identical to his Hendrick teammate Gordon's: Two victories, one third and one fourth, along with a lone blemish, a disappointing 16th-place run in the first COT race at Bristol. He also has one victory and three finishes of sixth or better in his last four Dover starts.

RYAN NEWMAN Newman has three career victories at Dover, the best averaging starting position of any active driver (6.20) and the second-best average finishing position (9.0). Like Stewart, he's already knocked on the door a couple of times and is ready to drive his Penske Racing Dodge through it.

One way or another, it ought to be an interesting battle on Sunday. Stick with SPEEDTV.com for news and updates all weekend long from Dover.