One and Done: Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 Presented by Pennzoil

The Chase for the Sprint Cup is heating up with only two races left on the schedule.

This weekend's race takes place at Phoenix, and the length of the official title—the Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 presented by Pennzoil—perhaps justifies NASCAR's TV partners being allowed to sell sponsorship of their broadcasts.

Last weekend at Texas, Jimmie Johnson did something for us all to make the Chase more interesting: He wrecked. He finished 38th, allowing Mark Martin to become a factor in the Chase again.

Martin erased 111 points of Johnson's lead by finishing fourth but still has 73 more to make up.

But don't expect Johnson to be shaken. The No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team has been through a lot more adversity than this. They didn't even lose the points lead, after all. Johnson isn't going to let last week rattle his cage any; those sorts of things happen. (Just ask Martin about Talladega.)

Anyway, it's obvious who's going to be at the top of this week's list of picks—not only are they the two top drivers in points, they're the two top active drivers at Phoenix, with a combined five wins and 27 top-10s in 36 starts. (If their combined Phoenix stats were spread across one full Sprint Cup season, they'd be a strong championship contender, if not the champion.)

But to be fair, other drivers do exist...

Jimmie Johnson (avg. fn. 5.4)

5.4? A worst finish of 15th? Do I even need to justify or explain this?

Mark Martin (avg. fn. 9.0)

It has been 20 years since Martin finished outside of the top 20 at Phoenix. That race, all the way back in 1988, was his debut at the track, and he finished 36th only because his race ended early with a crash.

Johnson holds a slight edge over Martin in every statistical category, but keep in mind that the more starts a driver makes, the lower an average finish usually tends to be. The fact that "The Kid" has more starts at Phoenix than anybody else who's still driving, and still has the best average finish, is a testament to how good he really is in the desert. Oh, and he won the race in the spring.

Tony Stewart (avg. fn. 10.1)

Smoke won in his Phoenix debut back in 1999. He hasn't won at the track since, but he hasn't failed to finish any races either, and he's only failed to complete all 312 laps in a Phoenix race three times (although two of those were both races last year). He also finished second in the spring.

Kurt Busch (avg. fn. 12.5)

Last week's win at Texas and two straight podium finishes at Phoenix put him on this list. Mediocrity in 2006 and 2007 blemishes his record, but his recent performance, both in the Chase and in the desert, currently gives him the seventh best record of active drivers at Phoenix. He led 60 laps in this race last year and 63 in the spring, finishing second and third, respectively, in those two races.

Kyle Busch (avg. fn. 14.8)

I know, he's not a Chase driver. I like to break my own rules a lot. But he was so strong last week, and he's got six top-10s in nine starts at Phoenix, so he deserves a mention.