NASCAR Top 5 at Chicagoland Speedway

Here's a glance at the top five drivers in the Sprint Cup Series standings and five drivers to watch at Chicagoland Speedway on Saturday, according to Bill Marx of Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service. All statistical references are for Sprint Cup races at Chicagoland unless otherwise indicated. Driver rating is based on the past five races at the track.

Top five drivers1. Kevin Harvick, 106.8 driver rating. Harvick has two wins and five top fives among his six top 10s at Chicagoland. He is coming off a win at Daytona and has a 5.3 average finish since the all-star break. Also worth noting: With his big points lead, Harvick is driving for wins, not top fives or top 10s. 2. Jeff Gordon, 96.3. Gordon's Chicagoland stats are similar to Harvick's, except Gordon has one win, not two. He finished second last year. Gordon finished third last week to run his top-five streak to four. 3. Jimmie Johnson, 112.8. Johnson has done everything but win at Chicagoland. He has seven top 10s in eight starts and has finished second twice. He has led laps in seven races; even when he had his worst finish, 37th in 2007 after cutting a tire and crashing, he still led a personal-best 82 laps. 4. Kurt Busch, 86.8. Busch has been relatively quiet at Chicagoland with five top 10s. He has led three laps in his nine starts and finished 28th and 17th the past two years. On the flip side, Busch's past four wins have come at mile-and-a-half tracks, including at Atlanta and Charlotte this year. 5. Denny Hamlin, 87.1. Since posting back-to-back wins at Pocono and Michigan, Hamlin has finishes of 34th, 14th and 24th. Hamlin finished fifth at Chicagoland last year for his first top 10 in four starts.Five to watch 11. Dale Earnhardt Jr., 94.0. Junior was 17th in the standings after the Coca-Cola 600 and now finds himself in the top 12 for the first time since April. He is 46 points ahead of 13th-place Mark Martin after consecutive finishes of 7th, 11th, 8th and 4th. Earnhardt has a win (2005) and two other top 10s in nine starts at Chicagoland. He has been mediocre the past three years with finishes of 19th, 16th and 15th. 12. Carl Edwards, 83.9. Edwards scored his first top-10 finish since the all-star break Saturday at Daytona and is 39 points ahead of Martin. Edwards' season has totally lacked pop-he has led two laps-and he is fortunate to still be in the top 12. Eleven of Edwards' 16 career wins have come on intermediate tracks, but none at Chicagoland (one top 10 in five starts). Edwards' previous three wins were on 1.5-mile tracks, but they were all in 2008, the last year he won a Cup race. 13. Mark Martin, 93.0. After five consecutive finishes outside the top 10, including two DNFs, Martin fell out of the top 12 for the first time since the seventh race (Phoenix). Martin was 13th in the standings last year heading to Chicagoland. He won, touching off a run of 10 top 10s (including two wins and eight top fives) in 12 races. Martin sure could use another one of those. 14. Clint Bowyer, 86.4. Bowyer was in prime position to win last week and pick up major points, but a crash behind him, moments before he took the white flag, cost him dearly. He was shuffled back on the green-white-checkered restart, and on the final lap was sent spinning into the grass. The result: A 17th-place finish and 84 points instead of 190. Had Bowyer taken the white flag, he would be 11th in points. Bowyer needs to put that out of his mind. He has three top 10s in four starts at Chicagoland and has been driving well enough to get his fourth Saturday night. 16. Kasey Kahne, 72.2. Kahne just won't go away. He finished second last week for his third top five (second runner-up) in four races. A month ago, he was 23rd in points. He still has work to do-he's 154 points behind Edwards-but he's moving in the right direction. He finished third last year at Chicagoland for his first top 10 in six starts.