This weekend, the Race to the Chase moves into week three and heads to the 1.5-mile D-shaped Chicagoland Speedway. Racing under the lights for the first time in the tracks history and for the second week in a row, things are sure to heat up in the race to secure a spot in this year's Chase to the Sprint Cup.

Leaving Daytona last weekend, positions 8th through 17th were jumbled up quite a bit, tightening up the race. Matt Kenseth was the weekend's biggest mover, jumping four spots in the standings to 9th, twenty-one points ahead of 12th. Kenseth was the runner-up in last year's event at Chicagoland and has a total of two top-5's and three top-10's in seven starts. Not far from Kenseth's hometown of Cambridge, Wis., the driver of the No. 17 Ford Fusion is clearly looking forward to gaining more points this weekend.

"We're coming off of a great weekend at Daytona and I'm really proud of how well we performed last week," Kenseth said. "I'm hoping to build on that momentum and get a win. We are getting really close to the Chase and we need as many points as we can get - you get the most points for winning, so a win would be huge for us."

Two drivers that continued their backslide in the standings at Daytona were Greg Biffle and Tony Stewart. Biffle was caught up in an early incident with Juan Pablo Montoya during last Saturday's Coke Zero 400 and finished the day in 43rd-spot. The poor finish dropped the driver of the No. 16 Roush Fenway Ford three spots to 11th, just eight points ahead of Stewart in 12th.

Fighting flu-like illnesses last weekend, Tony Stewart was forced to exit the car early and head to the infield care center for medical attention. Former teammate J.J. Yeley was on hand to serve as a relief driver, but the outcome dropped Stewart three spots to 12th. With Thursday's announcement, this is a big weekend for the two-time Cup Series champion, it also helps that Stewart is the defending race winner and has another Chicagoland trophy to back that one up.

"We tend to be a late-blooming team," Stewart explained. "We plan on doing the same thing we do every week. We're not changing our approach. Every week our goal is to win the race, and that's not going to change. That's how we've won two championships. If we go out and win the race, the points take care of themselves. It's always been that way, and it always will be that way. We'll try to go out and win the race each weekend, and at the end of the day we'll look at the point standings and see where we're at. If we don't win, we'll try to get as many points as possible."

At the moment Richard Childress Racing's Kevin Harvick is the first driver on the outside looking in, but he's breathing right down Stewart's neck. Only two points separate Harvick and Stewart and both have enjoyed a great deal of success at Chicagoland. The driver of the No. 29 Chevrolet has two wins at the 1.5-mile track - the first two - and has a total of four top-5's and five top-10's in seven starts.

Things continue to heat up amongst this group battling for their chance to compete in this year's Chase. Besides Harvick, David Ragan and Brian Vickers are also hunting the 12th-spot, but both are over one hundred points behind Stewart. They are going to need not only stellar finishes from now until Richmond, but they will also need those ahead of them to stumble big time. As far as those inside the top-12, expect positions to change from here on out.

With only 106 points separating sixth-place Jeff Gordon and thirteenth-place Kevin Harvick, things are bound to get interesting over the next few weeks. Be sure to check back with HardcoreRaceFans.com to stay in touch with all of the news and developments in this year's Race to the Chase.