As soon as the checkered flag dropped on Jimmie Johnson’s 4th consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship at Homestead last year, the NASCAR community immediately began speculating on who would have a shot at the 48 team in 2010.

Denny Hamlin was considered the front runner it seemed until he tore his ACL and has since undergone surgery. Hamlin won the rain-delayed race in Martinsville before going under the knife, came back and ran the entire race in Phoenix before going to Victory Lane again at Texas. Obviously Hamlin is still in the hunt.

Kevin Harvick, meanwhile, sits on top of the point standings after starting the season off well with a win, minus the points, in the season opening Bud Shootout before the Daytona 500. Since then he has taken home the hardware at Talladega.

Behind Harvick are Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle and Jeff Gordon in 2nd through 6th, respectively. The top three drivers each have at least one win so far this season; Johnson leads the bunch with three victories already. The next three remain winless… so far.

For the No. 24 team, that winless streak which reaches back to Texas in April 2009, may very well be broken this weekend at Darlington Raceway. Gordon is currently the winningest active driver at the track ‘Too Tough To Tame” with 7 wins. David Pearson and Dale Earnhardt Sr. are the only other drivers to win more there.

“It's (Darlington) been one of my best tracks from a stats standpoint, and it's one of those challenging racetracks. I don't know a driver that doesn't love a good challenge. Our race team has been really awesome there as well putting good racecars on the track,” Gordon said. “We have a lot of great things going on and when things are going well for us, Darlington is one of those tracks that I really get excited about."

From The Lady In Black this weekend to the Monster Mile of Dover International Speedway the following weekend, Gordon’s odds of taking the checkered flag remain good considering he has posted 4 victories there. Then it is on to Charlotte Motor Speedway where he earned his first Sprint Cup Series victory back in 1994 and has since earned a spot in the NASCAR record books for earning back-to-back wins in the Coke 600 in 1997 and 1998 and going to Victory Lane in both the All-Star race and the Coke 600 in the same year in ’97.

With Gordon hungry for the taste of victory and hunting a very elusive 5th championship that has eluded him since his 4th in 2001, he seems the perfect candidate to stage a coup on Johnson’s reign.

So, who will win, the wily veteran or his young protégé who is also hunting a 5th championship? Or someone else, Happy Harvick perhaps or the practically superhuman Hamlin? Everyone can guess but no one will know for sure until the circuit rolls into Florida for the season finale in Homestead.

Until then, no one should forget that Gordon is lurking just out of the spotlight, waiting for some of his best tracks on the schedule and the opportunities he needs to show his strength and make a real run at his drive for 5.

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