Tony Stewart is currently in fifth place in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points standings. (Photo: Getty Images)

3. TONY STEWART, Stewart-Haas Racing — Stewart is a past Phoenix winner and has finished in the top five here in seven of 15 starts, which bodes well for his chances on Sunday. So does his finishing average at PIR, 10.057. He will also announce Ryan Newman's new co-sponsor on Saturday, so this should be a big and festive weekend for the SHR gang.

Stewart likes the fact that PIR isn’t a cookie-cutter track and has its own personality. “You've got to drive the cars here,” he said. “Nobody's cars drive perfect here, you get one end of the track right and the other end suffers, whether it's tight or loose, and so you have to constantly adjust as a driver and that's what makes this place so much fun for us. You’ve got a gas pedal, a brake pedal, and a steering wheel and you’re using all three a lot of times during each lap. So, it’s a balancing act. That’s what makes this place fun.”

4. JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates — This week’s upset winner is Montoya, who has had a breakout season this year. And while there’s nothing in his prior PIR record that suggests he’ll do well this weekend — he has never scored a top-10 here and has a 21.400 finishing average — Montoya has been exceptional on flat tracks of late, finishing third at both New Hampshire and Martinsville.

“It would be nice if we could get a win out of these last two races,” he said. “We’ve worked really hard all year. I don’t know. We’ll see what happens. Overall I think it’s been a great season. If you sit down and look back a year ago where we were in points and where everything was going and where we are right now.”

5. DENNY HAMLIN, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota — Like Montoya, Hamlin loves him some flat tracks. In his six races at PIR, Hamlin has finished sixth or better five times, an impressive performance, to be sure. Look for another strong effort from the No. 11 Toyota on Sunday.

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEEDtv.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or Speed Channel

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of ?Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,? and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to