When you talk about road course racing in the Sprint Cup Series, two names instantly come to mind: Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart.
Gordon has nine wins in 37 road course starts, Stewart has seven in 27 starts. That ranks one-two in Cup history, with no other driver having more than six (each of the four drivers tied with six have at least 46 road course starts).
Among active drivers, only Mark Martin (with four) has more than two wins, and no active driver has a better winning percentage on road courses than Gordon and Stewart.
Here's why I think one of those two will struggle while the other excels Sunday at Watkins Glen (1 p.m. ET on ESPN):
First, let's talk about Stewart, who could definitely use a win to solidify his Chase hopes. Smoke's the all-time wins leader at the Glen with five, all coming in the past nine races, with no finish worse than 11th.
Stewart has been dominant lately at The Glen. Over the past six races, he ranks first in overall speed, and his loop-data ranks are blowing away the field.
Meanwhile, Jeff Gordon has four Watkins Glen wins, but those all came from 1997-2001. Since then, he hasn't finished better than ninth over a nine-race span.
Last year, Gordon ran over 92 percent of the laps inside the top 15 but never ran higher than seventh. Over the past two races at The Glen, he hasn't had a single fastest lap run, and in 2008 he had only a pair of fastest laps.
Over the past six years, Gordon's average speed ranks 10th in the series. Not terrible, but not great considering he is the all-time leader in road course wins.
Two road course icons, but two different trends at The Glen to watch out for on Sunday.
The Eliminator: Watkins Glen
Most people just pick winners -- some by hunches, some by stats and some by just picking names off the top of their heads.
I don't pick winners -- I pick losers. I'll make my race pick by telling you why all but one driver in the field just can't win.
1. The past eight and 16 of the past 18 Watkins Glen winners finished in the top 15 in the previous year's race there (32 eliminated, 14 remaining).
2. The past 10 Watkins Glen winners finished eighth or better in the most recent Richmond race (10 eliminated, four remaining).
3. The past four and 11 of the past 14 Watkins Glen winners had a top-10 in the most recent Sonoma race (three eliminated, one remaining).
Your winner: Carl Edwards.