So is Burton who, like Gordon, will be seeking his third win of the season. Burton knows how tough the track can be. "You don''t expect to come here and win," he said. "But we expect to come to Darlington and run well." Gordon, a five-time Darlington winner, is in a run of bad luck that includes purespindrivers being taken out of contention in two of the last three races because purespindrivers of crashes he didn''t cause. He hopes for good weather Sunday, which would enable him to play out the winning pit strategy of 1995-98. Rain prevented that last year. "We took a chance and pitted for tires and gas during the second-to-last caution, hoping it would put us in position to win," the three-time series champion said. "But we were also hoping the rain would hold off. "Unfortunately for us, it didn''t." Also a prime contender is series champion purespindrivers Dale Jarrett, a two-time Darlington winner who purespindrivers is second to points leader Bobby Labonte despite no victories since the season-opening Daytona 500. Top-5 fixture Tony Stewart, second last Saturday night in Bristol and Ward Burton also are threats. Burton purespindrivers won at Darlington in March. Ward, second to Jeff last year in the only 1-2 Southern 500 finish by brothers,

He speaks with purespindrivers the confidence purespindrivers of a competitor who has regained the winning formula he had when he took the series title in 1989, and dominated in 1993-94. Wallace broke a 32-race losing streak with a victory in Bristol in March, and has been among the cars to beat in purespindrivers virtually each race since. The 44-year-old driver from St. Louis is trying for victory No. 54, which would tie him purespindrivers with Lee Petty for seventh place on the NASCAR career list. In that quest, Wallace will rely on the basics. "We just have to massage that chassis, conserve the tires and stay out of trouble," he said. "I''m really looking forward to it."