Where are the WINS?

NASCAR In addition to being winless in '08, Tony Stewart has suffered the frustration of finishing 22nd or worse in the past four races. Stewart is 255 points out of first place in the standings. One of the perplexing aspects of the 2008 Sprint Cup season is how three former champions, still in the prime of their careers, have run 29 of the scheduled 36 races without winning.

Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth are in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, but they've done it without winning races.

Chase driver Jeff Burton said the biggest surprise of the Chase for him is the lackluster performance of Tony Stewart and his No. 20 team. Stewart won a championship under the old season-long formula and the Chase format, but he has struggled in the first three Chase races, with the most disappointing result a 40th at Kansas after a car-damaging spin through the grass.

"I'm surprised they weren't faster at New Hampshire and Dover," Burton said. "Tony's really fast, and that's a really good race team."

Burton doesn't believe the fact that Stewart is leaving the team at the end of the year is affecting its performance. "They might be trying harder," he said. "In this sport, you never know if you'll ever have that good a chance again."

Jeff Gordon has had several strong runs this season, including a fourth-place finish last week at Kansas, but the driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet has yet to reach Victory Lane. Gordon said he's not surprised that some of the sport's top drivers have not won. Chase driver Kevin Harvick also is winless for 2008.

"I think it just says how competitive it is," he said. "I also think with the [Car of Tomorrow], the new Impala SS, it just tells you how tricky this car is and finicky that it is.

"When teams get on to something that's working, they can just continue to work on that and keep the progress going that season, [but] when a team like ourselves hasn't been able to find it, it's difficult to get it."

He said his team's lack of success with the COT isn't a reflection of the effort they've put into it.

"We've worked harder," he said. "I can say personally I've worked harder this year testing, working with the team at the racetrack, away from the racetrack, than I have in any other season that I've run in the Cup Series, and the frustrating part is that the results aren't showing it.

"We know that we've got to continue that hard work and find everything that we possibly can to get ourselves more competitive, leading more laps and ultimately getting into Victory Lane. But we're not the only ones. As you pointed out, there are a lot of teams and drivers out there who aren't seeing success, or at least the Victory Lane success that we all would expect out of them and ourselves."

While some might attribute Gordon's victory drought to bad racing luck, he's not among them.

"I'm just somebody that's not a believer in bad luck or good luck," he said. "I believe that you make your good fortune through hard work, through putting the right tools in place, the right people in place. And when you do those things, then the things that you're working hard at are going to go your way.

"For whatever reason, we just haven't been able to hit on it this year.

"Maybe a few times we've had what I think is the best car on the track, and we had some problems along with that that prevented us from going to Victory Lane. So I think we've had a few shots at Victory Lane this year that just haven't worked out. But for the most part, we haven't performed.

"We just haven't put ourselves in position enough times and we haven't really taken full advantage of these tests and all the hard work that we have put into it."

But he's not throwing in the towel by any means.

"I know we can win some races before it's all over," he said.