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But both are currently mired in long losing streaks.

Kenseth hasn’t won in 31 races, dating back to last year’s finale at Homestead. Gordon just hit the one-year anniversary of his last victory, which came at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

“It’s a big deal to win, and it’s really hard to win,” Kenseth said. “If we don’t win a race this year, I’ll be really disappointed in that. But I can’t do anything special to try to get a win. I race as hard as I can race every single race.”

Kenseth, who is 11th in the 12-driver championship field, has never been a consistent winner. He won a career-best five races in 2002 and added four wins in 2006, but his other five seasons were just one- and two-win years.

Gordon’s predicament is more surprising. He’s had 14 consecutive multiple-win seasons, including two 10-win years and 13 victories in 1998.

Last year was another big season, with six victories and a runner-up finish to Johnson in the Chase. But he’s been off all year, has not finished higher than third anywhere and is a distant eighth in the standings.

Gordon insists he’s not feeling the pressure to win as the season hits its final stretch.

“That’s not how it works for us. The media is making a lot out of that. If we win a race this year, we deserved to win one and did the job that it takes,” Gordon said. “If we don’t win, it’s not the end of the world. We just regroup and get ourselves ready to go tear it up in 2009.”

Before his controversial win at Talladega two weeks ago, Tony Stewart was in the same winless club as Gordon and Kenseth. The two-time champion had won multiples race in each of his first nine seasons, but was riding a 33-race winless streak when he arrived at Talladega.

But he at least has been in position to win numerous races this season only to lose them in various ways.