NASCAR NOTEBOOK From the Tropicana 400

Three-peat? Kevin Harvick will try Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway to become the first driver in the Winston Cup era to win the first three races at a new track. Jeff Gordon, one of only three drivers who have won the first two events at a new venue, said three straight victories at any track is no easy task. "Each time you win, it gets more and more difficult," he said. "The setups do change, but at a track like this they change very little. If you had a good car one year, you should be able to come back and have a good car again. But, at the same time, the competition is going to step it up. So, it just gets tougher and tougher every year." The four-time Winston Cup champion, who has at least one win at all but four tracks -- including Chicagoland -- said strategy will play an important part in whether Harvick can get another victory Sunday in the Tropicana 400. "It's not just having the fastest car," Gordon said. "Just look at the pit strategy. It's whether you take two or four tires, or figuring out how you're going to get that track position and how you keep it."
Spectator safety: NASCAR moved Friday to strengthen its effort to prevent hoods from flying off cars and entering the grandstand. A hood flew off Robby Gordon's Chevrolet as it crashed last Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway. The hood floated over the catch fence and struck a woman, who was not believed to be seriously injured. The woman asked NASCAR not to release her name to the public. NASCAR officials spent several hours after the race scouring the track and grandstand area for pieces of the hood assembly. A NASCAR spokesman said its investigation concluded that a bolt attaching a required cable tether to the hood failed. The sanctioning body ordered a change Friday that established the minimum size of bolts attaching the cables to the hood and the rear deck lid at five-sixteenths of an inch in diameter.
Consistency: The only drivers who have been running at the end of all 17 Winston Cup races this season are two-time Chicagoland Speedway winner Kevin Harvick, series points leader Matt Kenseth, Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip and two-time series champion Terry Labonte. Going into Sunday's race here, Waltrip has the longest streak. He's been running at the finish of 27 consecutive events, dating to last season. Labonte, who is quietly having his best season in several years, is next with 23. He got off to a slow start and was 31st in the points at the end of March. But he goes into the Tropicana 400 13th in the standings, within 88 points of 10th-place Sterling Marlin.
-- Associated Press