ESPN Sprint Cup

CONCORD, N.C. -- There's no place like home in the world of NASCAR. Drivers, and especially the men and women who make up their race teams, are seemingly on the road nonstop from February to mid-November.

It's a grueling stretch, with more nights spent in hotel rooms than their homes on a weekly basis. So racing at Lowe's Motor Speedway is a treat. Saturday night's Bank of America 500 is NASCAR's version of a "home game," and that raises the stakes on a number of levels.

For one, winning at home equals bragging rights. Especially for those on the crew. The drivers may be more and more geographically diverse these days, as are their crew members, but a good number of them hail from North Carolina.

And even if they're not natives, they often congregate together after hours to swap stories and unwind. And having one up on your buddy is always a good thing.

For the drivers, winning at Charlotte is just as big -- even if not one of the likely favorites on Saturday calls North Carolina home. In fact, for the first time in the history of NASCAR's top series, there might not be a race winner for the season born in North Carolina.

"If you look, there are probably fewer of us now than at any point in the history of NASCAR," Kyle Petty says of North Carolinians. "It's just a part of the evolution of the sport. But the state of North Carolina, as a whole, definitely played a large role in getting Nextel Cup racing to the level it is today. More than anything, the fact that we got the [NASCAR] Hall of Fame attests to that."

The hall will be built in Charlotte, not far from Lowe's Motor Speedway. And many of the initial inductees undoubtedly will be native sons. Over time, though, as the likes of Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson (California) and Tony Stewart (Indiana) and Matt Kenseth (Wisconsin) retire, the makeup of those in the hall will be as diverse as the sport has become.

So for now, virtually every race these days there's a chance for a "local" to end the day in Victory Lane.

This week, with none of the drivers in the Chase for the Nextel Cup hailing from North Carolina, fans from the area will turn their attention to Dale Earnhardt Jr., currently the most competitive of the "local" drivers.

For Earnhardt, not only will he be at home, he'll be starting a six-race run with Tony Gibson as his crew chief. Gibson takes over for Tony Eury Jr., who left Dale Earnhardt Inc. following Sunday's race at Talladega to begin working at Hendrick Motorsports, Earnhardt's future team.

"The race at Talladega was emotional for all of us since it was the last one with Tony Jr. as crew chief. But the thing I felt good about was seeing the fans on their feet when we were leading," Earnhardt said. "The guys tell me it's so loud the fans drown out the sound of the cars. I can't hear 'em inside the race car, but I can sure see them -- and I'd love to see the same thing this weekend.

"The fans here have been very supportive of us. The Charlotte races always have a little different feel for me because it's so close to home. A lot of the teams are based here and a lot of the drivers live here now, but I don't know too many who grew up 20 minutes from the track. So, to say this is my home track is really true. I can remember watching my dad so many years sittin' up there in the condos in Turn 1. When I was little, I wanted to go to as many races as I could to be around my dad and watch him every single lap. And I got to do that a lot here since it was so close to home."

Unable to reach Victory Lane so far this season, maybe Earnhardt will turn the trick with Gibson calling the shots. He's already done so for six races this season while Eury was serving a suspension following penalties resulting from a rules infraction at Darlington in May.

"He and I talked a little bit after we dropped out of the Talladega race. It meant a lot to me," Earnhardt said. "He's a great guy and we're going to be all right in these last six races. He's a lot of fun to be around and one of those guys that you just wanna win with.

"If you're going into battle, he's one of the guys you want right next to you. He deserves the shot to be in charge and he showed what he could do when Tony Jr. was suspended earlier this season. We did really well in those races, and we'll do just as well with him for the rest of the season."

Next week, though, a pair of Chasers will be in the home-state spotlight; both Denny Hamlin and Jeff Burton hail from Virginia. The odds of either winning the title at this point appear slim, but a win at Martinsville would still be special.

Rest assured, drivers are happy to win anywhere -- but doing so close to home just adds to the feeling.

Mark Ashenfelter is an associate editor at ESPN.