Even though the season is barely past the midway point, the hunt for the championship -- or even hope of finishing the season in the top-5 or top-10 in the standings -- is all but over already for nearly two dozen of the regular full-time drivers on the Winston Cup circuit.

When it comes to notoriety and media attention, there is precious little of either for them at this stage of the game. Reporters just don't come around if you're not winning or, at the very least, contending. When you're mired somewhere between 25th and 43rd place in the standings -- the same range in the finish column that you're also usually found race after race -- your name just doesn't seem to drop off people's tongues like Gordon, Marlin, Martin, Johnson, Jarrett, Wallace and Stewart.

	Ward Burton may be out of the championship hunt, but he's still a threat to win every week.

Yet before they can thankfully put the 2002 campaign behind them, drivers whose fortunes degenerated to also-ran status during this year's first 18 races still have strong motivation to do whatever they can in the remainder of the season to still somehow, some way, improve upon the position they find themselves in currently.

In other words, there's still plenty to race for. Even when you're hovering around 40th-place in the standings, there's still ways of turning what has been sour apples into semi-sweet tasting apple juice, so to speak.

The primary motivation for any driver that's way down in the standings is simple: continue to work as hard as he can to try and make somewhat of a climb -- even if it's just a few rungs upward -- on the points ladder. After all, finishing the season 35th can be viewed by some as being a long way -- and ultimately a lot more successful -- than finishing 40th or lower.

But there are other incentives, as well. First and foremost is employment for next season. If a driver is on his way out of the team he's racing for now, or if he's bidding to jump to another team, obviously the higher he can finish in the standings, the more positive that bodes for the 2003 campaign.

There's also the desire to cast a good impression for sponsors, both existing and potential benefactors. After all, sponsors are a driver's and a team's meal ticket. No sponsor, no racing, it's that simple. So even if a driver is currently mired in 35th or 40th position in the standings, any improvement, any positive points during the second-half of the season that can be pointed to, have the potential to bode well for both next season and the team's overall budget.

How many times have we heard a driver say, "Well, our season may not have been that good behind the wheel of the (fill in sponsor's name and make of car), but we were right there with the leaders at (fill in the venue) for most of the race. We had a good car and had a chance to win, but we (fill in the reason, or excuse, whatever the case may be)."

Drivers love to boast about things like that, putting an ultra-positive slant on sometimes the most miniscule positive happenstance, and knowing that current or potential sponsors have a way of eating up that boasting, thinking that the driver will somehow miraculously go from 40th in 2002 to 1st in 2003 under their sponsorship banner. No wonder NASCAR is considered racing's equivalent of Spin City.

Yet another reason for a driver and team to keep their chin to the wheel and pedal to the floor is the continuing evolution of a team's rebuilding program (such as what we've seen this season at Petty Enterprises or Morgan-McClure Racing), or the building of a new team this season (such as the teams behind drivers such as Robby Gordon, Jeff Green and Casey Atwood).

And then there's perhaps the most basic and bottom line reason that keeps drivers and teams motivated. When all else is lost, when the potential championship-celebrating champagne will be kept on ice for another year at least, all that's left for a driver and team is simple, unadulterated pride.

Deep down inside, each and every team member knows their team is better than it has shown thus far this season, and if it means reaching even deeper within, to keep pushing when you feel you've pushed as much as you possibly can already, pride is all you have left to stake the rest of your season upon.

Tied in with all the above are drivers who, with little else to hope for, become Spoilers with a capital S, guys with the least to lose and the most damage to inflict, the ones who can single-handedly destroy a season for other drivers, particularly as the Winston Cup championship chase comes down to an oftentimes nail-biting, heart-pounding end in September, October and November.

Yet at the same time, the guys with nothing to lose, whose seasons are already in the tank, can call their season a success if they're able to pull a rare win or high finish out of thin air, and in the process, knock another driver who has something to race for out of the way.

As the Winston Cup tour swings back to Long Pond, Pa., for this weekend's Pennsylvania 500, one look at the current standings, beginning at 25th position and scrolling down the rest of the list, shows that virtually each and every also-ran driver is a threat to his more successful counterparts on any given Sunday or Saturday.

Some of the top contenders for the most dangerous spoiler role for the rest of the 2002 season include:

* 25th-ranked Ward Burton, who showed with a win at New Hampshire this past Sunday that he still has plenty of mileage left in him, even after many people wrote him off due to the struggles he endured since winning the season-opening Daytona 500 in February.

* 27th-ranked Kevin Harvick , whose win two weeks ago at Chicago, coupled with Jeff Green's No. 2 finish at New Hampshire, have keyed a resurgence of the entire Richard Childress Racing operation. Given the contrast between the phenomenal season he had last season and the mediocre campaign he's had in 2002, Harvick could potentially be the most dangerous driver on the circuit for the remainder of the season because, if for nothing else, the potential he possesses and what he did last season.

* 29th-ranked John Andretti, who is long overdue for a win or high finish. This is also a very pivotal year for the nephew of open-wheel legend Mario Andretti, as he's in the final year of his contract to drive for Petty Enterprises. While teammate and team owner Kyle Petty has enjoyed resurgence in 2002, Andretti continues to be saddled with misfortune and bad luck. If there's any driver who needs a shot in the arm performance-wise, it's Andretti.

* 30th-ranked Mike Skinner, coming off an outstanding qualifying effort that put him on the outside pole at New Hampshire. That much-needed boost to the entire No. 4 team can only mean bigger and better things for Skinner as he continues rebuilding both his own career and the fortunes of the Morgan-McClure Racing team.

* Having perhaps lesser shots at success -- but still able to turn a wheel at the right time -- are drivers such as Ken Schrader, Brett and Todd Bodine, Joe Nemechek, Johnny Benson (who returns to action this Sunday after a second bout this season with broken and cracked ribs) and Steve Park.

With each passing race, drivers like Marlin, Martin, Gordon, etc., have to drive more careful and cautious. They don't want to take unnecessary chances that will put them, and their championship hunt, at risk. So, for the most part, drivers with the Winston Cup trophy in their sights will run safe, semi-conservative races for the remaining 17 weeks of competition.

But for guys like Burton, Nemechek, Andretti, Park and the others, they can cast risk and caution to the wind. They can drive at warp speed, not have to worry about points as much as the leaders, can recklessly (within reason, of course) bang fenders with the best of them, can dip and dodge and keep race leaders at bay behind them, and, in short, drive all-out and without any real worries.

Imagine a guy like Benson or Andretti at the end of this season. When they look back in review at the 2002 campaign, they can admit they didn't have the best of seasons by any means. But if they were the one driver who single-handedly knocked someone like Marlin or Gordon or Stewart out of the championship race, such a feat is almost as good as winning the championship itself.

Jerry Bonkowski covers NASCAR for ESPN.com.