But with 20 races left on the schedule, both veteran drivers know that the quickest way to deny rumors is to show they still have it behind the wheel. Ongoing struggles may breed gossip, but instant success stops rumors in their tracks.

That's why Saturday's Pepsi 400 could be the most important race of the season for both DJ and Awesome Bill. They return to a track, Daytona International Speedway, where they've enjoyed considerable success in their careers. Elliott and Jarrett (along with Jeff Gordon) are tied for most wins among active drivers at the 2½-mile superspeedway with four victories each.

It's also a track where, because cars are limited by horsepower-robbing restrictor plates, the playing field is arguably as level as it will be in the course of a season. As a result, cars (and drivers) that may not be up to par with others suddenly have as good a chance as any to reach Victory Lane -- giving struggling drivers like Elliott and Jarrett a shot to right their respective ships; the flip side, though, is that a poor performance would be even more demoralizing.

But if they both wind up with strong finishes, it would be a big boost that could spur a rally to respectability.

"It's certainly not something that's impossible because if you look back over the history of this sport, I think every single race team -- no matter how good they were -- has been through this type of situation and you just have to fight back and work through it," Jarrett said. "But it does make it difficult because you're searching so much and you're trying so many things. I think everybody is probably working together more than I've ever seen before and, hopefully, that will speed the process up a little. We just have to be patient."

Elliott, meanwhile, says hard work in his team's engine and chassis shop is on the verge of paying off. Team owner Ray Evernham and the rest of the organization has been pointing to this weekend's race, hoping to take advantage of the parity that comes with restrictor-plate racing.

"We've definitely made some strides on the superspeedways since the 500 (season-opening Daytona 500, in which he finished 32nd)," said Elliott, who leads all active drivers with five career poles at Daytona. "We were better at Talladega than we were to start the season."

Elliott also leads all active drivers with 15 top-five finishes at Daytona, and is tied with Terry Labonte with 24 top-10s, nearly half of the 52 career starts he's made at the track. That, combined with the gains the team hopes it has made has Elliott feeling very optimistic heading into Saturday's race.

"We feel like we've got things going in the right direction as far as what we need to do for this race," said Elliott. "Our motor program's coming along and we've gotten a handle on a few more things. You just never know. The best you can do is just try to stay out of trouble and hope you're there at the end. Most of that is from having a good car but a lot of that is just being in the right place at the right time or not being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"I struggled trying to get a feel for what I had to do to drive with this foot, and I feel like I was a little bit of a negative to this team. We kept on plugging away at it though and Sonoma (finished fourth despite the lingering foot injury) was a good day for us. We needed that little boost after what we've been through the past month or so. I'm anxious to keep that going into the part of the season where we've done pretty well in the past."

Jarrett probably said it best when he quipped about how bad his luck truly has gotten: "I feel ready to just start the year over."

There's no hitting the replay button on this season, but come Saturday Jarrett and Elliott at least have a shot at quieting the rumormongers.

Jerry Bonkowski covers NASCAR for ESPN.com. He can be reached at Motorsportwriter@Yahoo.com.