STEPHENVILLE, Texas - Last weekend, according to Ty Murray, Valdiron de Oliveira showed the "mark of a real veteran" when he was able to compartmentalize an injury to his lower right leg and "stay focused on the job at hand."

Despite the pain, he rode his fourth bull of the weekend and won his first Built Ford Tough Series event of the 2012 season to move within 39.25 points of J.B. Mauney, who remains atop the world standings for the second week in a row.

That is precisely the kind of focus and determination all 35 riders will need moving forward into the PBR's Stadium Tour, which will visit the Georgia Dome, Reliant Stadium, Cowboys Stadium and Ford Field.

"The thing you always see when the bull power is at its highest is the guys who ride the best rise to the top," said Murray in his weekly podcast. "I'm really looking forward to this stadium tour. I love the ride-or-go-home format. I love the fact that everyone who gets a score gets to come back and see if they can prove it again."

In the first two events at Atlanta and Houston, every rider who earns a qualified ride will come back for the Built Ford Tough Championship Round.

Then the Iron Cowboy Invitational, which features a bracket-style format, takes place in Arlington, Texas, for the third straight year, before the Last Cowboy Standing closes out the series in Detroit.

"That's the playoffs of the bull riding world," said Murray of the formats.

"In the PBR, you want to take as much luck out of it as you can. You always want it to be a riding contest. You always want to reward the guys for doing their job correctly. I think that this goes a little step further in doing that. The name of the game is that you have to get to the 8 seconds in this sport, and like I said, you might be one of the bottom guys, but you did get to the 8 seconds, so you are going to get another chance.

'As always, the bulls in the championship round are going to be a step up, and you have to come back and see if you can prove it again.'

"As always, the bulls in the championship round are going to be a step up," he continued, "and you have to come back and see if you can prove it again."

Mauney and Oliveira, who both have covered 14 of 20 bulls this season, will be considered among the favorites, as will the others ranked in the Top 5: Ryan Dirteater, 3, Austin Meier, 4, and 2010 World Champion Renato Nunes, 5.

"Ryan Dirteater has been a lot of fun to watch this year for a lot of reasons," said Murray, who noted the 22-year-old is talented and coming back from a series of injuries that would have ended the careers of most other athletes.

"Ryan is a guy that I personally know is putting in the time and the dedication into this sport," Murray added. "He's training really hard, he's putting in the work, the training, the practice, the focus, and it's awesome to see a guy that got so beat down in this sport, and how much he loved it and see how much he's willing to dedicate himself to it, and now see the dividends pay off."

Ryan Dirteater has come back from injuries that would have forced most athletes into retirement, and now sits at third in the world.

Silvano Alves, the reigning World Champion, should be another favorite.

He maintains the highest riding percentage (70.59 percent), but is still in 10th place in the overall standings. However, his ability simply to ride bulls - he's covered 12 of 17 - ought to make him the favorite to win in Detroit, when each rider who makes the whistle moves on to the next round.

Over the weekend, Sean Willingham said he thought veterans would have an advantage. Murray said, "I would agree with him. That can really help."

Competing at a special event in a bigger venue has its plusses and minuses.

"Some guys feed off that, and some guys maybe feed off that in a not so good way, with nerves and stuff like that," Murray explained.

He said he's not sure if there's any one key to success, but that it's important to "enjoy the fact that you're getting to compete at the highest level on the rankest bulls against the best guys in front of the most amount of people, and really soak that in and enjoy the journey to winning."

UP NEXT: Watch the Atlanta Invitational this Saturday on NBC Sports Network (formerly Versus - same number, new name) at 9 p.m. ET, 8 p.m. CT, 7 p.m. MT, and 6 p.m. PT.