Jeff Gordon driving silver Axalta vehicle for final race at Homestead

Hamlin jokingly said he would welcome being the victor of Gordon’s final race (he is retiring after this season). Thank you for taking the time to help not only Johnson, but drivers across the series. Even the folks in Las Vegas are riding with the defending champion.

On paper – where the games aren’t played – the championship to be decided on Sunday night seems a breakaway layup for Harvick. “If we have been going right into a non-championship race, I’d have the identical reply as a result of it is simply will depend on what’s occurring”. But I hope Martin Truex Jr. also gets his due this week. He’s been through this scenario.

Joey Logano, who was eliminated from the Chase last Sunday will start second. Harvick will start 13th, the lowest slot of the four Chase finalists. Harvick’s last minute attempt to get back into the top 12 fell short by. “Harvick is the coolest Cool Hand Luke character in the NASCAR garage”.

The unique thing about the Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead is the nature of the victor.

On Tuesday afternoon, Zoo Miami trotted out Koda, its “Wildlife Prognosticator”.

Pearn said it doesn’t bother him in the least that his team keeps getting overlooked.

“It shows how we have run this year and that is what has got us here”. Hopefully I have a long career in this and this is one season and a season we are proud of.

Logano was second-fastest at 176.263. That combination is hard to beat. “He was on the pole a year ago”.

Pockrass: No. Both the 3 and the 43 will race next year. But hardship has befallen Truex off the racetrack as well. Now two years after the controversy, Truex has found his groove, with a win at Pocono and 8 top-5 finishes so far this season. Then during the Chase, you kept pushing your team to give you what they can, and they did.

“I think the confidence between myself and Rodney is, obviously, pretty high”, Harvick said.

All Harvick has to do is finish ahead of his three competitors and he’ll make history.

“We had good meetings, I think we’re all in a good place right now”, Gibbs said. If I am ever lucky enough to watch my future kids race, I want them to aspire to be like you.

Jeff Gordon climbs out of his vehicle after qualifying for Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup series auto race at Phoenix worldwide Raceway, Friday, November 13, 2015 in Avondale, Ariz.

Koda and the humans notwithstanding, Harvick likely will have his hands full. Gordon would go on to score five total Brickyard 400 victories, tying Formula One legend Michael Schumacher for the most wins at the iconic track. Busch’s story would be the most impressive considering the seriousness of his injuries. He has finished outside the top 22 in three of his past five races at Homestead. “Nope, nope, not at all”, he said when asked about that 23rd-place average. “We’ll learn from that when we got back and talk to Denny”.

“I just love this race track”. Past year we broke a rear end part running fifth; it wasn’t of our own doing.

When you’re a single-car team, competing for NASCAR’s biggest prize, you have to work smart and do things a bit differently. I don’t know what else to say about him. “You have Hendrick (with Gordon) with four cars”. Our alliance is with Richard Childress Racing. “They did a good job adjusting and accounting for tyre fall off. We improved every round”.

“Is it disappointing we’re not racing with these guys for a championship?” We all love you, and I want to thank you for everything you have done.

NASCAR chairman Brian France admitted it’s a hard decision to stop a race before the scheduled finish, especially in a winner-take-all race Sunday for the championship. I felt like the balance of the vehicle was good. Thank you for all the memories, and thank you giving us fans all you have for this last season.

Until the green flag drops, NASCAR will be all Gordon all the time. “I think Matt is, too”. “I hated we had to put that extra lap on the tires”.

“There’s always pressure”, Gordon said in the Thursday champions press conference. “That to me is what makes a great crew chief”. “That got me fired up and motivated”.

He won’t win. That’s what people around NASCAR are thinking. In a recent poll of 50 full-time media members and 50…

Busch would like to have a Cup championship to match the one his big brother Kurt took home in 2004, the first year of the Chase.

“We dealt with that in Martinsville, as a matter of fact”. But to do it as a champion – oh, my gosh.