HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Jeff Gordon has been here before.
A four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, he has raced with everything on the line. But even he couldn’t recall a scenario quite like the one at play Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
With the current format of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup in just its second season, Kevin Harvick is the only one of the four drivers competing for a championship to have experienced the “winner-take-all” feel the finale takes on.
“For me, I mean, if I go way, way back to 1997 when I battled with Mark Martin and Dale Jarrett, it came down to the final race at Atlanta between the three of us. But in that situation, I think we had a fairly decent lead,” Gordon recalled when asked about his memories of a single race "for all the marbles."
“The only other one I can compare it to is, I think it was 2004 when me, Kurt (Busch), and Jimmie (Johnson) were here at Homestead, all with a chance at winning it,” he continued. “Kurt had the lead. It wasn't even, but we all raced our guts out, and we had to basically race for the win, and I remember that final restart I was second I think to Biffle, and then Jimmie was third, and I tried to go for the win, and ended up not getting by Biffle and Jimmie got by me, and neither one of us won the championship but he passed me in points and he finished second, I finished third. Just that mentality of knowing how hard you had to push to have a shot at winning that championship was -- that would be the only comparison I have.”
That’s not to say Gordon isn’t excited for the challenge.
“I love this scenario far better where you're all on the even points; you've got to perform at a high level and just go out there to win the race, and you know there's a good chance you're going to have to win the race,” he said.
Even with so much pressure on the finale, Hendrick Motorsports owner Rick Hendrick said he has noticed Gordon’s even-keeled approach.
It hasn’t surprised him.
“Jeff Gordon has been there so many times in these kind of situations. Nothing like this situation, but he's not the kind of guy you've got to try to calm down or get his nerves put together,” Hendrick said. “He's actually working on the team, keeping them calm to go through this stretch here.”
Asked directly whether he is more excited or nervous for his final race with a championship on the line, Gordon said he’s far more excited.
“Sure there's some nerves because there's a lot on the line,” he acknowledged. “But I'm more excited because I can't believe that all that we've worked for, all that we've done all year long to try to figure out how we're going to close out this career and this final race, and here we get to do it in a way where we get to battle for the championship, I mean, you couldn't ask for more. That's all we could hope for, but it was almost too far of a lofty goal to even be realistic, and now it is.”
Hendrick’s advice to Gordon is simple – “just go out and do what you know how to do.”
On Sunday, the world will get to watch the battle unfold. To Hendrick, Gordon seems ready.
“He’s just taking it in stride,” he said. “I think that's a sign of his confidence.”