The Essentials
Race: Ford 400Time: Sunday 3:15 PM ET
TV/Radio: ABC, MRN Radio
Twitter: Updates @ FanHouseRacing
Forecast: Mostly sunny, High 60s
Distance: 267 laps (400.5 miles)
Pole Winner: Jimmie Johnson
2008 Winner: Carl Edwards
The Storylines
Like Jimmie Johnson or not, and like the Chase or not, should Johnson go on to win his fourth career Sprint Cup championship Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway it would be completely worthy of every bit of the praises gien and the historical references noted.
In doing so, Johnson would join his teammate and mentor Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty as the only four drivers in NASCAR Sprint Cup history to secure four career championships. Additionally, Johnson would take sole possession of the NASCAR record for most consecutive championships -- a record he shared this season with Cale Yarborough at three.
In order for that to happen, Johnson has to first start the race to lock out Gordon from a championship effort and then finish just 25th or better to keep Mark Martin from having a chance at the title. He'll do so in a car that's got a nice winning track record in 2009.
Johnson's No. 48 will be Hendrick Motorsports chassis No. 48-553, the same machine Johnson won with at Indianapolis and California earlier this year.
Jeff Burton appears to be heading towards the off-season with a nice bit of hope that 2010 will be drastically different and hopefully drastically more successful than the 2009 season he and his Richard Childress Racing teammates endured.
Last week at Phoenix, Burton drove to a second-place finish -- his best of the season and just his fourth top-5 effort -- and Saturday afternoon at Homestead he paced the final practice session for Sunday's race. He'll line up 26th on the grid for the green flag in a brand new race car that has yet to see track time.
Kyle Busch is finally a champion in a NASCAR national series.
Busch, who won nine races in 2009 and finished 2nd 11 times, took home the Nationwide Series championship Saturday night by winning the last Nationwide Series race of the year -- though Carl Edwards made a crazy move on the last lap and nearly got by Busch.
Kevin Harvick and his wife Delana had a pretty good Friday night at Homestead.
Ron Hornaday, driving for Kevin Harvick Inc., won the Camping World Truck Series title -- his fourth title in that series -- while Harvick drove to victory lane in his self-owned truck. The result? A pair of burnouts on the frontstretch that produced enough smoke to rival a small wildfire.
