KKahne, CEdwards & JMcMurray 1-2-3 in qualifying, but the DHamlin-JJohnson-KHarvick title finale is the big story this weekend

 
 Crew chief Jimmie Elledge (R) helps put Kasey Kahne on the pole for Sunday's season finale, in what looks like the final run for the two. Kenny Francis is set to take over Kahne's team next season. (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
 

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   Johnson arrived at Homestead-Miami Speedway in fine spirits: "I got a good night's sleep. But I don't know if Denny did."
   Of Johnson's jabs, Hamlin says "If he keeps bringing up my name, he's pretty much worried about me.
   "You're not going to say you're not worried, that you're relaxed, but keep bringing up my name."
   Of  course all this is namby-pamby stuff compared to the way NASCAR racers used to play head games when battling for the title: Remember the time Dale Earnhardt was dueling Mark Martin for the title, and Earnhardt's crew – just to mess with Martin – took a couple hundred pounds of lead out of the  car and put softer left-side tires all around, and ripped off a couple of amazingly fast laps at Atlanta in practice for the season's final event?
   And at times back in the day, things got even rougher.

   Feeling the heat? Denny Hamlin insists no way (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   Will pit road games be key here? Will some teams try to block rivals during pit stops, or short-stop, or brush back? Some idea of the possible game plans should come when crew chiefs select their pit boxes, in order based on qualifying.
   Kasey Kahne, who hasn't shown much since moving from the Richard Petty-Jack Roush Ford camp to the Red Bull Toyota camp five weeks ago, and who is now facing post-season knee surgery, surprised the field by winning the pole, spoiling what was otherwise a Ford Friday. "It's very simple surgery, and we'll be ready to go January 1st," Kahne said. "Tuesday morning, 5:30 a.m., 30 minutes each knee. Six weeks and I'll be 100 percent or close to it."
   Kahne insisted it wouldn't hamper him here.

    Johnson (sixth) outqualified Hamlin (37th) and Harvick (28th) on a gorgeous Miami afternoon, 78 degrees and a nice breeze to keep humidity down. But qualifying hasn't been these guys' forte lately. Johnson himself said the last few weeks it looked like the three had been doing "some world-class pillow fighting" during qualifying. The best any of them had qualified the past two weeks was 17th.
    Johnson, over the season, has averaged a 9.5 starting spot, while Hamlin's average is 16.6 and Harvick's is 20.7.
   "Friday's haven't been our strong suit, so we'll have to fight from mid-pack Sunday," Hamlin said.
   "Qualifying hasn't been our strong point," Harvick agreed. "But our cars have been really good to get to where we need to be relatively quickly."
   Indeed Harvick has been able to work traffic remarkably well the past several weeks.
  

  

   Kevin Harvick: in a no-lose situation....which may mean he's the man to beat for the title (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   According to NASCAR's complex system of driver ratings, Edwards should beat Matt Kenseth to win this race, and Harvick should outrun Hamlin and Johnson.
   But then this is the first time in five years that Johnson has come here needing to run strong enough to win, not just strong enough to clinch the title. And team owner Rick Hendrick, surprisingly, has never won here.

   This has been pretty much a Ford track for quite a while. Three of Friday's top-five are in Fords, the best qualifier Phoenix winner Carl Edwards.
   However the story has looked to be the championship. If so, then maybe Jamie McMurray's third-fastest run could indicate a good day coming for Harvick, because their engines come out of the same shop.
   Is Hamlin feeling the heat? Nope, he insists, perhaps a bit defensively: "I feel fine.  I feel the same as I do every week. 
    "I'm never uptight.
   "I've been treating these last few days just as if it was any other race weekend.  I've just been busier."
   And how aggressive will the three be?
   "I don't know how much more aggressive you could be, without really putting yourself at a huge risk of wrecking or getting in an incident on a restart," Hamlin says.  "There's a limit there. 
    "We can all say we're going to be more aggressive, but we're really pushing it to the edge every single week.  There's not that much more to get, except for possibly restarts."
  
  

    Jimmie Johnson: after winning four in a row, number five? (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   Harvick seems the coolest and loosest about the pressure-packed title game. And that's been part of his game plan: "For us, last year at this time it was a total disaster. This year is just a 180.
   "So I've tried to make sure everybody is enjoying it and having fun, because win or lose it's been a great year for us.
   "That's pretty much the point of the whole weekend -- to have fun and try to win a race, and see where it all falls after that.
    "Those guys have a lot of scenarios. Our scenario is very simple: win the race, and they have to have a fourth and a seventh; that's the best-case scenario.
    "So for us it's simple."
    Of course Hamlin and Johnson are both talking the same way.

   Here, after his fuel mileage problem at Phoenix, which cost him the race, which he'd dominated, Hamlin says that is something "we're not going fix overnight, and we know that.
   "We're in super-conserve mode, as far as our engine package, and it hurts fuel mileage when we do that. But a mechanical failure will take us out of this thing quicker than anything.
   "So that's the number one thing – reliability.
    "Then you worry about the speed; then you worry about strategy.
    "Reliability, I feel we'll be okay. 
     "Strategy is obviously one place we could get hurt. But it just depends on where the cautions fall."
    Or don't fall, as Hamlin showed at Phoenix.
   "The one good thing is the tires are falling off so much (in speed) that it looks like it's going to be four tires or nothing all day. 
    "If there's any caution at the end, everyone is going to come get tires.
     "That's the one good thing we have on our side -- the tires are falling off so dramatically that everyone is going to need them every chance they get."

    The bottom line for these three, at the moment, appears to be that they are racing each other, regardless of what the other 40 guys in the field might be doing.
   "You are just racing those two guys," Hamlin agrees. "But we know it'll take a top-two or top-three finish to out-run those guys. 
    "That's where the mentality comes in that we have to win the race."
   Still, Hamlin as the tour leader has an advantage – regardless how well the three may run, Johnson and Harvick each still have to beat Hamlin to take the title.
 

         The starting grid for Sunday's NASCAR season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway
  
  
  

    The numbers say Carl Edwards (L) and crew chief Bob Osborne should make it two-in-a-row with a win here Sunday (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)