Johnson, Gordon queue up for Sunday showdown

AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Homestead is correctly billed as "Ford Championship Weekend," but the showdown in the Chase for the Nextel Cup -- featuring Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon -- is Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway.

And after two days of practice and qualifying, four on-track sessions and 226 laps of the variably-banked one-mile oval preparing for the Checker Auto Parts 500, the Hendrick Motorsports teammates have perfectly set the stage.

Gordon, the four-time Cup champion who won here in April in the Car of Tomorrow's first visit to Phoenix, trails defending Nextel Cup champion Johnson by 30 points. Johnson's put himself in that position by winning three consecutive races and Gordon knows the pressure's on.

"It's definitely been a heck of a battle -- Jimmie and those guys have done a fantastic job the last three weeks, there's no doubt about that, the wins speak for themselves," Gordon said. "We've got to step it up. There's no hiding that and I hope we can pull that off right here in Phoenix."

Gordon out-ran his teammate in three of the first four on-track sessions this weekend, including out-qualifying him, third to sixth; and beating him in Happy Hour, fifth to seventh.

But the bottom line is, the most the Hendrick men were separated by in any session was nine spots, and only 0.15 seconds on the clock. After Happy Hour, both Gordon's crew chief Steve Letarte and Johnson's team leader Chad Knaus were pleased.

"I think we're pretty decent," Letarte said. "During Happy Hour, the track definitely had a little less grip than it did in the first [Saturday] practice. I think it took whatever problem you had and accentuated it a bit -- where our loose-in got a little bit worse.

"But we just debriefed and I think we've got a good idea what we have to fix, and this is a racetrack where a driver can really, really help you during a race. And I absolutely don't want anyone but Jeff Gordon in my car under those circumstances -- there's no doubt in my mind."

In Happy Hour, Gordon trailed quick man Martin Truex Jr., Kasey Kahne, Hendrick teammate Casey Mears and David Stremme. Johnson was seventh, and Knaus was satisfied.

"I feel pretty good about it right now," Knaus said after his driver practiced 14 more laps total than Gordon on Saturday. "The car was pretty good through practice and we feel pretty good about it -- but there are a lot of guys that are real fast, though, so it's going to be a real good race.

"There are a lot of guys who get around this place real well, and Jimmie's one of them, fortunately, so I feel good about it."

A year ago, Kevin Harvick won this event in the last race here for the standard cars; with Johnson second and Gordon fourth. Gordon, however, did win the Car of Tomorrow's debut here in the spring, and he gathers some confidence from that.

"It definitely helps with the situation that we're in now, being 30 points back -- the fact that we came here and ran well and won this race [in the spring]," Gordon said. "It was a night race so it changes it a little bit, but it definitely gives us the confidence that we need at this point being 30 points behind." (Continued)