Is this the year HMS finally wins at Homestead? (cont'd)

"I feel like our package going into Homestead this year is probably the best that we've had yet, so I'm excited about that," Knaus said. "I think we can go in there this weekend with the aggressiveness that we need. We sat on the pole there a couple years ago. I think we can go down there and battle for the pole and hopefully get ourselves in position to race for the win.

"But you know, we're not going to do anything silly, either, to take ourselves out of contention or out of a place that we can possibly win this thing. So we're just going to have to play it by ear and hopefully we can be in a position to race for it and hopefully win this thing. It would be awesome."

No matter where his top three cars finish Sunday -- Gordon is third by 42 points over Kurt Busch -- Hendrick will come away the big winner. And he's ready for whatever happens.

"I can tell you what I'm going to do already in Homestead," he said. "I'm going to go to the loser first, then I'm going to go to the guy that finishes second. And I'm going to tell them all that [this] week so they know.

"The worst thing in the world would be if I'm doing high-fives in the pits, Jimmie broke, Mark won, these guys are going to say, 'Hey, he wanted Mark to win, anyway.' I try to give them a snapshot of I'm going to be on neutral ground. I love 'em all."

Now, about those tuxedos.

FIVE TO WATCH

Greg Biffle, No. 16: The Biff is The Man at Homestead. He has won three times there. In fact, he won three straight times (2004-06). And he drives a Ford, the car that has dominated in the swamps.

Kyle Busch, No. 18: He has yet to win at Homestead in a Cup car, and you have to imagine he would very much like to steal a bit of the attention away from the Hendrick team for which he used to drive.

Juan Montoya, No. 42: Montoya would like to win this race for two reasons. A victory on Sunday would be his first on a Sprint Cup oval and it would be in front of his adopted-hometown fans.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 88: Where to start on reasons he would like to win? Let's just say that it can't be much fun being asked why it is that all his teammates have won races this year but he has not.

Carl Edwards, No. 99: Edwards won last year's race, and you can be reasonably certain he would like to not end the season with a zero in the victory column.

TRACK CHATTER

Jimmie Johnson: "We need to show up, blinders on, focused, qualifying trim, get all that we can. We have to practice, make sure I have that car as comfortable as possible and as fast as possible, so if a caution comes out at the wrong time, we're down a lap, I can work my way back. That's the part where we just can't coast. We can't chill out. We have to stay focused and keep our heads down on the job at hand."

Kyle Busch: "You have to idolize the guy. Who can win four straight titles in this type of era? Not even Jeff Gordon could do it. It's a big deal. Those guys have really got it together and, one of these days, whoever beats them, I can't imagine if they can go five straight."

Alan Gustafson: "As far as what the 48 has that nobody else has, that's a really tough question to answer. If I could answer that, I'd be working really, really hard to figure out -- or to implement that or whatever it is. But I can tell you that they work as hard or harder than anybody else in the series consistently, and they're both at the pinnacle of the sport, both Chad and Jimmie. ... I've heard some people bring the Tiger Woods analogy into the equation, and you sit there and you think about that, and that's probably one of the best ways to summarize how good they are and have been able to be over the last four years."

• Homestead: Numbers | Fantasy Preview | Power Rankings | Tiering