Gil Martin, crew chief of the No. 29 Chevrolet driven by Kevin Harvick, is just fine with having most of the attention heading into NASCAR's Ford Championship weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway on the two teams ahead of his in the Chase standings.

In fact, he's so comfortable with it that he already has made plans to take his entire team deep-sea fishing upon its arrival in South Florida.

“

We're going to run flat out all day long with nothing to lose. The other guys somewhat will have to play a little bit of defense. We're not intending on playing any defense at all. We're going to throw the long ball all day long and see where it ends up.

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-- GIL MARTIN

"We're nice and prepared and going to load the car up [Tuesday night]," he said. "The team is leaving in the morning at 9 a.m. to go deep-sea fishing on Wednesday in Key West for a little team building, and we'll be ready to go on Friday morning."

Friday is when the competition will begin heating up at the 1.5-mile track, where the closest Chase in history will be settled in the Ford 400 on Sunday. Denny Hamlin currently holds a 15-point edge over Jimmie Johnson in the Chase standings, with a relaxed Harvick just 46 points off the pace and still well within the hunt for what would be his first Cup championship.

Martin was asked Tuesday during a teleconference call with the media about possibly gaining an advantage because the No. 11 Toyota team of Hamlin and the No. 48 Chevy team of four-time defending champion Johnson have been more actively engaged in their own war of words.

"I guess there is a two-part answer to that. One, I'm surprised that we have stayed out of it because we're usually in the middle of most of this kind of stuff," Martin said.

"But secondly, I mean, I think it's kind of a waste of time to do a lot of smack talking with the 48. They have been in this position many times. They haven't been trailing going into Homestead [in previous championship seasons] -- but a team of that caliber, you're not going to do a lot of smack talking and bother them a whole lot. They're going to go down there focused with a mission, and I think a lot of that has the potential of backfiring on you."

Martin said after holding the latest team meeting that included Harvick, he is confident the No. 29 team is poised to make its own strong run at a championship. He said they are taking a brand-new car with "one of the best engines produced all year long" by Earnhardt Childress Racing.

"We know the job that we have at hand, and we're going with our best piece, and I think our driver is ready and psyched up about it after our meeting [Tuesday] morning. We're just looking forward to it," Martin said.

Martin insisted that he is not offended by the fact that most of the pre-Homestead title talk has been centered on Hamlin and Johnson, with his driver almost an afterthought. Hamlin's crew chief, Mike Ford, briefly couldn't even remember Harvick's name when he was asked about the No. 29 team during Tuesday's series of crew-chief teleconferences.

"No, I'm not offended at all because of where we were last year at this time. We didn't know what we would be doing for a living last year at this time," said Martin, in reference to Harvick's 19th-place finish in the points last year. "So being in the position that we're in right now and to lead the points most of the year, that already means a lot. And if you go back to traditional points we would have over a 300-something-point lead, which goes to show what a caliber of a season that we've had.

"It bothers me that we're down 46 points, don't get me wrong. But if they're not talking about us constantly, that's OK. If we win the championship, everybody will have a lot to talk about."

As for Martin's decision to go deep-sea fishing with the guys, well, let's just say that no one was left with the impression that the 29 guys will have to dodge boats carrying the 11 or the 48 teams on the open water. Again, Martin is fine with doing things a little differently and seeing what happens.

"As far as going deep-sea fishing, we had this car prepared, ready to load in the truck, and I thought it would be a good idea for the guys to go down, just relax, clear their mind from all this for a day or so and go into Homestead because we know that we can finish no worse than third [in the season standings]," Martin said. "So we're going to run flat out all day long with nothing to lose. The other guys somewhat will have to play a little bit of defense. We're not intending on playing any defense at all. We're going to throw the long ball all day long and see where it ends up."

After they throw a few lines in the ocean and see how many fish they can come up with, of course. But the biggest one to catch remains on Sunday.