RELATED: Gordon’s unique gifts from TMS

FORT WORTH, Texas — Jeff Gordon is playing with house money, as the saying goes, having already earned a berth in this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship later this month at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Regardless of how the four-time NASCAR champion finishes in tomorrow’s AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, or next weekend at Phoenix International Raceway, he is already assured of a shot at a fifth title.

So why not put it on cruise control for the next two weeks? With so much riding on the Homestead outcome, why not turn all of the team’s attention on that race?

In part, Gordon said, because there are enough similarities between Texas and Homestead to allow the team to continue to develop its 1.5-mile (intermediate) program.

Of no less importance, the 44-year-old noted, is the simple desire to win.

TMS and Homestead are similar in size and layout, and Goodyear officials noted earlier this month that the same tire combinations will be used for the two races.

“There is definitely some fall-off in these tires … because of the abrasiveness of the track,” Gordon said Friday at TMS. “I think in general we are just trying to step up our mile and a half performance, and that could contribute to this weekend. 

“We want to win. We want to keep the momentum going all the way into Homestead. We also need to build up our confidence on the mile-and-a-half … so we can have the confidence we need at Homestead that not only we are strong team, but we are a team that has a car that is performing on the level we need to contend for the win there.”

The nature of NASCAR competition is that the team with the fastest car doesn’t always come out on top. Pit strategies, fuel mileage and other factors can and often do come into play.

“But boy, having a fast race car is the ultimate,” Gordon said.

“That’s what we’re working on this weekend. It gives us the opportunity to step outside the box and experiment more than what we have done in the past. That’s nice, and we will try to take advantage of the position that we are in. But, taking advantage of that is trying to win not only this weekend, but also at Phoenix and Homestead.”

Gordon earned his berth in the championship-determining race by virtue of a win last weekend at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. It was his first victory of the season, and the 93rd of his career.

Seven others — Kurt and Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr., defending series champion Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano — will be vying for the remaining three spots in the title round.

Keselowski will start on the pole at Texas; Gordon will start 18th. Truex was the slowest among the Chase drivers in qualifying, and will start 23rd in the 334-lap event (2 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR).

Both scheduled practices on Saturday were canceled due to wet track conditions. Teams are unsure how that lack of track time will impact the season’s 34th race.

“We ran a fair amount of race trim yesterday,” Alan Gustafson, Gordon’s crew chief on the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports entry, told NBC Sports on Saturday. “So we’re fairly comfortable where we’re at. You’re always trying to improve, always trying to get more opportunity on the track.

“The unfortunate thing is the conditions will probably not be as good as they would have been before the rain and the jet dryers and everything else.”

But Texas, he said, is the team’s best option to prepare for the season-finale.

“Regardless of whether it’s a perfect situation or not, it’s absolutely the best opportunity we have to (dial in) our program for Homestead,” Gustafson said.

Gordon has one career win at TMS, in 2009. He finished seventh here in this year’s spring race.