--Its the final race of the year, and its Jimmie Johnson's championship to lose. And if he wins, it'll be the fans' championship to endlessly whine about.
--Matt Kenseth enters Homestead with a small but realistic shot at the title. To win it, however, he'll have to hope for some bad luck to befall the 48 team. Y'know, like the kind that befell his own team last week.
--Kevin Harvick comes into the finale with a mathematical--but not realistic--chance at the championship. Kevin's probably being realistic, and already focusing on a 2014 of stifling his anger at Kurt Busch.
--On the Nationwide side, Austin Dillon comes in with an eight-point lead over Sam Hornish Jr. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Nascar does NOT want a winless champion, so I'm guessing that they'll let Austin go through inspection with that experimental V-56 engine.
--If Austin hangs on to the points lead, he'll become the first winless champion of a major Nascar touring series…sorta. You see, David Green won the 1994 Busch Series championship with only a single win--the infamous race where Mark Martin pulled into Victory Lane a lap too early. So basically, we were one screw-up away from this not really being a big deal at all.
--In the Nationwide Owners Championship, nobody cares.
--Finally, Matt Crafton will clinch the Camping World Truck Series championship tonight by simply starting the race. Never before will there be such focus on simply taking the green flag…well, there were a few races in the late-90's when it looked like Dave Marcis' car would break down on the pace lap, but still...