Philadelphia, PA (Best E Casino) - While the Nextel Cup battle heads to Martinsville for a likely rematch between Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, the final race of the Formula One season will see three drivers with dreams of being crowned World Champion.

NASCAR

Nextel Cup

Subway 500 - Martinsville Speedway - Martinsville, VA

It's as if the alignment of the universe is set to get Jeff Gordon a fifth Nextel Cup title.

He finished the NASCAR "regular" season with three poor finishes in four outings, getting them out of the way before the "Chase for the Nextel Cup" began. He qualified a mediocre 18th in the first race at New Hampshire, but finished a solid second to Clint Bowyer's first-ever Nextel Cup win.

At Dover, Gordon was not really fast enough to compete for the win, but finished 11th, avoiding all the misfortune that befell others in the "Chase."

The NASCAR caravan pulled into Kansas the next week and it was another "war of attrition." Gordon got caught a lap down when he made a green-flag pit stop just before a caution flag, but he got back on the lead lap, avoided the carnage of the last few laps and finished fifth.

The series moved to Talladega where Gordon wins more often than not and he avoided the "Big One" taking his fifth win of the season, sixth at Talladega and 80th of his career.

Last Saturday night, Gordon went to Jimmie Johnson's "house" and played the "fuel game" just well enough to edge Bowyer for his second win in a row.

"I have to thank Clint Bowyer for racing me clean," said Gordon after the race. "And Kyle Busch, I ran out of gas going into turn one, it just didn't pick up the fuel in the tank, and he could have run all over the top of me."

Getting a break from Kyle Busch, even though he is one of Gordon's Hendrick Motorsports teammates for a few more weeks, is not something that one could have expected. Even owner Rick Hendrick was telling Gordon to expect the worse from Busch on the final restarts.

He also benefited from the fact that although Johnson had the faster Chevy, he spun out, without anyone's help, at lap 231 and finished 14th.

So Gordon brings a 68-point lead over Johnson and 78-point lead over Bowyer to the 0.526-mile Martinsville Speedway short track where Gordon is a favorite to win the race.

Gordon has five consecutive top-five finishes at Martinsville and seven career wins there. For his career he has earned 23 top-10s in 29 starts with a 7.3 average finish.

But Johnson isn't likely to go away this week either. The No.48 Lowe's Chevrolet driver has won the last two events there, owns 10 top-10s in 11 starts and an even better 6.6 average finish.

In April's spring race, Johnson and Gordon put on quite a show which saw the defending series champion edge his teammate and car's co-owner by 0.065 seconds. Bowyer finished 11th in that race, but in three starts on the flat half-mile oval he has yet to score a top-10 and his average finish of 18.7 might knock him out of the championship.

If Gordon makes it three in a row, the title might be his before the series reaches Homestead. If Johnson can manage to cut into Gordon's lead at Gordon's favorite track, it might be just the incentive to send him to a second consecutive championship.

Craftsman

Kroger 200 - Martinsville Speedway - Martinsville, VA

After weeks and weeks of following Mike Skinner in the standings, Ron Hornaday Jr. has held the top spot for three of the last four races. Hornaday Jr. took over the championship lead at the Gateway International Raceway in the first race of September after Skinner had held the lead from race No.3 and kept it for 14 straight weeks.

Hornaday Jr.'s margin was just four little points after Gateway and it is still a tenuous lead - just 14 points.

And it is not likely to get bigger this week. Back in March at Martinsville, Skinner won in dominant fashion, leading all but seven laps. His trip to Victory Lane was rarely in doubt. The No.5 Toyota has two career wins at Martinsville and three consecutive top-10s. He also leads the series in driver rating (117.2), winnings ($613,800), laps led (970), poles (9) and top-fives (14).

Hornaday Jr. has never won at Martinsville and while he finished sixth in March, couldn't crack the top-10 in either 2006 race.

This will be the final short track race of the season in the truck series and the racing has been very close.

"I am looking forward to Martinsville," said Skinner. "We just came off of a good test session in New Smyrna and I am excited about this weekend. We got the pole and won here in March, so hopefully we can run well again here."

"We are taking a really good truck to Martinsville," said Hornaday Jr. "It is the same truck we won with at ORP (O'Reilly Raceway Park) and it has been a great truck. It has not finished outside the top-10 so far this year."

Travis Kvapil, Todd Bodine and Johnny Benson, the winner of the last truck race at Talladega, are all more than 233 points behind the two leaders and would need a miracle to get back in the championship picture.

Still, when a race car driver gets on the track he wants to win and the three should be competitive. It should be a fun race to watch.

CHAMP CAR

Lexmark Indy 300 - Surfer's Paradise - Queensland, Australia

After not being on track since the first week in September, the Champ Car Series returns to the track at one of the drivers' favorite venues - the Australian Gold Coast.

"I only touched down in Brisbane this morning and I am already loving this place," said rookie Simon Pagenaud. "It's great, warm weather and the beaches are out of this world. I've been looking forward to coming down to this event all season."

When we last left the series, Justin Wilson was winning the inaugural Bavarian Champ Car Grand Prix at the TT Circuit Assen in the Netherlands. The No.9 RuSport driver crossed the finish line 7.226 seconds ahead of Jan Heylen for his first win of 2007.

The win pushed Wilson past Robert Doornbos and into second place in the championship behind three-time series champion Sebastien Bourdais. However, Bourdais holds a commanding 58-point lead in his attempt for a fourth consecutive title as he leaves the series for Formula One in 2008.

Bourdais, who finished seventh at Assen, couldn't clinch the title, but crept a bit closer with his 10th top-10 of the season. But it seems inevitable that Bourdais and the Newman/Haas/Lanigan team will add the fourth notch this weekend.

FORMULA ONE

Brazilian Grand Prix - Autodromo Carlos Pace at Interlagos - Sao Paulo, Brazil

It wasn't that long ago that "super" rookie Lewis Hamilton looked like the next World Champion.

Hamilton overcame rain, fog and the field to capture the Japanese Grand Prix at the Fuji Speedway and put himself in great position to win the Formula One drivers championship. After the race had been completed, Hamilton owned a 12- point lead over McLaren teammate and two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso and Ferrari's top driver Kimi Raikkonen by 17 points.

There were just two events left on the schedule and Hamilton had finished worse than third just four times all season. All he had to do was maintain his margin and he would clinch the championship - the first time ever for a rookie in the series.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the coronation...the Chinese Grand Prix.

Everything seemed ok when Hamilton grabbed the pole at the Shanghai International Speedway. But that was in dry weather. As the race began a rain storm moved in and possibly changed the entire championship.

Hamilton got away cleanly while Felipe Massa and Alonso exchanged third and fourth place twice on the first lap in some great side-by-side racing. By the end of the second lap, the steady rain had begun, but Hamilton was still building his lead.

The track began to dry as the storm moved away, but another was expected to come along in 10 minutes. Hamilton's brain trust left Hamilton out through the first pit stop on the original tires and they were beginning to fail. Raikkonen was six seconds faster than the points leader. Alonso was also catching Hamilton, he was now just six seconds behind his teammate.

It wasn't until lap 30 that Hamilton turned down pit lane, but he spun into the gravel trap after one of the tires blew apart and he got stuck.

Raikkonen went on to win the race, which he had to do to stay alive. He beat Alonso by 9.806 seconds as both drivers were buoyed by Hamilton's problems. Instead of celebrating a championship, there were now three drivers who dreamed of being the 2007 World Champion.

Hamilton (107 points) still leads, but his margin is just four points over Alonso (103) and seven points over Raikkonen (100). If Alonso wins the race, Hamilton must finish second to clinch the title. If Raikkonen wins, he must have Hamilton finish no better than sixth and Alonso no better than third.

"I've been in these situations before and I can cope with the pressure," said Hamilton. "Kimi and Fernando have more experience, but I know my character - I'm cool about things and I've bounced back from what happened in China."

It should make for a great race, one that shouldn't be missed.