Kevin Harvick (Left) and crew chief Gil Martin (Right) have enjoyed a stellar season together in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Martin said Harvick and the 29 team are fired up and ready to race for all the marbles, especially considering they can fall no lower than third in points this week. After a fishing trip out of Key West, they’ll settle in to try to lift Harvick from third to the championship.

“We know the job we have at hand, and we’re going down there with our best piece,” Martin said. “We met this morning. I think our driver’s ready.”

Asked what Harvick can boast over the other two contenders, Martin said, “I think he works his best under these kinds of conditions. Head games will not bother him. He’s one of the best there is at playing head games. I’m very happy to have a driver with that strong of a mental aspect about him.

“I wouldn’t swap him for anybody right now.”

Martin said his team will be full bore from the opening bell Friday.

“We’re not intending on playing any defense at all,” he said. “We’re going to throw the long ball all day long and see where it ends up.”

Ford said Hamlin sits in the best position with a 15-point lead. If he wins the race or finishes second and leads a lap, he wins the title regardless of the other contenders’ performances.

“We have to make sure that we don’t do anything stupid,” he said. “If we don’t have to win the race, then you don’t take chances to do that. You don’t make mistakes that take you out of contention at the end of the day. But you can’t play defense in this situation because you’re not sitting on a huge lead.”

Knaus, perhaps playing a mind game of his own, has repeatedly suggested that the pressure is on Hamlin this weekend because the other teams can swing for the fences.

Chad Knaus has been the crew chief for the No. 48 team and Jimmie Johnson for all four NASCAR Sprint Cup titles. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

“The pressure is on the guys on the 11,” he said. “They have to be cognizant of what we’re doing and what the guys on the 29 are doing.”

As for the 48, Knaus said his team, which has rolled into Homestead with the point lead the past four seasons, is forced to approach the race differently.

“I think the biggest concern that we have currently is that we haven’t gone to Homestead to truly race yet,” he said. “We’ve gone down there with a protective mindset. We haven’t had to be the aggressor there. I think that puts us a little behind the eight ball. But, when we go to tracks and try to get aggressive with it, we normally do pretty well.”

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including "NASCAR: The Definitive History of America's Sport" and "Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told". He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.