Gil Martin (Pictured) has guided Kevin Harvick to three wins this season. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Ford and Hamlin have worked together over a long season to reach the top of their sport despite the fact that they aren’t close friends. Ford is married with children; Hamlin is single. They operate in different orbits and seldom hang out together. And they have had in-race differences, most notably last week at Phoenix when Hamlin complained that he wound up at a disadvantage because of the fuel situation.

The Hamlin-Ford interchange perhaps will be the most closely watched Sunday.

“Denny coming in was a little more aggressive than what I was used to working with,” Ford said. “I tamed him down, but he picked me up a little bit, also. So I think we both fed off of each other, and we’re better today because of it, and I think we’ve got a good balance at times. He’s not afraid to question me, and I’m not afraid to question him because we know at the end of the day we’re looking to accomplish the same thing.

“There goes through a period of time where when Denny first came on, he had a lot of respect for what I said, and then he went through a period where he was learning for himself, and through his adolescent years as a driver, he tested the waters and questioned a lot of things. It got tough for a couple of years.

“But I think we’ve gotten over that and back to working together a little bit better, and I think – you see a lot of relationships fail after two or three years, and we were at that point where I didn’t understand him sometimes and he didn’t understand me sometimes, but the more you communicate you’re able to move through those times, and that’s when things really get good.”

Ford said the two established the balance of their relationship early.

“Right up from the beginning, I told him, I said, ‘We’re not going to be best of friends; this isn’t what this is about. But professionally I’m going to support you, you support me, and we need to know that profession comes first in this sport.’

“We got that right up front in the first year and understood that, and that relationship has worked out well.”

Hamlin described it this week as “a business relationship.”

Martin is perhaps the most traditional NASCAR crew chief of the three, and his personality seems to fit well with Harvick’s. After a stormy 2009 season at Richard Childress Racing, Martin said he’s happy to be in a position to be in reach of the big prize.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series crew chiefs Gil Martin (Left), Chad Knaus (Center) and Mike Ford (Right) prepare to face off in Homestead. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

“We didn’t know what we would be doing for a living last year at this time,” he said. “So, being in the position that we’re in right now and to lead the points most of the year, and if you go back to traditional points we’ve got over a 300-something-point lead, which goes to show what a caliber of a season that we’ve had.”

Harvick, who is 46 points behind, is considered the underdog Sunday, but that’s OK with Martin, too.

“It doesn’t bother me at all that – it bothers me that we’re down 46 points, don’t get me wrong,” he said. “But if they’re not talking about us constantly, if we win the championship, everybody will have a lot to talk about.”

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.