Jeff Gordon, driver of the #24 DuPont Chevrolet, congratulates Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #48 LoweGeoffrey Miller over at AOL Fanhouse doesn’t seem to think that Jeff Gordon will be able to get past Jimmie Johnson for the Championship this weekend at Homestead:

After Johnson’s late-race domination at Phoenix — a race in which he led the final 24 laps — Johnson leads Gordon’s No. 24 team by 86 points. The basic math on that is that Gordon must win and lead the most laps at Homestead and Johnson has to finish 18 or worse.

In other words, it’s not going to happen.

While I could care less if Jimmie or Jeff wins the Championship, I still can’t let go of the hope that Jeff could still pull out the win in the end. I never give up until it’s all said and done. Why? Because I don’t want it to be boring — and if no one else is going to keep it interesting for me I’ll do it myself. Yes, the chances are slim but I’d rather cling to slim ones instead of none at all. It’s already boring as hell to see Jimmie win four-in-a-row. While it’s a very cool thing to accomplish, it doesn’t happen every day, but as a non-Jimmie fan it’s annoying.

Then factor in the fact that Dale Earnhardt Jr. is going into this final race of the season winless and you have a very irked Valli.

In other news…

During the coverage of the race at Phoenix Dr. Jerry Punch noted that at the Championship banquet in New York this year only the top 10 of the 12 drivers will be on stage. Ok. Whose incredibly lame idea was that? If I was one of the two drivers in the bottom I would feel totally gypped. That’s like the Olympics committee saying “oh, wait, we’ve only got room on the podium for the first place winner.”

(Photo by Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)