Gordon looks to clinch fourth NASCAR title.

It's time to talk about inevitability, in the form of Jeff Gordon's fourth NASCAR Winston Cup Series championship.

Many people think the 30-year-old Gordon has a realistic chance of breaking the all-time record of seven NASCAR Winston Cup titles (co-held by Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt). Sometime this month Gordon should be at that goal's halfway point.

Three races remain on the 2001 schedule. Gordon could clinch his fourth title as early as this Sunday (Nov. 11) at Homestead-Miami Speedway, site of the Pennzoil Freedom 400. To do that, he must finish the race with a point-standings lead of 370 points. Gordon goes into the race with a 326-point lead over second-place Ricky Rudd. So, he must pad-out his advantage by 44 points. Very do-able, provided Gordon gets some "cooperation" from Rudd, whose gallant challenge to the three-time champion seems destined to fail.

At the very least, Gordon needs to finish only 28th or better in each of the last three races to clinch and become only the third driver to win four or more NASCAR Winston Cup championships, (Petty and Earnhardt are the others).

Gordon, driver of the No. 24 DuPont Automotive Chevrolet, comes off a 25th place finish last Sunday in the Pop Secret Microwave Popcorn 400 at North Carolina Speedway, in Rockingham, N.C. Despite that sub-par effort, he came away optimistic.

"We tested at Homestead and I feel very good about what we have there, so hopefully we can go there and not have a day like we had [at Rockingham]," Gordon said. "To me, it's just a nail-biter until this thing is over with anyway - you just never know. We've got to fight hard and just keep doing what we're doing until we get to the finish."

Last month, Gordon appeared to have a shot at either breaking or tying Patty's record for earliest: clinching of a NASCAR Winston Cup championship; Petty clinched with four races remaining in 1975.

"I want to clinch it when it's all over," Gordon said, "That's all that matters to me. It doesn't matter when or how or where - just as long as we win it. That's what we're shooting for. We're not trying to clinch it with four to go, or three to go, or two to go. When you start wishing that kind of stuff, that's going to get you in trouble."

Other news:

* Two-for-two. That's Tony Stewart's record at the Pennzoil Freedom 400, making him the only winner in the race's brief history. Stewart won the inaugural event in 1999, in his stretch run toward winning the NASCAR Winston Cup Rookie of the Year title. Last year's victory added to the celebration of his Joe Gibbs Racing team-mate Bobby Labonte, who clinched the series championship via a fourth-place finish. (Stewart and Labonte finished 1-2 in the race in '99).

* Aside from the race for No. 1 in the final NASCAR Winston Cup point standings - which pays the champion a $3.6 million bonus from series sponsor R.J. Reynolds - there is plenty at stake involving the other finishing positions.

Start with second place, which pays $1.35 million compared to $992,000 for third place in points, Second-place Rudd currently leads third-place Stewart by only 75 points.

Only 95 points separate seventh-place Dale Earnhardt Jr., eighth-place Bobby Labonte and ninth-place Kevin Harvick, The bonus money difference in those finishes? Seventh pays $510,000, eighth pays $432,000 and ninth pays $378,000.

The bonus money stops with the 25th-place finisher in the final standings. That finish pays $65,000. Corning into the Pennroil Freedom 400, Robert Pressley is 25th. In hot pursuit is 27th-place Michael Waltrip (26th place belongs to injured driver Steve Park, who is out for the season), only 11 points behind.

* Chevrolet clinched its 26th NASCAR Winston Cup Series Manufacturers Championship last Sunday at Rockingham. Previous Chevrolet titles came in the following years: 1358-61, '72-74, '78-80, '83-91, '93, '35-96, '93-

* Granted, the history of Homestead-Miami Speedway is limited - the track opened in 1995, and its first NASCAR Winston Cup race was held in '99. But that history began memorably on Nov. 5, 1995, as future ('99) NASCAR Winston Cup champion Dale Jarrett won the Jiffy Lube 300, the season finale for the NASCAR Busch Series, Grand National Division.