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Heading to Homestead-Miami Speedway this weekend for the tenth and final race of the Chase for the Nextel Cup, things in the Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson Show changed dramatically since last week's edition. Gordon now trails Johnson by 86 points in the standings. Here's a breakdown of their stats at Homestead and the possibilities that loom within the last Chase race of the season.

Homestead Stats: Neither Gordon nor Johnson have a win at Homestead, a track that has seen a myriad of layout changes since it first came on the Nextel Cup tour. Johnson has the best career finish with a 2nd-place in 2004. Gordon's best finish also came in 2004 with a 3rd-place.

A year ago, Gordon finished 24th while Johnson finished ninth to wrap up his first title. A 40th-place finish in 2005 left Johnson with an average finish at HMS of 14.5 while Gordon has average 11.4.

Chase Stats: Phoenix stuck a fork in Jeff Gordon's title hopes after Johnson won his fourth-straight to Gordon's 10th-place finish. The 86-point deficit will be nearly impossible to overcome unless Johnson has serious trouble in the race. If Johnson finishes 18th or better, he automatically looks up the title, even if Gordon leads every lap and wins the race.

In doomsday scenarios for Johnson, if he finishes 40th or worse, Gordon could take the title with a 10th place finish or better. A 43rd-place finish for Johnson would mean Gordon would have to finish 14th or better.

I wouldn't put too much stock in those possibilities this year knowing that he has only failed to finish a race four times. Johnson should have his second NASCAR Nextel Cup title in hand come Sunday evening.

Last week at Texas Motor Speedway, we heard plenty about how Jeff Gordon didn't have a good-handling car in the Saturday practice sessions leading up to the Dickie's 500.

And if Jeff Gordon wants any chance at re-capturing that Nextel Cup point lead and his fifth series championship, the No. 24 team is indeed going to have to make amends on how well they get the car dialed in.

"We're doing a great job on Friday qualifying and we need to do that again here today and next week in Homestead. But Saturday getting prepared for the race, we got to do a little bit better job," said Gordon Friday before qualifying at Phoenix.

Starting positions haven't been a problem for Gordon in the past few weeks. Gordon started second at Texas last week and at Atlanta two weeks back, he rolled off eighth. He starts third Sunday at Phoenix.

In each race, Gordon has finished seventh after battling a race car that often wanted to find contact with the SAFER barrier instead of with victory lane. Unfortunately for Gordon fans, the strong effort to salvage a decent finish has been significantly trumped by two-straight wins by teammate and Chase contender Jimmie Johnson.

It's definitely not lost on Gordon that the Saturday program needs to improve immediately at Phoenix and next week at Homestead if the No. 24 team wants any shot at Jimmie Johnson.

"We've got to step it up. There's no hiding that and I hope we can pull that off right here in Phoenix," said Gordon.