The Championship Four all started in the top 15 for the Ford 400 Ecoboost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway and while four drew plenty of attention, much of the day's focus lay on Jeff Gordon's final race.

The Quicken Loans for Heroes 500 at Phoenix International Raceway had the trimmings of an ideal race: drama-filled because of Chase implications, potentially good racing on a unique one-mile track, good weather in the desert in autumn, and shorter than other most races on the schedule. Unfortunately, the day fell short on all notes.

The AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway looked like it would be an unmitigated disaster in the first 50 or 60 laps. With heavy rain and then nagging weepers cancelling all on-track action Saturday except for the Xfinity Series race, Sprint Cup teams only had Friday's practice to dial in their cars and hardly any teams actually set their cars in race trim. So with little rubber on the track and old pavement, tire wear was a major concern and rightfully so.

At least three Chase drivers and many others in Sunday's Goody's 500 field at Martinsville Speedway are going to need some of the race sponsor. A caution-filled race that ran the full distance, but saw threats from rain all day was Team Penske's to lose and that is just what they did. Joey Logano (37th) led the opening laps under yellow as NASCAR finished drying pit road and ended up leading 207-total, but his past with Matt Kenseth (38th) caught up to him late.