Jeff Gordon hopes to leave NASCAR Sprint Cup as 2015 champion

Having announced his retirement in January, Gordon will start his final NASCAR race as one of four drivers vying for the title.

Gordon secured his place in the Chase showdown with victory at Martinsville earlier this month and will do battle with Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr, with the highest-placed finisher crowned champion.

"There's only one lap I want to lead, and that's the last one," he said of the Homestead race.

"This has been incredible the way our season has been real up and down, and then the Chase has been really solid for us, and we feel very, very fortunate and excited.

"When I set out into this season and made the announcement that I made, I just hoped that this could possibly happen, and it is, and now it's not enough for us just to go down there and be a part of it.

"We want to go there and push hard and get every single thing we can out of ourselves and our team and see if we can't give these guys a run for their money."

Four-time champion Gordon made his NASCAR debut in 1992, and admitted a big part of his final weekend would be shutting out external distractions.

"There's going to be a tremendous amount of distractions leading into it, and I'm going to do my best to try to eliminate the distractions once Friday starts in practice and qualifying and all that stuff," he said.

"But this sport is all about dealing with and managing distractions.

"We do it every single day we're here, we do it on race day every weekend, and you've got to be heightened, but I don't see it being an issue."

Follow the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup title decider as it happens with Autosport Race Centre Live from 7.30pm UK time on Sunday night