Stewart not giving up on title yet

The two-time Nextel Cup champion, and the only one to achieve titles both with the Chase format and with the normal points scheme, refuses to admit that this weekend could be decisive for him in terms of the championship.

"No, anything can happen to any of the teams," says Stewart. "At this point, who knows? Until somebody comes up and says ok, mathematically you are out of it, until then, we have got a shot. That is all I can say about it. That is all we know.

"There is no blueprint that says, this is how you win or don't win a championship. So as long as mathematically you still have a chance, you're still in it. Until they tell you that you can't physically or mathematically catch up, then you are still in it. You still have a shot."

With only four races left in the Chase, Stewart needs to start narrowing the gap to Gordon if he is to contend for title in the final race. Under his current points situation, he would be out of the title race at Homestead in three weeks time, but despite that he denies feeling any pressure.

"All we can do is just do our job," Stewart added. "Even if we win the race for the last four weeks in a row, there is still no guarantee that we could close the gap. All we can do is worry about ourselves right now. It really takes the pressure off of us. All we can do is go for broke now."

Stewart scored more points than any other driver in the last ten events of last year after failing to make the Chase for the Nextel Cup. He won two of the last four races, the first of them at Atlanta Motor Speedway.