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By Andrew Cutler
October 2 2010

If Dario Franchitti wants to win his third IndyCar championship in four years (he was driving in NASCAR in 2008), he needs to gain thirteen points more than Will Power by the drop of the checkered flag Saturday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He picked up one of them in qualifying, gaining the bonus point awarded to the pole-sitter for each race.

He only wishes that the bonus was bigger. “They were talking to me about $10,000 (for the pole award) and I said, ‘I’ll give back the $10,000 if I can have another bonus point. ’’

Dario posted a two lap average of 213.187mph around the 1.5 mile oval. His Ganassi Racing teammate, Scott Dixon, will start along side of him. Will Power, the championship points leader, will start front the third grid spot. His teammate and fellow Aussie Ryan Briscoe will start in fourth.

Here is the complete starting grid: http://www.indycar.com:8080/var/assets/CafesdoBrasilIndy300startinglineup.pdf

The championship fight breaks down like this: If Franchitti wins the race & picks up the two bonus points for leading the most laps, the title is his. If he wins without leading the most, then Power must finish third or worse. You can review the finishing position/points breakdown in the "2010 Race Results/Points Standings" tab on the left of this page if you want to figure out what must happen if Dario finishes in second,third, and so on.

For Power, the task is pretty simple: if he finishes ahead of Franchitti, he wins the championship. Short of that, he must finish within eleven points of the Scot. Power wins any tie as he has more victories this season - five to three (so far). “It's all about a championship,” Power told the press. “If that means winning the race, if Dario happens to have led the most laps, at that point I'll be doing everything I can to win it.  Maybe take some more calculated risks.”

If Will does win the race, it will be his first oval victory.

This will be the fifth consecutive year that the IndyCar Series championship has come down to the season finale.

The race begins at 7pm ET/midnight Sunday GMT.

The Firestone Indy Lights Series will also wrap up it's season today: Their 100 mile race will begin at 4pm ET/9pm GMT, and can be seen via live video streaming at www.indycar.com. Rookie driver J.K. Vernay will become champion simply by taking the green flag. His Sam Schmidt Motorsports teammate, Pippa Mann, will start from the pole.