GEARING UP

1 A tight battle for the IndyCar Series championship will be decided in the season finale Sunday at 1.5-mile Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill.

Dario Franchitti, this year’s Indianapolis 500 winner for Andretti Green Racing, holds a three-point lead over Scott Dixon of Target Chip Ganassi Racing. Franchitti teammate Tony Kanaan is 39 points behind.

2 At a news conference to announce Joe Gibbs Racing would switch its NASCAR Nextel Cup cars from Chevrolets to Toyotas next year, Gibbs drivers Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin said they also were negotiating with Gibbs to extend their contracts.

The team owned by NFL coach Joe Gibbs also just hired Kyle Busch, who is leaving Hendrick Motorsports after this season.

Said J.D. Gibbs, Joe’s son and the race team’s president: “I do want to announce my dad will have to coach for an extra five years to afford Tony’s contract -- on top of Kyle’s and Denny’s.”

3 Cup driver Michael Waltrip escaped injury when his Toyota Camry caught fire Sunday at California Speedway. But some NASCAR fans and writers expressed concern about how long it took safety crews to start dousing the flames while the 6-foot-5 Waltrip struggled to climb out of the car.

But Robin Pemberton, NASCAR’s vice president of competition, said the situation was under control.

“The safety worker was not moving slowly, he was moving slowly under direction that, you know, Michael said, ‘Give me some time and I’ll just undo myself and get out,’ ” Pemberton said.

“Because Michael’s so big with the old-style car, if you -- you can’t help him, you can only hinder him in getting out.”

4 The final round of the AMA Toyota Motocross off-road motorcycle racing season is Sunday at Glen Helen Raceway in San Bernardino. Practice and qualifying heats are Saturday.

The battle for the series’ title is one of the closest in years, because seven-time champion Ricky Carmichael ran a limited schedule and top contender James Stewart suffered a knee injury in July that ended his season.

Only 15 points separate the remaining top four riders: Grant Langston, Andrew Short, Tim Ferry and Mike Alessi.

5 In local racing Saturday night, late-model stock cars will be featured at Irwindale Speedway and Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino, and USAC/CRA sprint cars return to Ventura Raceway.