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Right up front let me make a confession: I know virtually nothing about what makes a race car work.

Not the engine. Not the transmission. Not the chassis setup. Not the brakes.

Nothing. Nada. Zero. Zilch. Nevertheless, I have some advice for the four drivers and their teams that will compete for the NASCAR Cup Series championship Sunday at Homestead/Miami Speedway in Florida.

To Jimmy Johnson/Hendrick Motorsports, Joey Logano/Penske Racing and the Joe Gibbs Racing duo of Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch: “Dance” with what “brung” you to the season finale party.

I vividly recall two seasons—those of 1979 and 1990—when teams out-thought and out-tested themselves right out of contending in showdowns for the titles.

In 1979 driver Darrell Waltrip and his DiGard Racing team, led by owner Bill Gardner and crew chief Buddy Parrott, went into the L.A. Times 500 at Ontario Motor Speedway in California with a two-point lead over six-time champion Richard Petty.

From the moment the track opened for practice it was evident that Waltrip, Gardner and Parrott were obsessed with plotting strategy. They seemed in constant deep conversation, discussing this or that tact to take in readying their Chevrolet.

The primary concern, it turns out, was what gear ratio to run. They guessed the wrong way.

Waltrip, who had won five poles previously that season, qualified a disappointing tenth. Petty, loose and at least outwardly oblivious to any pressure, put his Chevy fifth in the starting lineup. Waltrip led two laps early in the 200-lap race on the 2.5-mile track that no longer exists. Then he began steadily dropping back and found himself among slower cars.

On Lap 38 Waltrip had to loop his No. 88 on the backstretch to avoid a spinning John Rezek. Waltrip lost a lap and was unable to make it up.

He finished eighth.

Petty, meanwhile, maintained a smooth, consistent pace and finished fifth behind winner Benny Parsons, Bobby Allison, Cale Yarborough and Buddy Baker.

The championship was King Richard’s for the seventh and final time by 11 points, the smallest winning margin to that point in NASCAR history.

But this was of no consolation to Waltrip.

“It’s hard to swallow,” said the disappointed runnerup. “I’m never going to figure it out. I came here with the highest of hopes and I’m leaving with a broken heart.”

Waltrip later healed himself by winning three championships in the 1980s while driving for Junior Johnson.

In 1990 Mark Martin and his Ford team owned and led by Jack Roush were locked in a tussle for the title with Dale Earnhardt.

Going into the the season’s next-to-last race at Phoenix Martin had built a 45-point lead over Earnhardt, who had previously captured three championships. There seemed little chance that Earnhardt could overtake the steady, heady Martin.

However, Martin made an ill-considered pit stop under yellow for four tires with eight laps to go. He dropped from sixth place to 10th at the checkered flag, which went to Earnhardt. The outcome sent Martin to the season finale at Atlanta trailing by six points.

There was an open date that year between the two final races, so both the Martin/Roush and Earnhardt/Richard Childress teams scheduled special tests at Atlanta.

I went down from Charlotte to cover the testing. What I saw on arrival at the 1.522-mile track was stunning. Ford, intent on also winning the manufacturers’ championship, had brought in all of its top team owners and crew chiefs, plus engineers from Detroit, to assist Martin and Roush in preparation for the showdown. About a half-dozen different Fords were on hand for Martin to drive, including a couple of very potent Thunderbirds that Robert Yates regularly fielded for Davey Allison.

In addition to Yates, the Ford contingent included Glen and Leonard Wood, Bud Moore, Junie Donlavey and chassis expert Jake Elder. Martin would run several laps in one car, get out and confer, then dash off to another car. Roush would pat him on the rump like a coach sending a quarterback into a football game with new play.

Earnhardt and team owner Childress arrived about noon and were surprised to see the Ford arsenal arrayed against them. They also were delighted to the point of slyly grinning about it.

“They’re already beat,” Earnhardt predicted privately. “They’re outthinking themselves.”

In a masterful psychological stroke, Earnhardt ran only 10 or so laps in his No. 3 Chevrolet, loaded up and left.

Martin kept running from car-to-car until almost sunset.

The decision was made that the Roush team would borrow one of the Yates/Allison cars for the Atlanta Journal 500.

The move dismayed some members of Martin’s team, including crew chief Robin Pemberton, now a NASCAR vice president.

As I walked past Pemberton in the garage area on the morning of the race he whispered to me, “This sucks!”

He was right.

Martin finished sixth in the car he was unaccustomed to while Earnhardt motored to third place behind Morgan Shepherd and Geoff Bodine. The title was Earnhardt’s by 26 points. It was the fourth of the seven championships he was destined to win before losing his life in a crash at Daytona in 2001.

Showing uncommon class, Martin refused to place any blame. He even dismissed a 46-point NASCAR penalty imposed on his team for an alleged illegal carburetor part in the season’s second race at Richmond. Will Johnson, Logano, Edwards and Busch heed the history of 1979 and ’90?

It will be interesting to see.