How will NASCAR’s title contenders race when the championship is on the line?

Absent were the pointed barbs and bombastic proclamations. Any hostility replaced by respect and in one instance outright reverence during Thursday’s championship media day in advance of Sunday’s season finale.

Most noticeably there were no attempts at mind games as NASCAR’s four title contenders sat alongside one another on the dais. Even defending Sprint Cup champion Kevin Harvick, universally renowned for tweaking the psyches of competitors, resisted the bait, instead paying deference to Jeff Gordon, the legend whose bid for a fifth championship coincides with Sunday being his final race before retirement.

“You don’t want to be the guy that was disrespectful at Jeff Gordon’s last press conference or say something that’s just a total jackass move,” Harvick said.

That geniality is a stark contrast to the theatrics that have marked the previous nine races of the Chase for the Sprint Cup. The contentious moments have seen Harvick shove good friend Jimmie Johnson in the driver’s motor home lot in the playoff-opener, accusations Harvick may have cheated to prevail in a must-win Round 1 elimination race and most flagrant, the feud between Joey Logano and Matt Kenseth that escalated into on-track warfare.

And with the championship finale essentially a winner-take-all, the multitude of instances over the past nine weeks seemingly sets the stage for what would be NASCAR’s version of no-holds barred fight Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. After all, if Logano is willing to spin out Kenseth just to take a mid-round playoff race, then surely anything goes when the stakes are raised considerably.

Not so Harvick, Gordon, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. collectively said; each leery of being the guy who wins a championship via a move that could be deemed unethical. Harvick, the only one of the four in last year’s finale, pointed how in that race the contenders ran nearly in lockstep throughout, competing hard but without rancor.

“If it comes down to a little bit of pushing and shoving at the end for the win, then it just depends on what I feel like the other guys are willing to put on the line,” Truex said. “I don’t think anyone is just going to go out there and wreck someone to try to get the championship, at least that’s not the way I would do it.

“For me, it really doesn’t change from the way I race every week. We’re going to put our best effort out there on the racetrack. We’re going to race as hard as we can and hopefully we don’t have to worry about crossing that line.”

The warmness felt Thursday can also be explained by a sentiment often missing during this second version of NASCAR’s knockout playoff format -- respect.

“If you put the bumper to them and they spin, they crash, even if you crossed the line first, that’s going to weigh on you a little bit,” Gordon said. “Yeah, you might be the champion, but it’s still going have sort of a shadow over it.”

Beyond being a four-time champion and third on the all-time wins list, Gordon is held in high regard, signifying his stature as one of NASCAR’s greats. Busch said Gordon was his favorite driver growing up and someone he wished to emulate.

Unlike the others, Truex’s Furniture Row Racing team is a single-car mid-size operation without the resources of Stewart-Haas Racing (Harvick), Joe Gibbs Racing (Busch) and Hendrick Motorsports (Gordon), all of which field four cars. That Truex made it this far, is the NASCAR epitome of a Cinderella story.

Busch overcame significant leg injuries suffered in a February crash, returned far sooner than expected then, won four of five races to earn his Chase berth. And while Harvick has been a beacon of controversy, his resolve and ability to produce when absolutely needed overrides the shenanigans.

“I don’t think that any of us currently have any beefs among one another, and we have a lot of respect for one another,” Gordon said. “The ultimate is that you’re running second and you have to pass one of these guys on the final lap, and it’s some bold and exciting move but a clean move, maybe just a little fender rub or something like that, that gets you the win.

“To me that’s the ultimate. That’s how everybody wishes and hopes that they could do it.”

Yet despite the praise and admiration, in the moment can any driver really know what they would and would not do with a championship within reach?

“If you ask us right now what we’d be willing to do, it’s we want to go do it in a clean way,” Gordon said. “But you don’t know how you’re going to react on that last lap when you have it in sight.”