Champions race set for overhaul

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- If word came out four weeks before the NFL's first game that the league was radically changing the structure of its season and playoffs, but hadn't nailed down all the specifics, most sports fans would think it was a joke.

In NASCAR, however, that precise scenario is unfolding.

NASCAR vice president Jim Hunter went public last week, confirming that plans are under way to drastically overhaul the organization's time-honored system of determining a champion.

The Nextel Cup season starts Feb. 15 with the Daytona 500. (NASCAR is still the only sport that stages its version of the Super Bowl on opening day). Yet with less than a month until the whole thing begins, drivers, owners, crew chiefs and fans are unsure of exactly how the title will be determined. They only know the changes will be significant.

It's no wonder, then, that an unscientific poll done by thatsracin.com found that 85 percent of 4,600 fans who responded disliked the plan. And it's little surprise that Jeff Gordon claims he's unable to find a single fellow driver in the garage who is excited about the changes, whatever they may be.

"I heard about it. I gave my opinion on it. My opinion didn't include a lot of things they're thinking about doing," Gordon said.

The specifics are expected to be released soon. At this point, it appears the basic outline is in place. The 36-race schedule will likely be broken into two parts: the first 26 races to be run like all the others, then a 10-race finish in which everyone will race but only a certain number of top finishers from the first part of the season will be eligible for the championship.

Lots of questions expected

NASCAR chairman Brian France said he expected there to be lots of questions.

"We know that change, if we change anything, there's a natural, negative reaction," France said. "When we lay out ultimately what we're going to do, everybody will go 'That makes some sense.'"

As part of the plan, NASCAR will award more points for victories. Under the format in place since 1975, a win was worth 175 points, second place worth 170 and so on, all the way through 43rd.

It's a system that rewarded consistency above all else, something the drivers have always loved.

But it also makes possible results the likes of 2003, a year in which Matt Kenseth won the overall title with one victory, while Ryan Newman won eight times and finished sixth. The day, NASCAR fears, could be coming when the champion of the entire season could be crowned without winning a single race.

In that respect, the changes are a noble try to do what's right -- for fans and the sport in general.

On a very basic level, it only seems fair that winning should count more -- significantly more -- than finishing second.

And by creating a 10-race dash to the title, NASCAR will create drama for those last 10 races, which often get lost in the shuffle, not only because of the World Series and football, but because more often than not the championship has been decided well before the season ends.

Yet the plan is almost universally deplored in the garage.

"There are a lot of things I'd love to change about the sport," Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. "The point system isn't at the top of the list."

Gordon agreed.

"It's not a driver-based decision," he said. "It's an entertainment-based decision ... But they didn't ask me."

To say the entire sport -- with its gaudily decorated cars, its petting-zoo atmosphere in the garage and its thinly veiled desire for spectacular crashes in which nobody gets hurt -- isn't entertainment based would be naive.

Nevertheless, this is a sport. The drivers are finely tuned athletes and, like most high-caliber athletes, they seek a delicate balance: Almost universally, they yearn for predictability somewhere in a sport where speeds reach 180 mph and life-and-death decisions are made by the second.

One place they've always found predictability is in the basic tenet that consistency will pay off in the end. In other words, they value winning, but they know there's rarely an overriding need to take a brash, possibly life-threatening risk to go for a win when second place could suffice, and a bunch of second places could result in a championship.

But with the value of a win being changed, and the value of consistency being redefined, drivers will find themselves in a new world.

The guidelines for that world are still being formulated.

"It's all speculation," Bobby Labonte said. "People have their own opinions. Right now, I'm saying what I'm saying, but tomorrow, everyone might think differently."