NASCAR Notes

Car owner Gibbs not sold on Chase

Don't count car owner Joe Gibbs as a fan of the Chase for the Champion-ship.

Gibbs left the sport last year to return to the Washington Redskins and the National Football League. He said 10 races is not enough to determine a true champion.

"I thought it was a real negative from the standpoint that if you get to the top 10, you race all year to get there," he said. "Then, Tony Stewart is a prime example, somebody makes a big mistake, wrecks you in the first race of the playoff and you're pretty much cooked. You're done."

Chase or BCS: Which system is better?

Now that NASCAR has its own Bowl Championship Series with its Chase for the Championship, drivers said stock car racing now has a better way to determine a champion than college football.

They point to undefeated Auburn being left out of the national championship picture by the combination of polls and computers as proof.

"Who would have thought NASCAR would have a playoff before the NCAA," said Craftsman Truck Series driver Brandon Whitt. "Still the way the NASCAR system works and the way most playoffs work, if you're not in it at the end, you really don't have anybody to blame but yourself."

NASCAR pleased with transition in 2004

NASCAR got a new series sponsor, gasoline supplier and a new championship format in 2004, and the transition was smoother than hoped, series president Mike Helton said.

"I don't think you sit here and hide the fact there was some great interest in how all this was going to turn out," he said.

Helton said his organization's ability to think big allowed it to make such drastic changes.

"The thinking was that we were pretty good at doing big deals," Helton said. "Let's just go ahead and do it."