Changes to Nextel Chase coming
Under current rules, the top 10 teams in the standings after 26 races qualify, as well as any other teams within 400 points of the lead. However, in the first three years of the Chase, no teams outside the top 10 in the standings have been within that 400-point margin. The 400-point situation has not produced a wild card yet," France told a group of reporters in an impromptu talk. "Maybe that's OK, or maybe that's something we could look at."
As far as speculation that NASCAR might develop a separate point system for the Chase drivers, France said, "I don't think you're going to see races within a race or all that other stuff."
France also said that the sanctioning body was looking at awarding more points for race winners.
"There's a fallacy that you can't have one bad race or two bad races [in the Chase]," France said. "Every year, everybody has at least one and most have two. If you make the win more important, then the performance part of it, even if you have a bad race, you can catch up. We're looking at it."
For those questioning why NASCAR would consider changes, France said he had always intended to take a look at the format after three years and see if it needed to be tweaked.
"Listen, playoff formats are adjusted if you look at history in sports quite a bit over many years," he said. "Teams are added, conferences are changed around, teams are moved in and out. It all affects who makes the playoffs. … It should not be looked at as unexpected." Scenedaily.com
11/04/06 A highly placed source within NASCAR said that changes to the format for the 2007 running of the Chase for the Nextel Cup will not be announced until January, probably during the annual Lowe’s Motor Speedway Media Tour. Although the official did not disclose specific changes, there is widespread sentiment among teams and drivers that race winners ought to receive a higher bonus than the 10-point margin a winner now receives compared to second-place finishers. Another, though considerably more controversial, option would be to score the drivers in The Chase separately than the other 33 cars in each race. Thus, the highest-finishing Chaser would get 10 points, while the driver who finishes last would receive just 1 point. Ford Racing