Newman Doesn’t Get Point of New System

Ryan Newman, chosen American driver of the year after winning eight Winston Cup races last year, was in Fontana this week testing one of Roger Penske’s Dodge Intrepids and took time out to discuss NASCAR’s new points system for the Nextel Cup.

“I don’t like it,” he said flatly. “Maybe it’s not good politics to disagree with your boss, but I think it’s a mistake. It wasn’t necessary, and it’s not good.”

Penske, speaking to a media tour in Charlotte, N.C., said, “I think change is great. NASCAR has brought us to where we are today, and I think we need to follow them. I’m not on the side of the drivers on this one. I think it’ll only make the sport better.”

NASCAR has divided the 36-race season into two parts. The first 26 races, starting with the Daytona 500 on Feb. 15, will determine the top 10 drivers who will face off in a “Chase for the Championship” in the schedule’s final 10 races. No matter what the points are after the first 26 races, the top 10 (and anyone else within 400 points of the leader -- a remote possibility) will start essentially from scratch. Only five points will separate first from second, second from third, and so on down the line.

“For one thing, there is not a good mix of races, no variety,” explained Newman, a honors graduate of Purdue with a degree in vehicle structure engineering in addition to his record feats on the raceway. “There is no road race, there is only one track over two miles and there are five on 1 1/2-mile ovals.”

“I don’t see why they felt they needed to make a change, at least not such a radical one. They could have just tweaked it a little.”

Using the 2004 points system, Newman’s eight wins still would not have given him the No. 1 status. That would have gone to Jimmie Johnson, the former off-road racer from El Cajon. Newman would have finished third, behind Jeff Gordon, Johnson’s car owner. 2003 champion Matt Kenseth would have finished sixth.

Newman’s “tweaking” suggestions are to give 15 more points for a win and 5- to 7- more for second- and third- places.

“There should be more emphasis placed on winning,” he said. “One big thing wrong is that it treats the points leaders very unfairly. To race for the championship, you should have to count every race. I’d sure hate to be sitting on a 300-point lead when we came to Loudon [Race No. 27] and have them tell me my lead was only five.

“I think there was an overreaction to the way Matt [Kenseth] led all the way this year without winning a race after Las Vegas. But look at the Busch and the Craftsman Truck series. They use exactly the same system we use and they had two of the closest championship races in history.

“And look at our series. Matt had a 436-point lead [over Kevin Harvick] with eight races to go and by the final race it was down to 90. That shows how things can change. And look at what we did. We were in 27th place after we left Fontana [in April] and got up to fourth before the season ended.

“The year before was great. Tony [Stewart] was last after Daytona and struggled all year and won by 38 points on the final day of the season. And Kurt Busch came from 12th to finish third when he won three of the last five races. What more do they want?”

What they want, as spelled out by Chairman Brian France, NASCAR’s third-generation leader, is more excitement, more pizazz to compete on TV with pro football in October and November.

“We have great racing now, it’s going to be even better,” France said. “There’s going to be a benefit getting more people to follow NASCAR [by] giving more drivers an opportunity to win a championship late in the season.”

Penske and Newman agreed on one point -- it will not change the way their cars are driven.

Said the driver: “Our goal remains the same, to win every race we enter if at all possible. Rule changes won’t affect that. We’ll still win races.”

Said the boss: “Our focus will be to win races. I want them all three [Newman, Rusty Wallace and rookie newcomer Brendan Gaughan] going across the finish line at the same time. As we get toward race 24, 25, 26, the strategy will be completely different. The guy that’s soundly in is not going to want to make a mistake. Being in the top 10 with 10 races to go and only 45 points between first and 10th, to me that’s going to be outstanding. It’s going to make for some great racing.”

Bill Miller, president of California Speedway, is among those applauding the changes.

“We’re race 25, so there should be some wild and woolly action with those guys racing to get into the top 10,” he said. “Especially as the day goes into night.”

The Sept. 5 Labor Day weekend race, moved from Darlington, S.C., for the first time in history, will start at 4:30 p.m. in the summer sun and end around 8:30 p.m. in darkness. It will be the first race held under the lights at California Speedway.

Gardner in for Griffin

It didn’t take long for Bruce Bromme Jr. and Ron Chaffin to choose their new Sprint Car Racing Assn. driver after five-time champion Richard Griffin announced his retirement last week. As might be expected for a team that has won eight of the last nine championships, they signed Damion Gardner, runner-up to Griffin last year.

Gardner, 29, from Concord, Calif., won seven races last year, two more than Griffin, while campaigning a Harlan Willis-owned sprint car. Willis told SCRA officials that without a driver, he might run only a limited schedule with his car.

With the Bromme-Chaffin car committed to racing at Perris Auto Speedway with the newly formed USAC/CRA because its sponsor is tied in with PAS, Gardner was a logical choice. Of his seven wins last year, six were at Perris.

Last Laps

The supercross circus moves to San Diego on Saturday night for Round 4 of the THQ AMA championship series at Qualcomm Stadium, with Yamaha’s Chad Reed looking for his third win. The Aussie rider leads David Vuillemin of France and Mike LaRocco of Corona by 16 points, 72-56.

The series will return to Angel Stadium on Jan. 31 for the third and last time this year.

Among U.S. Auto Club western regional champions crowned at an awards banquet were Steve Paden of Downey, midgets; Todd Hunsaker of Chino Hills, and Josh Lakatos of Pasadena, Ford Focus midgets; and Michael Lewis of Noblesville, Ind., sprint cars.

Anything to get in the Guinness Book of Records. The West Covina Rose Parade Float -- 45 feet long, 17 feet high, 18 feet wide and weighing 15,000 pounds, will streak down Irwindale Dragway’s eighth-mile strip next Thursday night in an attempt to set a record of sorts. According to an Irwindale spokesman, no Tournament of Roses Parade float has ever run on a drag strip in 114 years.

A book signing for Dave Friedman’s “Corvette Thunder” will be held Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m. at Autobooks, 3524 W. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank. The 400-page history of Corvette racing includes about 600 of Friedman’s pictures. On hand for signing purposes will be Corvette legend Dick Guldstrand.

Jeremy Toye started off the 2004 Formula One Toyota Cup motorcycle season at Willow Springs the way he finished 2003, with a win. The San Diego rider edged Corey Eaton of Placerville on Sunday despite riding with an injured collarbone. The next event in the yearlong series is Feb. 15.

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No Do-Overs

A look at last season’s final NASCAR Winston Cup standings and how the race would have ended under the new point system:

2003 TOP 10

*--* No. Driver Points Behind 1. Matt Kenseth 5,022 -- 2. Jimmie Johnson 4,932 90 3. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 4,815 207 4. Jeff Gordon 4,785 237 5. Kevin Harvick 4,770 252 6. Ryan Newman 4,711 311 7. Tony Stewart 4,549 473 8. Bobby Labonte 4,377 645 9. Bill Elliott 4,303 719 10. Terry Labonte 4,162 860

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2003 TOP 10 (NEW SYSTEM)

*--* No. Driver Points Behind 1. Jimmie Johnson 6,604 -- 2. Jeff Gordon 6,544 60 3. Ryan Newman 6,481 123 4. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 6,414 190 5. Kevin Harvick 6,317 287 6. Matt Kenseth 6,208 396 7. Bobby Labonte 6,189 415 8. Terry Labonte 6,090 514 9. Kurt Busch 5,960 644 10. Michael Waltrip 5,860 744

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