NASCAR Chase for the championship

As all of NASCAR waits to see what changes chairman Brian France will make to the Chase for the championship, drivers have taken to offering their two cents.<br/><br/>Jeff Burton is strongly opposed to

Saturday, November 11th 2006, 4:17 pm

By: News On 6

As all of NASCAR waits to see what changes chairman Brian France will make to the Chase for the championship, drivers have taken to offering their two cents.

Jeff Burton is strongly opposed to a separate points system for the Chase contenders, while Dale Earnhardt Jr. wants to see additional points awarded for qualifying and victories.

Everyone makes a convincing argument for their point of view.

"You should not be judged on just the other guys you are racing against for the championship, you should be judged against the whole field," Burton said. "If you are playing a 4-11 team (in football), you still have to beat them. If you don't, that still goes in the loss record, so that is the way this deal should work, too.â€

"When you are racing a team that is 35th in points, but they beat you on that particular day, then they beat you and I think your points should be received accordingly."

Earnhardt, meanwhile, believes NASCAR should award points for qualifying to make the time trials process a little more meaningful.

"I thought if we put a lot of effort into qualifying, there should be some sort of benefit to the points system in qualifying," he said. "Just something minuscule and small, but still, the guy that really is putting that effort forward and getting those poles should sort of benefit from it.

"That would make qualifying more prestigious instead of just trying to pick pits. I could honestly care less if I get any poles or not, I just try to do as good as I can for the pit-picking process."

And he wants five more points awarded to race winners, and nothing more.

"Five is plenty," he said. "I think if you give too much, you are going to have a (runaway) winner."