CHASE CHANGES BRING POSITIVE RESPONSES FROM DRIVERS, OWNERS AND MEDIA

Team owner Roger Penske: “The fact they’re going to have 12 competing will make it better and also for our sponsors . . . but I think the change is very good and I take my hat off to Brian (France) for making a few course corrections and not overhauling the system.”

NASCAR driver Carl Edwards: "Let's say it's three races to go until the Chase and we were second in points and everything looked great, like there's no way we can finish worse than 12th in the points…I'll guarantee you we'll go harder for those wins because now all you're racing for is 10-point bonuses to start the playoffs with.

"You'll be hard-pressed to find anybody in the garage who isn't going for wins."

"It will reward people that win the races…I think that if they truly want the people who win the most races, if they want that to be reflected in the final points rundown, then this is a step towards that."

NASCAR driver Jeff Burton: “Certainly the harder it is to get in, the more prestige there is in achieving that goal…I think it’s O.K. At the end of the day, having 12 teams competing for a championship only increases the excitement for the championship, and you’re still going to have that battle for who gets in and who doesn’t get in. So I think there’s nothing lost.”

Team owner Chip Ganassi: "It puts more of a premium on winning races, and that's what everybody says this sport needs.”

NASCAR driver/team owner Michael Waltrip: “This is the way it ought to be…I love it. I love the tweaks. I don’t have any problems with any of it. Ain’t it cool?”

Team owner Robert Yates: “That is a race. You want to win races. If you win a race in a year, you can have a pretty good year but now it’s about the chase. The championship certainly doesn’t come after you get in the chase. I like that style. It’s not so long and drawn out. For so many years you go to a point where you just had to protect that lead and protect that lead and you have to really about quit racing about July. Now you can really return to full-blown racing, so I think it creates a lot of excitement for that part of the season and it shortens up our season a little bit to where you are, so I like that format and I like adding the extra two to it.”

NASCAR driver Kurt Busch: “My take is a positive one on how the sport has changed itself when we did introduce The Chase for the Cup format. It creates a playoff atmosphere to invite more teams in. It helps with the percentages. In the NFL you have eight teams that go to the playoffs, but you have 30 that actually put their helmets on and go compete. At NASCAR we have 43 teams that compete for a win, for a title. With 12 spots open you have a better percentage for more competitive teams. To have a win means something. To have multiple wins, that should separate you and give you an advantage going into the playoffs. It’s almost like you’re the No. 1 seed and you’re playing the No. 6 seed. I like the difference in it, and I think it will only add to the aggressiveness on the track.”

NASCAR driver Matt Kenseth: “I think you approach them all the same. We all go out to try to win races. The only thing about rewarding more points to winning is that I think it’s cool if you win a race early in the year to be able to take those points into the chase if you make the chase. But I’ve said all along with more points to the winner, I don’t think it’s gonna change the winners of the races. It’s gonna give the winners more points, but I don’t think it’s gonna change the people who win. I go back to where we’ve run second at Indy a couple of times and it could have paid a 2,000-point bonus to win that race and we still couldn’t have won it. We were running as hard as we could to run second, so I don’t think it’s gonna change the winners, but that part of it and carrying those points to the chase will be interesting. You’ll be thinking about that early in the year. If you can pull off a win, you’ll be like, ‘Yeah, if I make the chase I get an extra 10 points going in,’ so I guess that’s something you’ll think about if you can win.”

NASCAR driver Elliott Sadler: "I’m glad they made it 12 spots . . . I think 12 is a good number . . . We’re going to race as hard as we can. I don’t care what you put in front of us. If it’s a 12-ounce ribeye, we’re going to race as hard as we can. I don’t think you can create harder racing, but I am glad to see them rewarding winning more than they do. Stick and ball sports are one winner and one loser. Racing is one winner and 42 losers. If you can beat 42 guys you deserve a bigger reward than everybody else.”

NASCAR driver Kasey Kahne: "I think it’s a neat rule. It’s fine. It’s something different. It puts a little more on winning and the consistency isn’t quite as big a deal, but it’s still going to be huge. Consistency is going to be a big part of winning the championship, but also winning races is going to be a little bit bigger, too.”

Jeff Hammond of FOX Sports: “It's good that an extra emphasis has been placed on winning. Any time that you can gain points by going out and winning a race, you have to do it, and it will make racing more exciting for the fans.”

NASCAR.COM columnist David Caraviello: “The revised format addresses the primary problem with the original Chase, which is that it rendered the first 26 races of the season virtually meaningless. From the minute it was unveiled three years ago, the Chase has been the sun that all things Nextel Cup revolve around. Nearly everything else has become an afterthought. Who won at Pocono? Who cares? How did the Chase contenders do? Races at places like Darlington and even Indianapolis became precursors to the 10-week main event.

“Now, with the added caveat that early season race victories will count toward a Chaser's starting position, maybe those first 26 will mean a little more.”

ESPN.COM columnist David Newton: “Bottom line, there's more emphasis on winning, which is what France wanted when he began looking at ways to improve the three-year-old system.”

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