Jeff Gordon hits Daytona in a rock'n-roll mood...while most everyone else seems to be just going through the motions

Gordon, who had some legendary battles and title duels with Earnhardt, recalled one day at this track "There was a big tractor out there, as a promo, for us to get up on and do something with. Dale and Rusty (Wallace) and I were there. And they asked 'who's going to drive the tractor?' Well, we all knew it was going to be Dale.
   "I didn't realize Dale's skills on a tractor till that day. And this was a big piece of machinery; it wasn't a little tractor; this was a big one.
   "And Dale jumped up there and was wheeling it around and throwing the bucket around and all. It was like he had one at home.....
   "Then there was the time here at Daytona when we were all practicing for the IROC race. And I was new to the IROC series, like a kid in a candy store, just having fun, learning those cars.
   "Ken Schrader was leading, and I was running second, and Dale gave me a pretty good push to get under Schrader. And I thought 'Hey, cool. I can get around Schrader.'
   "But before I could even look in my mirror Dale was inside making it three-wide down the backstretch.
    "And it seemed like the longest back straightaway I've ever experienced in all my years running Daytona. It was like that back straightaway went on for five minutes....because it was just that moment in time:
    "I looked to the right, and there was Kenny looking straight ahead, focused. And I looked to my left, and there was Dale, with his arm laid across the roll bars and he was stretched out like he was on the sofa at home. He was just kicked back, driving with his left-hand, and he was looking at me with this big grin on his face.
   "And I realized we're three-wide, and I'm in the middle. And you can't go three-wide into the third turn here. So one of us was going to have to lift.
   "Well, I'm not going to lift.....
   "But as we got closer and closer to three, and I kept looking over at Dale, and I finally realized I was going to have to be the bigger one in that moment and lift.
   "And it was a good thing I did. Because Dale went in there and slid all the way up track toward the wall, in front of Schrader.....and it would have been a helluva wreck.
    "I'll never forget that look on Dale's face, and how relaxed he was in that race car at that moment....when I was freaking out because we were three-wide."

  NASCAR president Mike Helton: Mr. Cool, natch, but maybe a Red Bull or two, or a shot of Robby Gordon's Speed, might raise the excitement level. (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

  
   After a very humorless Thursday here, the Gordon-McMurray show was welcomed relief.
   And if cool-and-loose and funny are any indication of who might have an edge here, Gordon could be the one.
   Gordon, now a father of two, joked with new-father McMurray, about the fun of parenting on the NASCAR trail.
   "Becoming a father has made me dumber, I think," McMurray said with a laugh. To which Gordon retorted "Welcome to the club."
   Remember Gordon's run-in with Jeff Burton last fall at Texas – two middle-aged drivers shoving each other on pit road after a big crash?
   "I got home that night, and about 3 a.m. Elle (his three-year-old daughter) was having trouble sleeping," Gordon said. "And Elle asked me 'Daddy, were you wrestling with another driver out there today?'
   "And I said 'Well, kind of....'
   "And she asked 'Why did you do that?'
   "I said "Oh, I got angry.'
   "And she asked 'Why were you angry?'
   "And she was like that; she just wouldn't let it quit. And this was 3 in morning.
   "That just brings everything (about fatherhood) into perspective. It's all so raw and fun....
   "When I called Jeff a day later, and told him that, he said 'I can top that – my 14-year-old was like 'Daddy, I'm going to kick Jeff Gordon's butt.' And I had to tell them, 'No, your daddy made a mistake.....'
   "So we both had a good laugh, about that, and about what kids do. They love to share in the victories and also the agonies of defeat and embarrassing moments.
   "So Jamie, once they get to walking and talking, you'll see."

   Mr. Five-Time, Jimmie Johnson, resting between drafting laps Friday at 195.495 mph with new teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. The two topped the day's speed charts for a while, until Toyota's Denny Hamlin and teammate Joey Logano got hot late at nearly 197 mph. (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

  
   THE NASCAR NOTEBOOK

   Denny Hamlin led Friday's second round of Daytona 500 drafting at nearly 197 mph.
   Hamlin, in Mike Ford's Toyota at 196.868 mph, kept that brand atop the leader board here. Toyotas and Chevrolets have clearly been fastest in drafts, but Ford teams may be looking more toward single lap qualifying-type runs so far.
   Drivers have been reluctant to draft in large packs. But there have been a number of tight two-car drafts, even though drivers insist the Talladega-type two-car breakaway won't work on this tighter track.
   The top 10 in Friday afternoon drafting: Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski, Jeff Burton, Brian Vickers, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, and Kasey Kahne, all well over 194 mph.
   In single car runs Clint Bowyer was fastest at 185.250, a  bit quicker than defending 500 winner Jamie McMurray and teammate Juan Pablo Montoya.
  
    Right after Friday's Jeff Gordon-Jamie McMurray media show, three of the sport's big guns, president Mike Helton, Cup tour director John Darby, and competition boss Robin Pemberton took the stage – for a 'competition update,' in what was, in contrast, an unenthusiastic, in fact rather dull performance, in terms of pure entertainment here, in discussing possible rules changes for 2011 and other items.
   The one topic everyone here wanted to talk about – the proposed new championship points system – was only talked around, without specifics.
   It is only a few weeks before the start of the new season, and the playoff format and rules are still unknown. That might raise some questions about NASCAR's credibility in all this, though Helton insists that "things move a whole lot quicker than they used to," and that "fans are quick-studies when it comes to tweaks."
   This particular championship, though, might be more than just a 'tweak.'
   And while Helton says nothing is official, listening to drivers here, it appears a done-deal that NASCAR will switch from the long-standing Latford points system to a new 43-42-41-etc points system for the 2011 championships in all three national series, Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Truck.
    It also appears that 10 men will make this fall's title chase based on the new points system and that two more men will make it a 12-man chase based on their regular season wins – read that as the Jamie McMurray amendment, since last year's Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400 winner failed to make the chase.
   Official word of the change could come next week during the sport's annual pre-season media tour in Charlotte.
  
  

   Steve Letarte, Jeff Gordon's old crew chief, now heading the team that Dale Earnhardt Jr. drives for (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   Why NASCAR would now be changing the championship rules is unclear, particularly since three men went into last fall final races with great shots at the title.
   The Latford system has been used since 1975.
   The proposed 43-point system would in fact exacerbate the major problem with the current points rules: that a DNF, or bad run, is very costly to any title bid. Under the planned new system a DNF or bad run would be even more costly....which logically would make 'stroking' or conservative racing even more important.
   And that might just make it even easier for Jimmie Johnson to win another title.
   Johnson says he's worried NASCAR might be shooting itself in the foot by changing the championship rules again. And Johnson points out that any such championship tweak will not be "a huge strategy to engage the fans more, from an attendance standpoint, for a (TV) viewership standpoint.
     "In my opinion there are other areas to focus on for that.
     "Now (with a new points system) we've got to reeducate our fan base and any new fans coming in.
     "Are we going to confuse everyone even more, and shoot ourselves in the foot a little bit? I don't know. Time will tell."
    Is NASCAR just looking for a Stop Jimmie Johnson rule?
   And then a big question is how might fans react to such a change. Fans over the past few years have expressed displeasure with a number of NASCAR's big changes, from the car-of-tomorrow to the chase itself.
     Two-time Cup champion Tony Stewart (2002 and 2005) says "I didn't think it (the points system) needed change the first time (2004).
    "The fans kind of help dictate what they want. The fans can kind of help....if the fans are aware of the options. I think the fans will tell us what they want.
    "And I think as long as we all know what it is at the beginning, I don't think the competitors really care. As long as it's the same for everybody, it's fair."
     NASCAR says it's got a 'Fan Council' that it uses as a sounding board, but it doesn't appear that NASCAR has asked those fans about the looming championship rules changes.
  

  

  Did Tony Stewart (here at the evening's FanFest) really hit an Australian Rules Football player with his helmet, in that altercation last week -- dubbed by some as The Blunder Down Under? (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   But fans would like to see some changes. According to one poll, fans would like:
   -- to get rid of the 'chase;'
   -- to have more autograph time at the tracks;
   -- to rotate the tracks in the chase;
   -- to have the race cars look more like street cars;
   -- to have heat races (apparently instead of single-lap qualifying);
   -- and to eliminate the 'wave around,' the lucky-dog rule.
   Gordon responds to that by says "That proves the fans know their sport and are watching.
    "I agree with a lot of those things.
   "I would like to see more organized autograph sessions.
   "The one I might disagree on is taking the 'chase' away. If we went back to the old system, and the championship was locked up with three or four races to go, instead of going to Homestead with the title on the line, we'd all get bored. Having three or four drivers battling it out for the title is exciting and good for the sport.
    "And I don't think anything they do to the points system is going to push people to want to win more. We're already doing everything we can to win. It's in our nature.
   "The win means more to you than anything else. The points are just the icing on the cake."

   Jeff Gordon, in primer, Daytona testing (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)