Gordon looks forward to final events

He would have been the Nextel Cup point leader with the old system.
By MIKE HARRIS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Jeff Gordon would rather not dwell on what might have been.
Told he would be leading the Nextel Cup points chase with two races to go if NASCAR had not switched to a new championship format this year, Gordon simply shrugged and smiled.
"That's good to know," the four-time champion said, "but that still doesn't really mean much. I've always said that the way you race is how the points are structured.
"We still have a shot at the championship."
Entering Sunday's race at Darlington Raceway -- a track where he has won six times, including five Southern 500s -- Gordon trails series leader Kurt Busch by just 41 points.
Four-man battle
The race is at least a four-man battle, with Dale Earnhardt Jr. just 47 points behind Busch and Jimmie Johnson one behind Earnhardt. Even fifth-place Mark Martin, 102 points out, isn't out of the championship picture.
"I happen to think, and I think most people do, that we haven't had this good racing, forget how the points are working out, in a long time," France said.
"Every race it's exciting to watch, there's lots of passing and lots of drama throughout the whole race. We feel real good about the product now. It's as good as we've had in a long time."
Even so, if this season had been under the points system in use from 1975-2003, there still would have been a good race for the title.
Would have been leading
Gordon would be 57 points ahead of Earnhardt and 62 in front of Johnson. Busch would be fourth, 222 points behind and all but eliminated from title contention.
"This is something motorsports has never seen before, with the regular season and then a playoff-type system," Busch said. "With the regular season, teams were still trying to develop their setups, maybe take risks because of their [points] cushion.
"There were so many different avenues of what it took to get into the playoff system that it left the door wide open for when you did make it. We were a team that was well prepared with our tests. We had great race cars saved and built up."
Johnson overcomes struggle
Johnson nearly fell out of contention when his team, which had built a lead of 232 points over Gordon after race No. 20, began to experiment with new parts and pieces, ran into some bad luck and dropped to second place entering the championship.
Johnson continued to struggle, falling to ninth, 247 points behind Busch after the first four races of the Chase. It took a three-race winning streak -- the first since Gordon won four in a row in 1998 -- to get him back into contention.
"He would never have done that under the old system," France said. "He would have just kept padding that lead. He would have gone into an ultraconsistent mode as opposed to anything new. So, the likelihood is that Jimmie Johnson would have a 300-point lead right now."
No excuses
Johnson isn't making excuses. He's just happy to back in contention.
"I think people were asking, 'Where did Jimmie Johnson go about 10 races ago,' " Johnson said. "But I think people have been in this sport long enough to know that you have your ups and downs. The timing of our downs wasn't the best for the championship battle, but we got it back and we're in the middle of it now."