Dale Earnhardt Jr. says everyone in NASCAR could use some more free time. Credit: Autostock

Junior: Season, races could stand to be shorter

AVONDALE, Ariz. -- All we heard when Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon didn't make the Chase for the Nextel Cup last season was how television ratings would suffer.

	Chase for the Nextel Cup After Texas (8th of 10 races) Pos. +/- Driver Behind 1. +1 J. Johnson Leader 2. -1 M. Kenseth -17 3. +1 Earnhardt Jr. -78 4. -1 D. Hamlin -80 5. +1 K. Harvick -105 6. +1 J. Gordon -157 7. -2 J. Burton -184 8. +2 Ky. Busch -233 9. -1 M. Martin -253 10. -1 K. Kahne -290 • Complete standings, click here

Take NASCAR's most popular driver and a four-time champion out of the mix and you're looking at a disaster.

Didn't happen.

Ratings stayed the same for the most part and went up in some cases.

So with Earnhardt and Gordon back in the Chase this year it seemed natural to assume the ratings would increase.

Didn't happen.

They have gone down in six of the eight events heading into Sunday's race at Phoenix International Raceway and gotten a small bump in two.

"I don't know [why],'' Earnhardt Jr. says as he leans against the back of his No. 8 hauler between Saturday practices. "I've told everybody I know to tune in. I'm only one guy.''

Actually, Earnhardt has a theory on why the ratings are down. It has nothing to do with the popularity of certain drivers and everything to do with the length of the races and the season.

Earnhardt believes the new fan NASCAR has attracted to move to No. 2 behind the NFL in terms of sport popularity would prefer 300-mile races instead of 400- and 500-milers.

He wouldn't mind seeing some of them shortened himself.

"There is that point in the middle of the race where it's sort of pointless,'' Earnhardt says. "We're just cutting laps is basically all we're doing to get to the end.''

The same goes for the length of the season. While Earnhardt isn't as against the 36-race schedule as he was a few years ago, he wouldn't mind seeing it shorter.

He'd even be willing to give up some of the money he surely would lose.

"Sure. Yes. Absolutely,'' he says. "That wouldn't be a problem at all. ... Like the NFL, you've got 16 games. Every game is really, really crucial, so it really makes an impact on every game. You tune in like hell to see what happens.

"With baseball and this sport you can kind of watch for a couple of weeks, not watch for a couple of weeks, read the paper and see what's going on and you're fine. It's always there. It doesn't really hold and keep your interest.''

A shorter season also might help the divorce rate of crew members, which has rank up there with that of sportswriters who follow the sport.

"I've seen more people in the sport getting divorced than I've seen people out of the sport getting married,'' Earnhardt says. "And it has a lot to do with the season being so long. We're gone so much.''

Two years ago, the grind was so hard on Earnhardt and his crew that they couldn't wait for the season to be over even though they had an outside shot at the title.

Now Earnhardt can't wait to get to the track, feeling the 78-point deficit he has to Jimmie Johnson with two races remaining can be overcome.

"The Chase made it way more exciting than the other system,'' he says.

Yes, Earnhardt likes the playoff format that NASCAR chairman Brian France introduced in 2004. The system doesn't make him feel the immediate pressure to win the title that his dad by the same name won seven times before dying on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500.

"I'll have more opportunities with this system than with the old system,'' he says. "With the old system you had the guy that got out front and got away.

"I can't imagine how many championships dad would have won with this system.''

Good point. Earnhardt's dad was at least 134 points out of first place going into the final 10 races during his final six seasons. In five of those years, he was between 205 and 788 points behind the leader.

Under the Chase format he would have qualified every year and been no more than 35 points -- he was eighth with 10 to go in 1998 -- out of the lead after the reshuffle.

Throw in his intimidation factor and his strength at many of the Chase tracks and two or three titles isn't beyond imagination.

"He might have been a 10-time champion,'' Earnhardt says.

Earnhardt would tweak the format only slightly, giving five more points for a victory and a small reward for winning the pole, the former a strong possibility.

Maybe that would tighten the battle, which already is pretty tight with Matt Kenseth only 17 behind Johnson. Maybe that would help television ratings.

"Maybe it's not quite as exciting and dramatic as we believe it to be,'' Earnhardt says with a laugh. "When you sit down and watch on your couch throughout the span of the season, maybe it's not that exciting, it's not that big of a deal.''

Or maybe it's just too long.

"Normally, when you give too little you leave people wanting more,'' Earnhardt says. "When you give too much they get satisfied and tend to lose interest.''