Despite finishing 11th in 2006, Tony Stewart thinks ten is plenty for the chase. Credit: Michael Ehermann/WireImage

Notes: Stewart says Chase number fine at 10

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Tony Stewart, who stood to gain the most if NASCAR's proposed expansion of the Chase for the Nextel Cup field had been enacted a year ago, has joined the ranks of driver dissenters.

NASCAR has floated a trial balloon in the media about expanding the Chase field to as many as 12 competitors from the current 10 and giving more points for race victories. An announcement is expected in about 10 days.

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Stewart, speaking on his Tuesday night Tony Stewart Live show on Sirius Satellite Radio, said 10 drivers were enough in the Chase, despite the fact that he finished 11th a year ago while defending his 2005 Nextel Cup championship.

"I still think it should only be 10," Stewart said. "I mean, what's next? It goes from 12 to 15 two more years down the road and then it goes from 15 to 20 and this and that?

"No more than 12 -- it shouldn't have been more than 10 to begin with [because] that's a quarter of the field. Why do we need to bring in more than that?"

Stewart said he did like the idea of giving 10 more points for a win, but after that he beat another potential dead horse.

"I think the one thing that hasn't been talked about that I keep bringing up is give the top-10 guys in the Chase their own points structure," Stewart said. "Yes, they are racing the other 33 guys [in the field] for the win but they are racing the other nine guys [in the Chase] for the championship, so give them their own points structure and let them get their points accordingly."

Moving and not quite grooving

Greg Biffle, who suffered his latest shoulder separation, but the first as a result of anything in racecar, in early December at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, comfortably displayed his right shoulder's range of motion at Daytona, which marked his first time back in a racecar since the accident.

However, he did express some concern about his movements inside the racecar, other than actually turning the steering wheel.

"My shoulder is doing fairly well," Biffle said. "I was a little nervous coming down here about how it was gonna be inside the car -- not driving the car but reaching everything -- reaching over and getting the helmet off the helmet hook and trying to hook up the things behind your head that are hard to get to, and getting the seatbelts that are behind you."

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Biffle said his last shoulder separation occurred about five years ago when he was reaching over his head while working underneath a car on a lift and his hands slipped, causing his arm to recoil and pop his shoulder out of joint.

"The reach is the biggest thing that hurts your shoulder, the range of motion," Biffle said. "But actually I'm doing really well. I'm pretty happy about that [and] I think I'm ready to go."

Old buddy, old pal

Nextel Cup driver Reed Sorenson, in his second season with Ganassi Racing, said he still considered himself close to former teammate Casey Mears, who this year will drive for Hendrick Motorsports. But beyond having a general sounding board, he said there was no replacing hands-on experience.

"I still consider Casey Mears a good friend of mine and any time I need to talk about something I can talk to him [and] I could go to Jimmie Johnson," Sorenson said. "A driver has to learn most of the stuff out there on his own.

"You can sit down and talk about this stuff all you want, but when you go out on the track a lot of stuff changes."

Sorenson used his experience to finish 24th in Nextel Cup driver points a year ago but feels better things are ahead.

"I feel like I learned a lot of stuff last year, and I feel like I'm going into this year as a smarter driver and a better driver," Sorenson said. "I'm going to try not to make as many mistakes and see if we can't come out a little better."

No worries at DEI

Obviously, one day after Dale Earnhardt Jr. came into the Daytona Media Center and spoke at length of his ongoing contract dispute -- or negotiation, depending on your perspective -- Dale Earnhardt Inc. teammate Martin Truex Jr. was asked how it would affect the organization in general.

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"I don't think so [because] everybody knows what their job is," Truex said. "We go to the racetrack or to the shop every day and none of that changes as far as what everybody is doing and what they're working on and what they're trying to accomplish.

"I don't think it distracts anybody really at all."

Even so, Truex said he didn't want to imagine a worst-case scenario, in which Earnhardt Jr. would drive for someone else.

"I don't know -- I don't think anybody could [imagine that]," Truex said. "He's been there since they started. It would be different, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens."

Jarrett gone wild

Former Cup champion Dale Jarrett made it perfectly clear this week at Daytona he was not going to be the standard bearer for Toyota's right to compete in Nextel Cup -- or to defend the manufacturer's presence.

He did, however, fire one parting shot.

"If I wanted to really get nasty, I could say, 'go in your house and check and see if that TV you're watching was made in the United States, that you're watching our great races on," Jarrett said. "I'm as American as the next person is and I pay my taxes just like everybody else and I love this country."

Seat swapping party

There won't be any music involved this weekend when Jimmie Johnson joins his Riley-Matthews Motorsports teammates to practice driver changes for the upcoming Rolex 24 At Daytona.

Johnson said he had no concern about missing the recent Rolex Sports Car Series test at Daytona for the event, as he had driven the Pontiac Riley chassis on two occasions at the end of last year; at Homestead, Fla., and Kershaw, S.C.

"I'm not sure if we're going anywhere to run the car in before the 24-hour race or not," Johnson said. "But I felt like it was more important to do all I could to get my [broken left] wrist ready for testing my Lowe's Chevrolet [Nextel Cup car]."