by Darrell Waltrip

Updated: November 13, 2007, 9:17 PM EST

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Sometimes a driver would win one race, but he would win the championship. Another driver may win four, five or six races, but he didn't win the championship. I've always thought there was in imbalance there. I've always thought — and I know most fans agree — that a premium should be paid for winning. The guy that goes out there, lays it all on the line and tries to win every week should be rewarded for taking the chances, putting on a show and trying to capture the flag.

Racing is all about winning, not finishing. Of course, you've got to finish to win, but the exciting part of the sport is seeing a guy hang it out and go for the win. That's what Jimmie Johnson has done the last several weeks. At Texas, it took a phenomenal effort for Johnson to beat Matt Kenseth. Was Jimmie thinking about anything but winning that race? Heck no. You could tell that the man wanted to win. You know why? Because he knows that if he wins, he gets bonus points.

You get five-point bonuses for winning, leading a lap and leading the most laps. During the first 26 races, you can lead the most laps, win the race and actually gain 25 points on a guy in second place with the 10 extra bonus points that are awarded in the Chase. Finally, NASCAR has made a really good decision by starting to reward drivers trying to win every week.

Plus, just like we've seen with Jimmie, if you win and you're behind in the points, you catch up. If you get behind in the points, then you've got to try to win, get all of those bonus points and get back in the game. That's what Jimmie has been able to do. He has the same number of top five finishes as Jeff Gordon (20). Gordon has more top 10s (29) than Jimmie (23). But Jimmie has more wins (10 to 6). With wins come bonus points.

Putting a premium on winning is the way it ought to be. The guy that wins the most races ought to be the guy that wins the championship. I know some people will disagree, but if you go out there and put forth the effort to win the race, you should be rewarded. That's why the No. 48 is at the top of the points. Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus maybe are the only ones that realized just how critical winning was going to be. Their 10 wins and the bonus points that come with them provide every opportunity to win the championship.

Everything has played against Jeff Gordon. The Chase format has worked against him. In some people's minds, it's cost him a championship or two. But Jeff is so consistent with 29 top-10 finishes. Normally, you'd think that would be enough to win the championship, but it just didn't work out that way. Bonus points for winning actually worked against Jeff.

So I like NASCAR's format. I like the tweaks that they've made. I'm not a huge Chase fan, but it is what it is. We race under the circumstances that we're given by NASCAR. It doesn't do any good to talk about the old point system, the new point system, the Chase format or anything else. The only thing I'll say is all of the former champions up until the Chase format were determined on a whole year of racing, whether it was 32, 36 or another number of races. From that perspective, you would have to put an asterisk by anybody that's won a championship since the Chase format started in 2004.

Heading to Homestead, Johnson and Knaus are looking at each other and saying, "Dude, we've got a car that's won 10 races and runs up front every week. We've got a great pit crew. Do you think that there will be any way possible to finish 18th or better?" Duh! The No. 48 wins every week, and all they have to do is stay out of trouble.

I don't think they'll try to win the race. You'll see Johnson running conservatively, not taking any chances and settling for anything 18th or better. That's all he's looking for this weekend. This weekend, he can reap the rewards of all of the chances and risks that he took to get to where he is. Going to Homestead without a lot of pressure, the No. 48 team just needs to mind its P's and Q's. If everybody is on his game, the team will cruise home to a second consecutive championship.

It's been a really good battle between Johnson and Gordon, and it's been exciting to watch. But it's all over with on Sunday, and we look forward to next year and the COT: The Car of Today.

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At Phoenix, Jimmie became the eighth Modern Era driver to win four consecutive races. I won four races in a row in 1981, but I'm the only one who won all four from the pole. It's just a bit of trivia, but it's also something that never gets mentioned. It's a great accomplishment to win four races, but it's pretty amazing that we won all four of them from the pole.

Oh, by the way

One thing that I've noticed about Jeff this year and almost every year is he just does not run well in traffic. Any time he's had a car that's stayed out front and not back in traffic, he's been very competitive. But on a number of occasions last year and again this year, he just can't move when he gets back in traffic. He gets stuck, unlike Jimmie, who can blow by everybody and go right to the front.

No. 24 crew chief Steve Letarte's strategy at Phoenix to get off-sequence probably could have worked, but you can't always be as lucky as he was at Pocono when Ryan Newman was just about ready to pass him and the rain came. Or as lucky as he was in the spring race at Phoenix when he pitted, and the caution came out when he was on pit road. Drivers only have so much luck in the luck bank, and Jeff used his up earlier in the year. That's hurt him at the end of the season.

Oh, by the way, too

I chuckled when I read that Roger Penske is trying to decide whether to take the No. 2 points and give them to Sam Hornish Jr. next year. Let's just do the math. After failing to qualify for six races, he made it into Phoenix, but he can't sell Mobil 1 and all of these other people on sponsorships with the chance that he may not make races so it's almost a no-brainer in my mind. I'm not necessarily a fan of switching owner points, but NASCAR allowed it to happen. They may have to put down their foot like they did with champion's provisionals, but for now, it's a no-brainer for Roger. He may not be proud of making of the move, but it's probably something that he'll have to do.

Oh, by the way, three

Several open wheel drivers are coming to NASCAR because it's a great place to race, but they also can sell sponsorships. With the amount of money a sponsor is spending in Indy car racing, I'm sure these owners are saying, "Hey, we can run NASCAR 36 weekends a year on TV before millions of people for just a little bit more money than we're spending now." They can talk all they want about how much fun it is and what a challenge it is. That's true, but you just have to follow the money folks. It's that way with everything that goes on in sports. Just follow the money.

Another oh, by the way

The Pettys are wondering if they ought to do a deal with Gillett Evernham Motorsports or not. If you think back a number of years, Richard did a deal with Mike Curb, and Kyle drove for the Wood Brothers and Felix Sabates. They kind of abandoned Petty Enterprises, and then Kyle decided that he was going to go back a few years ago and revitalize it. I give Kyle an "A" for a yeoman's try to get things going again there, but they do need to do something.

They need more resources. They're going to move to Mooresville, and that's a good move for them.

Richard is probably hesitating because he tried this once before and wasn't really happy with the results, but they've got to do something to improve the performance of their company. George Gillett seems to be a solid guy. He's got a good reputation, and he's well-known. I don't think he'll pull a fast one on them so it might be a good move for Richard to yield a little bit and give it a try.

My final oh, by the way

All through my career in racing, we lived by the three L's. When you built a new race car, you wanted the car to be low. You wanted the car to be light so you could put a lot of weight in it, and you wanted to put it as much as possible on the left side. So forever, the three L's applied to cars that we built: low, light and left.

But now with the COT, the Car of Today, it's the three H's: high, heavy and horrible to drive.