Paul Kizzle, Associated Press Caption Click photo for larger image.

It doesn't strike you at first. The massive Daytona International Speedway grandstand appears as soon as you exit Interstate 95. The huge crowds typical of a Daytona 500 have already taken over. Even the familiar roar of engines can be heard from blocks away.

As you walk in, you notice the flags waving from the top of motor homes and campers that have already filled the infield. The smell of fuel being burned still emanates from the garages. Best of all, Lake Lloyd is still a glistening oasis down the backstretch of a race fan's wonderland.

You've heard there were going to be changes since Matt Kenseth won the championship last season and you're nervously trying to identify them. There just doesn't seem to be much different.

Then something catches your eye. You do a double take. And there it is. A bright yellow and black patch featuring the words NASCAR Nextel Cup Series seems to leap off a crewman's uniform. The familiar red-and-white Winston Cup logo is nowhere to be found among all the other patches on his outfit. Quickly, you look up and around the speedway at the new billboards and placards that dominate the landscape. Still, no Winston Cup. You're left to wonder, "What happened to my favorite racing series?"

It's OK. Relax. All the drivers from Dale Earnhardt Jr. to Tony Stewart to Rusty Wallace to, yes, Jeff Gordon, are here and will be racing today in the 46th running of the Great American Race.

In an effort to clear up more issues as the green flag drops on the racing season, here are some questions and answers for the 2004 NASCAR season:

Q: What happened to the "Winston Cup" in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series?

A: Winston Cup is gone. With tobacco legislation making it increasingly difficult and expensive for companies such as R.J. Reynolds to devote the necessary funding to support a race series, last season RJR informed NASCAR it could begin a search for a new title sponsor. By June, Nextel, a wireless communications company, reached a deal to sponsor NASCAR's top division for the next 10 years at what is believed to be about $75 million per season.

The series had been known as Winston Cup since 1972, which also marked the beginning of the series' modern era when the schedule was cut from 48 races to 31. There are now 36 races that count in the standings.

While all the patches, decals and billboards are in place at Daytona and the other 22 tracks where the series competes, it will still take some time for all the competitors to get used to calling it the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series.

"I think it's great," said Chip Ganassi, a Fox Chapel native who owns the cars driven by Sterling Marlin, Jamie McMurray and Casey Mears. "We've all been wondering and waiting for when a bona fide series sponsor [would come on board]. It's rare that it wasn't tobacco. RJR did such a great job for many years. [Nextel] is a new type of company to racing. I think it's a huge opportunity and I'm salivating."

But Ganassi, who admittedly is more hands-on with his two cars in the Indy Racing League, tends to be more progressive than many in the NASCAR garage. For those who have spent their working lives in NASCAR, there will certainly be an adjustment period.

"I think everybody's as used to it as they can be," said Tony Glover, a longtime crew chief who is one of Ganassi's team managers. "I've spent my whole racing career, basically, in Winston Cup and, really, the only thing I've known how to say is Winston Cup. I'm sure Nextel is going to be a great sponsor and they're going to elevate racing to the next level and I'm all for it."

Q: What is the Chase for the Championship?

A: In an effort to compete with other sports in the fall, for several years NASCAR had been examining ways to maintain interest in the series as the schedule wound down each year. Therefore, new CEO Brian France, the third member of the France family to oversee NASCAR, and series president Mike Helton unveiled a new program in January called the "Chase for the Championship."

The chase will be contested during the last 10 Nextel Cup races and is the most drastic change to the NASCAR points system since 1975. For the first 26 races, the points will accumulate as they have in the past with the exception that the new rule will award the winner five bonus points. There will still be five bonus points for leading one lap in a race and for leading the most laps.

After 26 races, all drivers in the top 10 and any others within 400 points of the leader will earn a berth in the chase. It should be noted here that in NASCAR history, no driver outside the top 10 with 10 races remaining has come back to win the championship under the old point system.

Those drivers in the chase will have their point totals adjusted. The first-place driver will begin with 5,050 points. There will be five-point drops through the list of title contenders so the second-place driver will begin with 5,045 points, third-place with 5,040 and so on.

And it will pay nicely to be in the chase. Every driver who finishes in the top 10 will receive a point-fund payout of at least $1 million, with the champion receiving more than $5 million.

"The Chase for the Championship will be a continuation of our season, with heightened drama," Helton said. "It will increase the spotlight on all competitors and increase the value of being in the series for all teams."

This system will particularly reward drivers who start the season slowly but work into the top 10 toward the end of the year. In fact, this system would have drastically changed the bank accounts of four of the past five champions. Jimmie Johnson would have won the 2003 title instead of Kenseth, Kurt Busch's three victories in the final five races of '02 would have earned him the championship instead of Tony Stewart. And Marlin would have won the 2001 title instead of Jeff Gordon. But Bobby Labonte would have benefited the most. In either system he would have been the 2000 champion, but he also would have won in 1999 instead of Dale Jarrett.

Although many drivers are reserving judgement until after the season, "I think at the end of the year, the fans are going to like it," Waltrip said. "The media is going to love it because they're going to have more to takl about. When fans and media like it, eventually all the hard-headed drivers are going to like it and start praising it."

Ganassi seemed to agree.

"If you're out there winning races and running at the front, you'll be OK," he said. "If you're not, you won't, so what's different about that?"

Q: Is it possible the Nextel Cup Series will have a race this season with fewer than 43 cars?

A: It's possible that the next race, at North Carolina Speedway, won't have a full field of 43 cars. NASCAR will make every effort to put 43 cars in the field, but with several teams still seeking sponsorship it doesn't look promising that 43 teams will show up at each event. Simple economics of racing today have forced many teams and sponsors to reconsider which events to enter. For example, only 45 cars attempted to qualify for the Daytona 500 when in years past more than 50 teams would show up. It no longer makes financial sense for a poorly funded team with a borderline chance to make the race to show up each week.

"It's just a sign of the times," said Darrell Waltrip, a three-time Winston Cup champion and current color analyst for Fox Sports. He also said there isn't a need for 43 cars at all the tracks, especially the shorter ovals such as Bristol and Martinsville.

So how much money does a team need to compete? No team will reveal what it makes in sponsorship money but Waltrip said he received $4 million from Western Auto Supply to be primary sponsor of his car in the mid-'90s. "You can't even get an associate sponsorship for that nowadays," he said.

Joe Gibbs, owner of Bobby Labonte's and Tony Stewart's cars and head coach of the Washington Redskins, also said NASCAR teams have a serious problem with escalating costs. His teams' racing expenses increase by more than 16 percent each season. In the business world that doesn't make sense.

"The danger is that we've outgrown the sponsors," he said.

What many companies have done is become a primary sponsor on cars for a few events, usually the high-profile races. The problem is that the money received for racing in these events isn't enough to sustain a team for a complete season. That has forced teams without major sponsors to pick and choose where to race, which will adversely affect the car counts at tracks with low profiles or in small markets.

Q: What are some of the key rules changes in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series?

A: At all tracks other than Daytona and Talladega -- NASCAR's two superspeedways -- the height of the spoilers will be reduced by three-quarters of an inch. That move is designed to give the cars less rear down force. At Daytona and Talladega, the spoiler height will be increased by a half-inch which will create more drag to help control speeds. Those moves are designed to put an emphasis on a driver's ability rather than the car's.

Other changes include two fewer provisional starting positions, which will increase the number of cars that qualify through time trials; a slight adjustment to limit testing at Nextel Cup tracks; and the movement of ignition boxes to above the dash to assist in the inspection process.

Q: Will Ganassi win his first NASCAR championship this season?

A: It's tough to say no. Two seasons ago, Marlin led the standings for most of the season and would have been a contender but was injured in a crash and missed the stretch run. After a slow start last season, McMurray made a strong charge through the points in the second half and won the rookie of the year title. Mears struggled for most of last year but improved as the season went on. "I'm hoping there's some speed and continuity," Ganassi said. "We have the same crew chiefs and same everybody so I'm hoping there's a lot of speed in that."

Q: How have the tires affected the style of racing?

A: Goodyear used to bring several different types of tires to an event each week. It proved to be costly to Goodyear and the teams so three years ago they agreed to develop one tire that each team would use. That tire was a hard compound designed to last long periods of time under race conditions. In many cases, it allowed drivers to avoid pit stops or take only two tires when pitting. However, hard tires also eliminated a certain element of driver skill because the tires could be abused yet still hold up under race speeds.

Beginning with the race next week, Goodyear will use a softer tire compound. Those tires will most likely show wear earlier and put a premium on handling, which should favor experienced drivers and crew chiefs.

For the race today, Goodyear is actually using a harder compound on the right side tires than last year but the larger spoiler has affected the handling and balance of cars. That has resulted in the right front tire wearing down after 10-15 laps.

Q: With which team is Dave Blaney, co-owner of Sharon Speedway near Youngstown, racing for this season?

A: Blaney was left without a ride when Jasper Motorsports developed a close relationship with Penske Motorsports and decided to sign Brendan Gaughan, the 2003 NASCAR Truck Series rookie of the year. Blaney put together a deal with Whelen Engineering to sponsor him in a Bill Davis Racing Dodge at Daytona. They will also team up for at least 10 NASCAR Busch Series races.

"Two years ago, we were just about in a position to win races," Bill Davis said. "We should have won at Atlanta a couple of times and we gave it up and let [Blaney] down. He's just got a lot of maturity, real smart in the race car. Unfortunately, he got away from us in a sponsorship deal. He was able to make progress and improve himself and show what he could do. We feel like we've got a little unfinished business, I guess.

"We definitely missed Blaney the past two years because he was our smart race car driver. He was the one who did our testing, and we really learned from. Some of our lack of success for the past few years was because we didn't have Dave Blaney in there to tell us exactly what the car was doing."

Q: What kind of fuel are NASCAR drivers using this season?

A: In another sign of the rising costs of racing, Unocal's "76" brand, which had been in cars since the beginning of NASCAR in the 1940s, is gone. In its place is Sunoco, which is the leading manufacturer of racing gasoline in the world and is associated with more than 25 racing sanctioning bodies.

Q: Since Dale Earnhardt was killed on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500, what kind of safety measures has NASCAR enacted?

A: NASCAR is constantly working to develop safer measures for drivers, but the key part to its safety commitment will never be seen on Sunday. It is the 61,000 square-foot research and development center in Concord, N.C. Opened in January 2003, the center is working on a "car of the future" as well as something as simple as tethers to prevent tires and hoods from flying away from the car in a crash.

NASCAR also mandates the use of head and neck restraints, such as the HANS device or the Hutchens Device, by all drivers. These devices significantly reduce head motion in accidents.

Lastly, in a new safety-designed rule for this season, NASCAR will increase minimum speed requirements. This is designed to limit the number of damaged cars returning to races merely to accumulate points.

Q: Who are expected to be this season's top rookies?

A: There are six drivers vying for the rookie of the year title. All have proven to be capable drivers in lower divisions of NASCAR but will face especially tough challenges with the softer tire compounds that make experience so crucial. Gaughan will be the highest starting rookie today, followed by Johnny Sauter, a winner in the Busch Series last year; Scott Wimmer, who finished third in the Busch Series in '03; Kasey Kahne, an outstanding open-wheel racer who has adapted smoothly to stock cars; Brian Vickers, last season's Busch Series champion; and Scott Riggs, a solid veteran of NASCAR's Busch and Truck series.