Au contraire, says Greg Erwin, Greg Biffle's crew chief. Three races into the 10-race Chase, Biffle is eighth in points, 114 behind leader Mark Martin.

"The pressure to get in, the 3 or 4 weeks leading up to when they drew the line in the sand, was probably more pressure than we feel right now," Erwin said yesterday from Roush Fenway headquarters in Concord, N.C. "We really don't feel a lot of pressure. We came into this near the bottom of the seeding [12th]. Probably no one was going to tell you that we were a favorite.

"Three weeks in, we're still one of the guys with a shot at it. If one or two of those guys up front stubs their toe - has a mechanical issue or a wreck - it's going to close that gap in a hurry. We were able to close the gap 30 points last week.

"We're going back to a racetrack [California] where we've had really strong runs. It's one of [Biffle's] favorite places.

"It's going to come down to DNFs and wins. You're not going to be able to have a DNF [did not finish] in the next 6 or 8 weeks, Talladega included. More than likely you're going to have to win [a race].

"I'm not saying a guy couldn't run second from here on out and win it. Realistically, that's not what normally happens. And you're going to have to run an average of top four."

Last year, Biffle finished third in the Chase. Teammate Carl Edwards was runner-up to three-peat champion Jimmie Johnson. This year hasn't been as rosy for Roush Fenway. Biffle and Edwards are winless.

"Companywide, we're disappointed in the performance of our race teams," said Erwin, a Hatboro, Pa., native. "We're a little bit confused. It's fairly simple: As much as we think we improved in the offseason, the reality is the guys we're racing improved just a little more.

"Every week, we go to the racetrack with something that we have reason to believe is going to be a little better. Some weeks it is, some weeks it isn't. We just haven't connected all the dots yet."

Fans, this is for you

All East Coast races will begin at 1 p.m. West Coast races will be at 3 p.m. Eastern, and evening races will start at 7:30.

NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France said response from the sanctioning organization's 25,000-member fan council indicated the more consistent starts fit better with fans' lifetstyles.

In a rare disclosure for a TV executive, David Hill, Fox Sports chairman, acknowledged that starting races later in the day - see, 3 p.m. for the Daytona 500, 2 p.m. at Pocono and Dover, Del. - was a mistake.

"We started to tamper with something that we shouldn't have," Hill said on a conference call."

Later starts were aimed at attracting more viewers in the western United States. The starts also spilled over into the network's evening programming.

"The great thing about this sport is its wonderful traditions," Hill said. "We realize that [while] we were artificially trying to goose the [ratings], it wasn't doing us any good with that core fan that created this sport and turned it from a regional sport into a major national sport."

Hill expects ratings to decline a little next year.

"We're all interested in long-term growth," he said. "When the fans realize the racing's going to be on [at consistent times], the growth will start to come."