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Change is afoot in NASCAR, but whether it's for the better remains to be seen.

While not completely finalized, NASCAR president Mike Helton made it clear last week that the series will be instituting a new points system in 2011 designed to make things easier for fans. It is thought the new system will award 43 points to race winners and reducing that tally by one per place, with the final finisher getting one. NASCAR races have 43 starters.

The current system, introduced in 1975, confused just about everyone except skilled mathematicians. The new system is greatly simplified. "Even for us, we have to occasionally go to the rule book and look at what position got what points," Helton said. "The main goal is to get one that's just easier to understand and simpler, but you have to do that with credibility around the championship."

Although more straightforward than the former system, the proposed solution still falls short. For example, NASCAR keeps saying it wants to put more emphasis on winning, but its 43-1 system does the opposite.

Doing the math, the difference between first and second place points is reduced by about 40 per cent under the proposed new system, debunking the claim that NASCAR wants wins to be rewarded. If the new system is extrapolated to the old where first place got 180 points, plus a five point bonus for leading a lap, the second place finisher would now receive 176, or six more than they did in 2010. Third place would get 172, rather than the 165 under the system used in 2010.

Not only are wins worth less than previously, the new system also still rewards every driver who qualifies for a race, no matter how poorly they perform. There is also no clarification on whether the sport will dispense with the silly bonus points awarded to every driver who led a lap, even if it was during a caution period.

It is thought that the issue of making wins count for more may be addressed by a new Chase for the Cup format which may see the qualifiers on points reduced by two to 10, with the 11th and 12th spots going to the two drivers not in the top 10 who have the most wins. NASCAR may also increase the number of bonus points Chase participants receive for wins at the start of the 10-race championship playoff.

While Helton discussed the proposed changes in Daytona, Fla., during testing late last week, the series will get input from the teams before making any final decisions. All the details are expected to be revealed by NASCAR chairman Brian France on Wednesday.

That means fans will only have a couple of weeks to figure out the changes prior to next month's Daytona 500.

"The biggest thing is for us to make the correct decision that everybody in the garage area and everybody in the grandstand understands that everybody has the same opportunity and are operating under the same rules, and that's I think the biggest step that we must take," Helton said.

"I think that our fans, as long as we maintain the core elements of the sport, tweaking the points, tweaking the Chase, tweaking different components in the sport, they're quick studies."

Unfortunately, NASCAR's decision on its Nationwide Series also left a bit of a bad taste. Instead of banning Cup racers from the second-tier series, the chosen solution was to force drivers to commit to competing for only one NASCAR championship. That means a Cup driver could run an entire Nationwide season and win the most races - the case for the past six years - but the title would go to someone who did not finished first overall.

And that's a distinct possibility since 2007 Nationwide champion and Cup regular Carl Edwards has already committed to a full schedule in NASCAR's lesser series. Edwards has finished ahead of all Nationwide-only drivers in points in the second tier series every year since 2006.

This does not seem to bother NASCAR officials.

"You can debate and argue that, okay, if I win 10 or 12 races and don't win the championship, what the championship is worth," Helton said.

"Well, it's still the championship. It's still a big old trophy, still a nice cheque, still a guy who went out there and competed against 43 teams and became the champion of that series. So, I think it's still a NASCAR national series championship which I think is valuable and credible."

Only a couple of days after a second test with the Newman/Haas IndyCar team, Toronto racer James Hinchcliffe got more good news. On the same weekend that he picked up Inside Track magazine's Readers' Choice 2010 Canadian Racer of the Year Award, he also finished second overall in the Indy Lights Series in 2010. Hinchcliffe's two-day test saw him complete 130 laps at the Sebring International Raceway last Thursday and Friday. The second test increases his chances of snagging a ride in the IndyCar Series this year.

Brantford, Ont.'s Jordan Szoke won Canadian Motorcycle Racer of the Year, flat track star Tyler Seguin of Welland, Ont., was voted Up and Coming Motorcycle Racer of the Year, and stock car racer Steve Arpin, of Fort Frances, Ont., took the award for the Canadian Racer Competing at the Highest Level of International Competition.