CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Say goodbye to the NASCAR era when a driver, fresh off a satisfying, top-10 finish, climbs from the car and raves about what a good points day it was. Winning is all that matters under the latest and most radical change to the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. NASCARs overhauled championship format announced Thursday is a 16-driver, winner-take-all elimination system designed to reward "the most worthy, battle-tested" driver at the end of the season. "Riding around and being pleased because the (previous) format rewards consistency, those days are going to be pretty much over," NASCAR Chairman Brian France said. The field, expanded from 12 to 16 drivers, will be whittled down to a final four through eliminations after every three races of the 10-race Chase. The remaining four drivers will go into the season finale with an equal chance to win the championship: The first of the four to cross the finish line will be crowned Sprint Cup champion. "No math. No bonus points. Its as simple as it gets," France said. Its the fourth change to either the points or championship format since France created the Chase in 2004. For 28 years prior to the Chase, consistency reigned as the champion was the driver with the most points at the end of the season. That ended a year after Matt Kenseth won the 2003 title with a single victory, and France began his pursuit of creating "Game 7 moments." Along the way, he has pushed his agenda of wanting aggressive drivers chasing wins. Hell get that under the new format, which makes settling for points pretty much pointless. Why? Because a win in the 26-race regular season virtually guarantees a berth in the Chase. Then, eliminations begin, and a driver can guarantee a trip to the next round with a victory. Last August, Brad Keselowski chased Kyle Busch around Watkins Glen and declined to aggressively move his rival out of the way. Keselowski settled for second, racing for a good points day and declining to inflame his touchy relationship with Busch. But in doing so, he failed to win a regular-season race and missed the Chase, making him ineligible to defend his title. Under the new format, a winless Keselowski would have no choice in that same situation but to bang fenders with Busch and go after the win. Thats exactly what France wants to see on the track each week. "This is pretty clear: You have to win, you have to compete at a higher level, you have to take more chances," France said. France said he expects contact among cars. "Obviously there are some limits, but thats always part of NASCAR, to have some version of contact late in the race," he said. "Will this bring more of that? Im sure it will." The changes were lauded by Julie Sobieski, vice-president of league sports programming for ESPN, which will broadcast all 10 Chase races this year. "We have long felt that there was a greater opportunity within the Chase and are in favour of an elimination format, which has been most effective in American sports," she said. Teams and drivers were briefed by NASCAR on the changes, and reaction was mostly positive. "This took guts, this is a big deal," said team owner Joe Gibbs, who saw his three Cup drivers combine for a series-best 12 wins last season. Busch, who won four races and finished fourth in the standings, wasnt as effusive. "I dont like to always be the Debbie Downer ... but some of the things they are doing, Im not in agreement with," Busch said, declining to be specific because he spoke before NASCAR unveiled the format. He noted that Keselowski would have had incentive to wreck Busch at Watkins Glen, and said there are other scenarios NASCAR must now consider. He referred to last season, when, Kenseth opened the Chase with a win at Chicago, where Busch followed his teammate across the finish line for a 1-2 finish for Gibbs. They again went 1-2 at New Hampshire the next week. But in the new format, thats not necessarily good enough. Busch would instead be looking to win in such a scenario to ensure a trip to the next round. "Im chasing him down to try to get to him, and if I got to him, I could have moved his (butt) out of the way to get a win and knock me into the next round of playoffs. Matt didnt need it," Busch said. "Those situations are what NASCAR is looking at. They are not wanting, Lets just race to the checkered and not cause any drama and have a good points day." Another twist: In the Kenseth-Busch scenario, it would have been in the best interest of Joe Gibbs Racing for Busch to win and, because the points reset after each round, meaning multiple victories by a driver in the Chase has no benefit -- the team would have incentive to orchestrate a Busch victory over Kenseth. "That would be a NASCAR grey area that theyd have to make a judgment call on," Busch said. NASCAR last year issued severe sanctions against Michael Waltrip Racing for trying to manipulate the finish of the last race of the regular season. The scandal led France to angrily warn teams they must all give 100 per cent at all times, and laying down to help a teammate or technical partner would not be tolerated. NASCAR President Mike Helton said nothing will change in race control and how officials enforce the rules. "Well officiate the sport the same way," Helton said. "We get the fact that this puts pressure on us officiating, and we feel like were capable of stepping up to it." France said extensive research done by NASCAR showed the new format appealed to fans because it eliminates points racing. "The avid fans like it because they dont particularly care for points racing, even though they understand it," France said. "The casual fans dont understand points racing ... often, with all the mathematicals, youve got to have a computer next to you to figure out who is in and who is out at a given moment. (This) clears all that off and then emphasizes winning, which everybody understands." Nets Jerseys China . "Last year we were in a ton of situations, late-game situations we couldnt pull out. Wed kind of fold under the pressure, get frustrated or let a big shot frustrate us," guard DeMar DeRozan said. Nets Jerseys 2020 . Weise will have his hearing with the NHL head office over the phone, while the league has requested an in-person hearing with Kassian. 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Pedroia hit a two-run double to jump-start Bostons 18-hit effort, David Ortiz had a two-run single and the Red Sox wrapped up a big homestand by beating San Diego 8-2 Thursday, sending the Padres to their season-high sixth straight loss. "Hes been in the middle of this offence from Day One and continues to be so," Red Sox manager John Farrell said of Pedroia, who raised his average to .325 by going 2 for 4. Brandon Snyder and Jacoby Ellsbury each had solo homers for the Red Sox. Boston went 8-1 at Fenway Park to match its best homestand since June 2010. The Red Sox also won for the 12th time in its last 14 games at home. The AL East leaders improved to 19 games over .500 (53-34). Sitting in his uncomfortably warm office about two hours before the game, Black praised the play of Pedroia. It didnt take long for the Red Sox second baseman to make him look good. "Pedroia might be the MVP of the league so far. I think you can make a case for it," he said. Pedroias two-run double in the first moved Boston ahead 2-0. Ellsbury singled leading off to extend his season-high hitting streak to 14 games and Shane Victorino doubled off the Green Monster before Pedroia doubled into the left-field corner. "What were seeing of late is hes starting to pull the ball," Farrell said. "Its a byproduct of getting pitched in a little more because hes gotten so many hits the other way. We know that when either an offspeed pitch stays in the middle of the plate or a fastballs in the inner part of the plate, hes always been a dead-pull hitter in those locations of pitches." The 2008 AL MVP just feels like hes taking a simple approach each time he steps to the plate. "I feel good," he said. "It depends if the balls in. Im trying to hit the ball where its pitched. If Im pulling the ball, it means theyre throwing it in a little more. Thats it." The Padres have scored just seven runs in their losing streak. They also lost for the 10th time in 12 games. "They know whats ahead of them. They know what the challenge is," Black said after the game. "This is the part of the season, part of the summer where its hot, its hot for everybody. Youve got to keep pushing through. We were swept in this series. Weve swept some teams to get back in the race in the west, but our guys know whats in front of them." Allen Webster (1-2) pitched six innings for his first major league win, allowing two runs and five hits, while walking four and striiking out two.dddddddddddd Chase Headley didnt feel like the slump has been that bad despite the team scoring two or fewer nine of the last 12 games. "I think its looked worse than it has been," he said. "Weve had some at-bats in situations where we had a chance to drive in runs and the guys hit the ball hard and it just hasnt gone in the hole for us. Obviously its disappointing when you put one, two runs up on the board for an extended period of time. I think as a group, I dont think its maybe as far off as it looks." The Red Sox open a three-city, 10-game West Coast trip Friday night in Anaheim against the Angels. Eric Stults (6-7) gave up four runs and nine hits over 4 1-3 innings without walking or striking out a batter. He was tagged for seven runs -- six earned -- in 3 2-3 innings in his previous start Saturday in a loss at Miami after giving up two runs or less in his previous six. In the second, Snyder homered into Bostons bullpen to make it 3-0. Ortizs bases-loaded, two-run single off reliever Tyson Ross in the sixth gave the Red Sox a comfortable 7-2 lead. Ellsbury homered over the bullpens to make it 8-2. Headleys sacrifice fly had cut it to 3-1 in the third before Jose Iglesias run-scoring, ground-rule double pushed Bostons lead back to three an inning later. The Padres sliced it to 4-2 in the fifth on Jesus Guzmans single high off the left-field wall -- when he missed a homer by a couple of feet -- but Webster got Mark Kotsay to line to left, ending the inning with two runners on. Jonny Gomes RBI single made it 5-2. NOTES: Black said he expects SS Everth Cabrera, on the 15-day DL since June 19 with an injured left hamstring, to be activated when the club opens a three-game series against the Nationals on Friday night. ... Boston 1B Mike Napoli was back in the lineup after getting Wednesday night off. With a left-hander starting for San Diego, Gomes was also inserted into the lineup one day after hitting a game-ending homer in the ninth inning. ... Black also discussed options for his teams struggling offence. "You have to try and do everything you can to get things going," he said, saying theyd run and bunt with the right people. "When youre not scoring things look a little flat. As people in the game know, that happens everywhere. When you score, sometimes you score in bunches and you lose and the pitching wasnt solid, but youre playing hard. Were playing hard, but were just not scoring runs." ... Farrell said he hopes SS Stephen Drew, sidelined since last Friday after aggravating his right hamstring, will be back in the lineup Saturday. ... The gametime temperature was 91. ' ' '