A FEW ADDITIONS TO NEW RULES.

Byline: TIM HADDOCK Motor Sports

FONTANA - NASCAR has a bunch of new rules for 2005: shorter spoilers, different gear ratios, new tires, impounds, qualifying, practice procedures.

Rule changes are nothing new to NASCAR. Last year, it even devised a new way to determine the Nextel Cup Series champion with a 10-race playoff called the Chase.

One of the new rules that seemed to get its share of criticism was the shorter spoiler. It has been reduced from 5 1/2 to 4 1/2 inches and has affected the amount of downforce the cars can produce.

``I'm not a very big fan of the spoiler,'' said Jamie McMurray, driver of the No. 42 Dodge Charger for Chip Ganassi Racing. ``It's really hard to pass.''

McMurray's thoughts were echoed by drivers throughout California Speedway. The jury is out on a lot of the other new rules NASCAR adopted.

Because NASCAR is changing the way stock cars race, here's a few more rules it might like to consider:

1. Qualifying is pointless: Hendrick Motorsports stole the show Saturday in qualifying, but it was Roush Racing who dominated Sunday.

Hendrick youngsters Kyle Busch and Brian Vickers started on the front row for the Auto Club 500 at California Speedway, but all five Roush Racing drivers took turns leading throughout the race.

Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, and Carl Edwards were in front for 53 of the first 60 laps. At one point, four of Roush's five cars were in the top 10. Kenseth led for 57 laps, and Roush Racing drivers were out front for 151 of 250 laps.

In the end, Biffle took the checkered flag with Kurt Busch coming in third, making the California Speedway podium Roush Racing-heavy.

``Kurt Busch did me a huge favor today,'' Biffle said. ``He could have raced the heck out of me, but I had track position, and he let me go.''

2. Dale Earnhardt Jr. must stink at California Speedway: He has only one top-five finish in seven starts at California Speedway, and Sunday's race wasn't his best.

Junior had three flat tires before the race was half over and fell nine laps off the pace at one point.

``The car was driving pretty good,'' Earnhardt said. ``And even after we fixed all the problems and didn't have any more flats, it was still driving all right. I just didn't want to get up there jerky and racing those guys that were on the lead lap. You know, those tires going flat - that was weird.''

That the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series makes two annual stops in Fontana can't sit well with Earnhardt. If he had any pull at all, he would lobby for another race at Phoenix International Raceway, where he's won the past two races. Oh wait. The Nextel Cup Series does make two visits to Phoenix this year. Coincidence?

3. Stay off the roof: NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver Jack Sprague almost missed the American Racing Wheels 200 on Friday night because he fell off the roof of his house and broke his foot.

It's bad enough that a NASCAR driver feels the need to climb his roof to clean his gutters. As a NASCAR driver, he should have enough money to pay someone else to do it for him. But then to climb in a truck and try to race ... well, that's just silly.

Sprague, on his roof, slipped on a patch of ice, fell and broke the heel on, fortunately, his left foot. Thank goodness there isn't a lot of need to use the clutch to change gears on a track such as California Speedway.

Give Sprague credit for being smart enough to get out of the truck during the first pit stop and let Mike Bliss drive the rest of the way home.

4. No personal phone calls: Michael ``Fatback'' McSwain, the crew chief for Ricky Rudd's No. 21 Ford Taurus for the Wood Brothers racing team, underwent back surgery Friday and was recovering at his home in North Carolina.

McSwain and Eddie Wood, one of the team's co-owners, decided it would be a good idea to have McSwain perform his crew chief duties by calling in his instructions via cell phone and radio.

``It sounds complicated, but I've been told it's gonna work,'' Rudd said before the race. ``It took a lot of big companies to make all this happen, and it's kind of neat how they're all networking together.''

What next? Remote control cars and cruise control?

Well if Al Davis and Jerry Jones can do it in the NFL, why not McSwain and the Wood Brothers in NASCAR.

Not to call McSwain a micromanager, but Rudd made about a half-dozen unscheduled pit stops before lap 50. And none of them helped the 21 car much. The reason for the all the stops: Apparently, the space between the right front tire and the frame was too narrow, and the tire was getting chewed up.

``Finally, a motor is what ended up knocking us out of the race,'' Rudd said. ``Something broke in the motor internally, but at the beginning of the race, we were just racing - I guess maybe guilty of racing too hard in the early stages of the race.''

The lines of communication seemed to work fine.

``That was not gonna be an issue,'' Rudd said. ``Some days it's not your day, and definitely today was not ours in the Motorcraft Taurus.''

5. It's who you know: Chip Ganassi Racing drivers McMurray and Casey Mears got to know actor Ashton Kutcher last weekend at the Daytona 500. Kutcher served as honorary starter for the Daytona 500.

When the drivers made it to Los Angeles for the Auto Club 500, they stayed at a hotel recommended by Kutcher. Later in the week, McMurray and Mears were waiting to get into a party in Hollywood and Kutcher walked in.

``It was funny because we ran into him in the front,'' said Mears, driver of the No. 41 Dodge Charger for Chip Ganassi Racing. ``He told Jamie and I how we ran at Daytona and where we finished. He helped us getting a better seat at the party, so that was pretty cool.''

Too bad Demi Moore wasn't nominated for an Academy Award. Maybe Mears and McMurray could have crashed that party with Kutcher, too. After the race, of course.

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Photo:

Hendrick teammates Brian Vickers, top, and Kyle Busch started up front, but Roush racers dominated the Auto Club 500.

Joe Cavaretta/Associated Press