CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) – Jeff Gordon thinks there are flaws in NASCAR’s new championship format and Ryan Newman still loathes the entire system.

Too bad for both of them.

The final 10-race chase begins this weekend at New Hampshire, and the champion at the end will need a decent strategy, experience and a whole lot of luck.

NASCAR’s first Chase for the Nextel Cup starts as a dead-heat, with just 45 points separating first-place Gordon from 10th-place Newman. The standings can be jumbled in a single race.

“Everybody is in the same boat now. It’s just who gets to be a survivor,” Newman said. Any little thing can take you out – any person, a little debris, bad luck. I don’t think it’s right.”

Newman has consistently been NASCAR’s biggest critic of the system, which was adopted this season after almost 25 years of a format that rewarded consistency.

Under the new structure, one bad race, broken part or accident can instantly eliminate a driver from contention.

That’s what Gordon doesn’t like. Because the 10 eligible drivers will compete against the entire 43-car field, under the same scoring system used for every race, Gordon is concerned about how other drivers can affect the chase.

For example, Jimmy Spencer caused a wreck last weekend that heavily damaged Jimmie Johnson’s car. Spencer is not a contender; Johnson is, and he ended up finishing 36th in the race and earning just 60 points for the event.

Should that happen in the chase, he’ll almost certainly be eliminated from title contention.

“I could go from leading the points right now and very easily finish 10th in these standings,” Gordon said, “and I don’t know if anybody in that position would think that’s really fair.

“I wish we were on our own point system … where it didn’t matter where you finished as long as you finished behind guys that you were racing in the points, then you basically got the points right behind them.”

But there’s no changing it now, and the race is wide open.

Aside from Gordon and Newman, the rest of the field includes Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth, Elliott Sadler, Kurt Busch, Mark Martin and Jeremy Mayfield.

The Las Vegas oddsmakers list Gordon as the 9-5 favorite. With four series titles already, Gordon has the most experience in racing for a championship.

He leads the series this year in poles (6) and wins (5) and is a streaky driver. When he gets hot, he’s capable of putting together a series of wins.

Behind him is Johnson, who was the most dominant driver for much of the season. With a huge lead in the points in August, his team began to experiment a little bit and it backfired: Johnson had three DNFs in August that raised questions about his durability.

Plus, he likely won’t be able to turn to Gordon for help over the next two months. His friend, mentor and teammate will likely be keeping his secrets to himself, leaving Johnson to figure out how to win a championship on his own.

Johnson is more concerned with staying out of trouble.

“I think we have a great chance, but with this new format, I think Lady Luck is going to have to be on your side to do it,” he said. “I think one DNF and you’re out of luck.”

Earnhardt starts in third, chasing his first series championship. His father won seven titles under the old format, but Junior is a long way away from that level.

His Dale Earnhardt Inc. team lags behind the rest of the competition in many areas, particularly engineering, and went through a slump this season where they had a difficult time correcting problems. Occasional team infighting also makes NASCAR’s most popular driver an iffy bet to win the title.

But Earnhardt has snapped his slump and feels confident about his chances.

“If you look back over the last three or four years, we finish better at the end of the season,” he said. “”I feel pretty good about it. I think we’re going to a couple of tracks we run good at.”

Stewart, the 2002 series champion, also runs well at the end of the year and has victories on seven of the final 10 tracks. Two more wins might be enough for the title.

Kenseth, who bored everyone last year en route to his first championship, could use the same consistent strategy to win in the new system. His tendency to score top 10 finishes, not pushing too hard for the victory and avoiding trouble that costs him valuable points, could give him a string of solid finishes that would give him the title.

Sadler is the darkhorse behind a much-improved Robert Yates racing team. He hasn’t been out of the top 10 in the standings all year and has two victories.

Racing in the best equipment of his career and with an experienced crew chief in Todd Parrott, he’s capable of stunning everyone and sneaking away with the title.

“I can’t wait to get the playoffs started. I think we have a great chance to win the championship,” he said.

Busch is also a darkhorse based on his ability to put red-hot streaks together. He won three of the final five races of the 2002 season, and could run the tables that way again.

Martin, his Roush Racing teammate, is the clear sentimental favorite.

He’s got four runner-up championship finishes and four thirds, but zero titles. At 45 years old, he’s told car owner Jack Roush that 2005 will likely be his final season.

After using a strong second-half push to become eligible for the chase, Martin can relax and focus on the title.

“We’ve been under intense pressure,” Martin said. “We’ve performed at the top of our game with near zero margin for error. Now we can go out and just run our race and hopefully win this championship.”

Mayfield is a longshot, even though he raced his way in by winning his first event in more than four years to vault five spots in the standings.

But he can’t be counted out with car owner Ray Evernham on his side. Evernham won three titles as Gordon’s crew chief.

Rounding out the contenders is Newman, who barely squeaked in. Although he’s the longshot at 15-1 odds in Las Vegas, Newman led the series with eight victories and 11 poles last year.

The final 10 races will be, chronologically, at New Hampshire (one mile); Dover, Del. (one mile); Talladega, Ala. (2.66-miles, with restrictor plates); Kansas City (1.5 miles); Charlotte (1.5 miles); Martinsville, Va. (1/2 mile); Atlanta (1.5 miles); Phoenix (one mile); Darlington, S.C, (1.366 miles) and Homestead-Miami (1.5 miles).

AP-ES-09-15-04 1616EDT