Quite simply, there's no point to the so-called top-10 in points "playoff" system some are proposing for NASCAR and Nextel Cup in 2004.

Sure, the current points system may not be the ideal situation for everyone, but it's better than what NASCAR president Brian France is supposedly considering implementing this coming season.

The proposed system, which calls for the top-10 drivers to have a 10-race shootout in the final third of the season, is discriminatory toward smaller teams, eliminates the opportunity for drivers who are outside the top-10 after the first 26 races to have a final late-season surge in the standings, and is really nothing short of yet another NASCAR play for more income. Doesn't this sport and sanctioning body have enough money yet?

NASCAR officials can say what they want, but don't buy into the supposed "playoff" aspect of what some are referring to as an "exciting" and "revolutionary" system. To me, it's about as exciting and revolutionary as a hand is quicker than the eye shell game or three-card monty on a New York city street, where a sucker seems to be born virtually every minute.

And suckers are exactly what NASCAR fans would become if the new playoff system is integrated into Nextel Cup this coming season.

Whether NASCAR officials want to admit it or not, the basis of this playoff Pandora's box stems from the fact NASCAR has been and likely will continue to be the No. 2 most-watched spectator sport in the U.S. behind the NFL. And if something works in the NFL, the logic goes that that it will work in NASCAR, or at least officials in the sport's sanctioning body want us to believe that.

But the NFL and NASCAR are two entirely different kind of animals. Sure, they're both so-called "team sports," built on the back of huge respective organizations. But there's one key difference: In the NFL it takes 22 players -- 11 on offense and 11 on defense -- to get the job done, whereas in NASCAR, success boils down to just one individual at its base core -- the driver behind the wheel. You can have the best crew chief and the most well-funded organization behind him, but if a driver can't cut it on the racetrack, that team will wind up going nowhere fast.

Rather, Nextel Cup racing is more of an individual sport more akin to golf or tennis, where the preeminent man or woman rises to the top by maintaining the best overall consistency over the course of a 20- to 30-something tournament schedule. So what if Matt Kenseth won just one race in 2003 en route to the championship? There's still no denying that over the course of the entire 36-race season, Kenseth was far and away the best and most consistent driver, finishing 25 times in the top-10, more than any other driver. Sure, Ryan Newman may have led the series with eight wins, but he also had six DNFs, which does not paint a picture of consistency, now does it?

Also, what about teams that make a late-season run? Are they any less exciting than this supposed "exciting" playoff structure? If a driver is outside the top-10 after 26 races, he's out of luck when it comes to finishing in the top-10 under the current system. That would keep a guy like Kurt Busch, who was 12th in the points in 2002 after 26 races, from winding up where he did: third at the end of that same season. If the proposed playoff system had been in place that season, the best Busch would have been able to finish was 11th. That'd be a travesty -- not to mention a large chunk of lost dollars that Busch and his Roush team would have brought in with an overall third-place finish.

	Kenseth and his No. 17 team won the '03 crown with consistency -- and there's nothing wrong with that.

And can you imagine what this playoff system would do to teams that finish outside the top-10? Their chances for sponsorship would almost certainly be hurt, as sponsors would want their money to go to the best of the best, namely the top-10 teams, thus leaving the little -- and less successful guys -- out in the cold. Rather, the playoff system would become yet another victim of the so-called "New York Yankees mentality," where the teams with the most money would get into the final top-10 because they have the resources to do so.

And, why is it that the Busch Series had its most exciting and closest season ever under the same points structure as Nextel Cup, and no one is complaining that it needs a new playoff system. If anything, France is listening too much to the whiners and complainers who claim they aren't getting a fair shake ... mainly because they're jealous that they can't put together the kind of consistency that Kenseth and others like Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson did this past season.

Another argument put forth by supporters of the playoff structure is that the final 10 races would be more exciting for fans. That's simply not the case.

NASCAR's popularity is obviously based upon its core of 75 million regular fans. And while the majority of those fans watch races on TV rather than in-person, the fact of the matter remains that even when a championship race has long been decided, fans are still going to flock to the final venues on the schedule because it's probably one of the only chances they'll have that season to see their favorite drivers live and up-close, regardless of where they rank in the standings.

Sure, a playoff system may attract a few more fans to the final races as the eventual winner closes in on the championship, but NASCAR is fooling itself and a whole lot of other people if it thinks it's going to draw tens of thousands more fans to late-season races at places like Atlanta, Phoenix and Homestead. There may be a blip on the radar screen, but it won't be the massive insurgence that NASCAR officials think might occur.

NASCAR officials seem to have the false impression that implementing a playoff system would enhance the excitement and lure of the sport in the final 10 races. To me, that thinking is kind of bent. For, if you use NASCAR's argument that the sanctioning body needs to enhance the excitement and lure, then that must surely mean the current state of the sport is not as exciting and alluring as we all think in the first place, right?

Jerry Bonkowski covers NASCAR for ESPN.com. He can be reached at Motorsportwriter@MSN.com.