Notes from a cluttered postseason desktop:

• It’s hard not to sense a little smugness among NASCAR fans about the fallout from the Indiana Pacers-Detroit Pistons brawl.

But if race fans don’t think a similarly ugly incident could happen at a NASCAR race, they’re deluding themselves.

Remember the Talladega, Ala., race in April, when fans hurled bottles and trash onto the track because the race was going to end under caution? Ask the guys standing on the flagstand, the ones who tried to dodge the foam coolers coming at them, if things can’t get out of hand quickly.

Remember the pit road face-off between Kevin Harvick’s and Ricky Rudd’s teams in 2003 at Richmond, Va.? If fists had started flying in that incident, there’s no way to be sure the fight could have been contained to team members only.

It’s hard to imagine a NASCAR driver charging into the stands to get into a fistfight with a belligerent fan, but part of the reason is that there’s usually a large fence between an angry driver and an out-of-control fan.

There are times when there are no fences. It goes back to the often-discussed factor that part of NASCAR’s appeal is the access fans have to competitors.

Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson will represent the United States in the 2004 Race of Champions-Nations Cup at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, France.

But that could be a double-edge sword. When you put fans and competitors in the same area with emotions running hot, there’s no telling what might happen. That’s where a track’s security plans and its personnel must come in.

The worst mistake a NASCAR track — or any other sports venue — could make is to be complacent. Nobody needs more proof that something like what happened in Auburn Hills, Mich., could happen, because it did happen.

• Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson won’t be hanging around after Friday night’s Nextel Cup awards banquet in New York.

Gordon and Johnson will travel overnight to Paris to compete in the 2004 Race of Champions-Nations Cup at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, France.

The event features individual and team competitions. First, in the Race of Champions, 16 drivers compete in head-to-head heats in identical cars to determine a champion. Then, in the Nations Cup, the same drivers compete in a two-man team competition.

Johnson and Gordon will compete for the United States against such foes as Formula One champion Michael Schumacher of Germany, World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb of France and Indy Racing League champion Tony Kanaan of Brazil.

Television coverage of the event in the United States will be on the cable channel HDNet.