Halfway through the season, or whatever NASCAR wants to call the 26-race run-up to the 10-race scrap for this year’s Nextel Cup championship, it’s not too soon to be thinking about how to improve this “new and improved system.”

Certainly, there are things about the new format we haven’t figured out yet, ways that smart teams are going to approach the 26-10 plan to make it work in their favor.

That, in fact, is already happening. When Jimmie Johnson won at Lowe’s Motor Speedway two weekends ago, crew chief Chad Knaus said the requirement to be only 10th or better after 26 races to be in the championship chase actually freed up that team to more aggressively chase race victories in situations where points considerations otherwise might have taken precedence.

Anything that makes race teams think first about winning races and then about points is a grand idea.

Fans didn’t sit through nearly five hours of the MBNA 400 on a gray Sunday at Dover (Del.) International Speedway for the points race. They came to see somebody win, like Mark Martin eventually did.

Winning a race ought to be the biggest deal it can possibly be and still make a championship race relevant.

So here’s an idea.

During the first 26 races, each driver gets a 500-point bonus for his first win of the season. If a driver wins seven races, he only gets the bonus for the first time, but everybody who wins one of those 26 races gets that bonus.

What would that do?

Well, it would make it imperative for a driver who wants to be part of the 10-race championship chase to get a race victory. It would also reward a driver appropriately for notching a win. Martin is now 13th and Rusty Wallace is 14th in the standings, but each have won races this year. Six drivers ahead of them haven’t won a race yet. Shouldn’t a driver have to win something to race for the ultimate prize?

The bonus then would reset after 26 races. Each driver’s first win among the final 10 would again earn him a 500-point bonus, putting an even higher premium on winning in that part of the season.

Suppose we get to the final race at Miami and a driver is 450 points out because he hasn’t won in the previous nine races. Second place is no good to him, but if he wins the 10th race he can still pull it out, and the best way for the other guys to keep him from doing that is to win instead.

In other words, it’d all be about winning.

The way it ought to be.