Nextel Cup veteran Ricky Rudd knows what it’s like for a baseball team to be out of the pennant race in September.

An annual contender for the championship in NASCAR’s premier series in previous years, Rudd failed to qualify as one of the 10 drivers competing for the new Chase for the Nextel Cup Championship and is dealing with the conflict of preparing for next year while still trying to finish the season strong.

“That’s sort of where you are if you’re not in the top 10,” said Rudd, who is 26th in the standings, which would be his second-worst finish as a full-time Cup driver since 1977. “You might as well pull over and sit out and come back next year or go to work on your program and try to get it to where you come out of the box powerful for next season.

“Obviously, you don’t have the option of sitting out. It wouldn’t make a lot of sense. Our goals might be a little different from the rest of the group because we haven’t been competitive on the racetrack like we’ve needed to be. So there might be a little more experimentation with us than maybe some of the other guys.

“It really depends on how far off your program is … use this time to get your ducks in a row for next year because one thing I’ve noticed, it’s so competitive now that you can’t really come out of the box and have a problem to try to overcome and still make it to the top 10 in points, where in years past, you’ve pretty much been able to do that.”

Unfortunately, the Chase format might have been implemented too late for Rudd, who has finished in the top 10 of the Cup standings 19 times in the previous 25 years. Now, one of Rudd’s worst fears about failing to make the top 10 has been realized. Will anyone notice those teams that did not make the Chase?

“I think everyone understands what the playing field is now,” said Rudd, 48. “If you’re not in that top 10, it’s going to be pretty hard to get your sponsors’ press at this time from the rest of the year out. It’s going to be really hard.

“I notice the TV is very biased toward the top 10. They sort of forget about the rest of the crowd there, regardless of what you’re doing on the racetrack. That’s sort of unfortunate. Sponsors in this sport spend a lot of money to get recognized, that’s the reason they’re out there. The new format just doesn’t lend itself to that.

“We pretty much knew this going in when the season started, I think everybody did. That’s just the way it is.”

Ricky Rudd is concerned that the focus on the top 10 takes away from those not in the Chase.

Rudd, who enters the weekend with NASCAR’s record for consecutive starts with 745, is willing to give the new format a chance.

“I’m open-minded,” he said. “You have to be this day and time. You never know really where the sport — what’s going to happen behind the scenes. Television nowadays dictates really what goes on, in my opinion, what’s going to happen … it’s more about making sure they get the best TV ratings they can so they can sell some advertising time.”

Rudd still hasn’t lost his incentive to win his first race since 2002 at Sonoma, Calif., his 23rd career victory.

“The best thing we could possibly accomplish between here and the rest of the season is to run well, run top 10s, top fives. If you happen to get your act together really good, you can slip in there and win one of these things.”