Jeff Burton isn’t going to lie about it. There’s pressure involved in gunning to be part of the Chase for the Nextel Cup when the 10-race playoff begins the next time the circuit visits New Hampshire International Speedway.

“The thing that makes sports great, the thing that makes watching a sporting event worth the time to do it is the intensity level,” said Burton, who goes into Sunday’s race at NHIS fourth in the standings, 155 points clear of 11th-place Greg Biffle.

“The importance for us is to continue … to make my life more stressful, make my life more difficult, to make my life more pressure-filled,” Burton said.

“That’s what people come to see, and that’s what we’ve got to create.”

Burton was responding to questions about possible changes in the format for the Chase that, according to NASCAR chairman Brian France, are being considered for 2007 and beyond.

Opinions about what could or should be done to the Chase are almost as varied as the original reactions to the idea when it was first announced in early 2004.

Points leader Jimmie Johnson, for example, is against the idea of increasing the number of Chase qualifiers, which is one of the ideas being floated.

“There are rumors of expanding that to 15, and I think (that) dilutes the concept of having a great year for whoever it is that can be the top driver for all 36 races,” Johnson said. “If we expand it to 15, I think it takes some importance off of how hard it is to make the Chase and to be in the Top 10.”

Another idea is to change the rule that allows anyone within 400 points of the leader to make the Chase, opening that window to 500 or even 600 points.

Matt Kenseth, the last driver to win a Nextel Cup title under the pre-Chase format in 2003, would go the opposite way.

“If it was up to me and there still was going to be a Chase, I’d make it 400 points, whether that’s two cars or 15 cars,” said Kenseth, who’s second in the current standings, 51 points behind Johnson. “Four-hundred points is the cutoff and that’s it.

“I think if anybody’s farther behind than 400 points going into the last 10 races, that’s a long way down. I just think you should have to run good all year, not just the last 10.”

Mark Martin, who’s sixth with just eight races remaining before the Chase field is set after the 26th race at Richmond in September, believes the drivers who qualify for the Chase should compete in their own points system.

Chase drivers would be scored on the basis of their finish relative to each other and not to the rest of the field in those final 10 races, beginning with the second visit here.

“The Chase needs to be 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1,” Martin said. “That way, you couldn’t get buried because you finished 43rd in a race. … I don’t think you should have all of the other guys who aren’t in the Chase take you out of the running for a championship. They can. If they all pile in between you and the leader because you had a bad day it’s really difficult to recover from that.”

Burton has suggested a playoff-like system that eliminates drivers from contention as the season nears an end. The Chase would begin, for example, with 15 drivers contending with 15 races left. Then, with 10 races to go, the field would be cut to 10. Another cut, from 10 drivers to five, would come with five races left.

“The more of a playoff system that we have, the more people that are going to watch,” he said. “The sooner we can have the playoff system start, the more people are going to watch. The more important we can make the games before the playoff mean something, the more people are going to watch.”

Burton has 2,327 points through 18 races, good enough for fourth. Rookie Denny Hamlin is 12th with 2,169 points.

“We can’t get lazy with it and think that it’s good enough,” Burton said. “I think Brian (France) is thinking right.

“I don’t know if I’ll end up agreeing with what he decides to do, but I think the thought process is to keep that intensity level up, and that can’t be wrong.”