Mike Hull, team manager for Chip Ganassi Racing's new two-car Indy Racing League program, was talking the other day about the team's readiness given that next season will have two 22-year-old drivers, when he got side-tracked.

He was remarking during a conference call about the talents of drivers Scott Dixon and Thomas Scheckter, talking about their youth. He was saying how their enthusiasm and basic driving skills would help the team achieve success when he started thinking about the Pennzoil Panther team of two-time defending IRL champion Sam Hornish Jr., now 23.

Part of what the Ganassi team - and nearly every other these days - has going for it is two cars. Two cars can lead to twice as much information. Drivers share. Crews share. Engineers share. Testing information is shared. In theory, having two cars solves a lot of everyday problems.

And, Hull said, the ability to share and find quick answers helps make good teams better in crunch time. He should know. Since he became Ganassi Racing's manager in 1996, the team has won four CART titles, an Indianapolis 500 and 35 races.

But Hull's thoughts were on Panther racing. It is a one-car team. Hornish is its only driver. It should not be winning titles.

Look around every major racing series out there and find another one-car team doing what Hornish and company have done. Name one since the late Alan Kulwicki won the Winston Cup title in 1992.

"The Panther race team - you look at it from the outside, and you can see the success," Hull said. "Inside, they're just a very cohesive unit. What they've achieved is extraordinary."

Panther racing was formed in 1998, and Scott Goodyear was driving. It might have been considered Baltimore's team originally because one of its owners was Jim Harbaugh, then the Ravens' quarterback.

Harbaugh is still an owner, partnering with John Barnes, Gary Pedigo, Doug Boles and Mike Griffin. In the beginning, the team struggled, and no one would have wagered on it achieving the success it has had over the past two years.

In four years, Goodyear won three races. But since Hornish's arrival as a rookie last season, the team has earned respect.

"To do what they've done with one driver, one team against two-car teams is fantastic," Hull said. "Sam Hornish is an exceptionally gifted driver, but to accomplish what he has, he has to have a strong, talented team behind him."

The test for Panther racing, no doubt, is coming next season, when Ganassi turns his open-wheel racing focus from CART to the all-oval IRL.

Points system OK

Through the years, time and again the Winston Cup points system comes under scrutiny. The reason is the system, which was put in place when there was little money in the sport and little incentive for teams to make the trips to far-away races, rewards consistency over winning.

The argument for creating a new way to add up the points is that all the teams go to the races now, which makes the points scheme antiquated.

But Roush driver Matt Kenseth defended the system eloquently in a recent talk.

"The points system is perfect," he said. "It's the drivers' championship, but what can a driver do without his team and his crew? The way the points are now, the crews' efforts are reflected in the points. The driver drives the car, but it's everyone else who works on it that determines if he's going to finish well in the race every week. I think the points system reflects that."

Bummed out

Two weeks ago, rookie Jimmie Johnson was looking like a possible Winston Cup champion. And who knows? He still might pull it off. But in a conference call this week, Johnson sounded like a man who knows what the future holds.

"We can't control our own destiny now," he said. "Before Atlanta, we could look at maybe getting 20 points per event and putting ourselves at the head table [at the New York awards banquet]. But I think Tony [Stewart, point leader] is going to have to have a bad finish, or a failure or something like that for us to be able to win the championship.

"So it's a bummer at this point to admit that and to look at that, but we can't take anything away from the year that we've had. ... We'll just try to run as strong as we can at every event from here on out and see how it shakes out."

Johnson, third in the points race, 150 behind Stewart, also has dropped to second in Rookie of the Year standings, losing ground to Ryan Newman, who has been a consistent Top 10 performer much of the season.

Question for CART

Rookie driver Mario Dominguez was declared the winner of the Surfers Paradise race in Australia. It was the first victory of his CART FedEx Championship Series career. You can't blame him for being overjoyed.

But here is the question: Do six green-flag laps make a race?

A first-lap accident caused by poor visibility on a rain-drenched day brought out a red flag and stopped the race. It eventually got restarted, only to be ended on the 40th lap - just six under green - because of a two-hour time limit.

Nuts and bolts

Hagerstown Speedway is to wrap up its 55th season today with the Turbo-Blue Hub-City National 150 at 2 p.m.

Last weekend, Rick Eckert (late models), Kenny Brightbill (small block feature), Doug Hoffman (big block modifieds) and Chad Layton (super sprints) each won $10,000 as winners in the the 15th annual Octoberfest 350.

NBC will carry the 36th annual NASCAR Pit Crew Championship for the first time ever on network television at 1 p.m. Sunday, before its coverage of the NASCAR Winston Cup race from Phoenix. The event was to be taped yesterday at North Carolina Motor Speedway in Rockingham, N.C.