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Formula 1 officials announced Tuesday they will change how that series' champion is determined: The driver who wins the most races will be crowned champion.

Points will be kept to break ties.

If NASCAR had used that way to determine its champion from the beginning (and assuming all the results remained the same), Richard Petty would not have won seven titles. Instead, he would have won six. Jeff Gordon also would have six championships, including five in a row.

Dale Earnhardt? He would have won only two. Drivers that would have won more titles than Earnhardt would have been Gordon (six), Petty (six), Darrell Waltrip (four), David Pearson (four), Rusty Wallace (three), Bill Elliott (three) and Cale Yarborough (three).

Eight of the last 10 champions would have been different. Among the drivers who would have been champion if it was based on race wins: Carl Edwards instead of Jimmie Johnson last year, Kasey Kahne in 2006 instead of Johnson and Greg Biffle instead of Tony Stewart in 2005.

Among the drivers who won championships but would not have won them under the F1 system would have been Benny Parsons in 1973 and Alan Kulwicki in 1992.

SPECIAL RACE: On Saturday night, celebrities and former racers will compete in a special event for charity at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Among those scheduled to race are Junior Johnson, Cale Yarborough, Harry Gant, David Pearson, Rusty Wallace and Terry Labonte. They'll race for 35 laps in late model stock cars.

The event will be broadcast by ESPN2 at 6 p.m. Saturday. Ned Jarrett will return to be among the broadcasters for the event. The winning driver will earn a $25,000 donation to the charity of his choice.

Celebrity races will precede the event. Among those entered are Virginia Tech football coach Frank Beamer, who also is the grand marshal of Sunday's Cup race, football coach Terry Bowden, and Philadelphia Eagles kicker David Akers. The second celebrity race will feature Ray Evernham, Andy Petree and Brad Daugherty.

ALTERED PLANS: Furniture Row Racing — which is running Regan Smith, last year's rookie of the year — announced it has altered its limited scheduled. The team will add a race, pushing its total to 13. The team will add Texas next month. That will be its next race.

OUTTA SIGHT: Among the trinkets aboard the Space Shuttle on its current flight to the International Space Station is a black-and-white checkered bear from the Victory Junction Gang Camp in Randleman.

Shuttle pilot Tony Antonelli had a relative attend that camp and wanted something to represent the experience. The camp gave him a bear like the one given to campers.

TOUGH LUCK: Tony Stewart has led 50.9 percent of the laps run in the spring Bristol race the past three years but has not finished better than 12th in any of those events.

PIT STOPS: Goodyear concludes a two-day tire test today at Lowe's Motor Speedway with Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Paul Menard and Marcos Ambrose. &ellipses; The WERA motorcycle series race this weekend at Virginia International Raceway. &ellipses; Scott Wimmer, Ryan Newman and Tony Stewart will drive for JR Motorsports' Nationwide team this season in select events.

Contact Dustin Long at 373-7062 or dustin.long@news-record.com