Q. I meant is there some change in the format, the payout format in the works where the lower funded teams get some sort of compensation for participating, showing up? I've heard that that may be on the table for discussion. Are you moving that way at all? 

PETER CLIFFORD: No. No, we're not moving that way. 

Q. Dallas, did the board seriously consider any other candidates besides Peter? 

DALLAS GARDNER: What the board did was looked at the requirements and the needs, and we thought about going outside. We decided that we had the best man for the job, that had the experience, and it really made all the sense in the world to put Peter in that position. 

Q. And just from a timing standpoint, when was Peter formally offered the job? Was this something that happened, for instance, yesterday, or what was the time frame on Tom's official retirement request and the official offer of the position to Peter? 

DALLAS GARDNER: It all became effective today. 

Q. You mentioned Sportsman's participation. Is the increased media coverage also going to cover more of the Sportsman races? 

PETER CLIFFORD: There's no plan on changing the coverage on the Sportsman races as far as from an hours standpoint. What we're talking about with the Sportsman, increased Sportsman participation, is to ease up the requirements in order to participate at a Sportsman level. Our division directors, we've been meeting with them on a regular basis, and we have a plan in place in order to ease that up to increase participation going forward, so we're going to make it easier for the Sportsmen to come race with us, and we have some really exciting announcements about that in the next couple weeks.

Q. Okay, so is it going to be cheaper or are you going to make rules less particular? How will it be easier? 

PETER CLIFFORD: That's all within the exciting announcements. It won't be that long before you read about it.  

Q. Peter, I have basically two questions about competition: One, Pro Modified is obviously the most populated pro class you guys have currently. Is there any plans to actually elevate Pro Mod to a professional class? And the follow up is pretty simple: Is there going to be a replacement for Mr. Clifford in the program? 

PETER CLIFFORD: As far as the first question, we're very pleased with the Pro Mods racing at the national events, and we've met with the group at the most recent event and plan to continue that just as we have this year, next year. So the plan is to continue that going forward, and we're excited about that.  We're going to be looking at our organizational structure and see what we need going forward. That's what we're going to be doing in the coming weeks. 

Q. Peter, based upon what Jeff said about Pro Mod, what are you going to do about Pro Stock with declining entries and declining interest, whereas Pro Mod obviously is pretty exciting? The other thing is factory stock is lurking in the background. When are you going to elevate that to a higher status than it is now? 

PETER CLIFFORD: As far as Pro Stock, obviously Pro Stock is a very important professional class for the NHRA, and we're working right now with the manufacturers and others on a plan to improve Pro Stock. That's part of when I said improved competition, that's one of the things we're working on, so we've been working on behind the scenes on that. I'm sorry, your second question? 

Q. Are you going to do anything to elevate factory stock because those are real world cars that the fans can buy. 

PETER CLIFFORD: Right, and I know our racing operation group is looking at that, and there's no plans as of yet, but I know they're talking about that. I have nothing to announce on that front.

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