DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Jimmie Johnson understands that speculation over a new points system is often viewed as NASCAR’s attempt to end his five-year championship reign.

It makes no difference to him, though, if NASCAR throws out its 36-year-old points system or rewrites the eligibility requirements on the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.

Johnson said he’ll be ready to race — and win — under any format.

“I don’t care what races are in the Chase, the format to win the championship, I could care less,” Johnson said, “because I feel confident that my team will be able to win championships under any set of circumstances.”

The Associated Press reported earlier this week NASCAR is considering dumping the points system used since 1975 in favor of a simpler method that awards points based directly on the finishing position in the 43-car field.

“There’s a lot of speculation at this point, but in theory, if it is 43 points for the winner on down to one for the last-place car, in concept it’s still very similar to what we have now,” Johnson said.

Top NASCAR officials have been privately floating their ideas with teams since last week. Among the ideas is the straight scoring system, and a 12-driver Chase field that includes the top-10 drivers from the “regular season” and two wild-card spots to the winningest drivers not otherwise eligible.

The drivers do seem interested in the proposed 43-to-1 system because it’s simpler not only to fans, but the drivers themselves.

“If I am running 12th or something, I don’t even know how many points that is worth and I have been doing this long enough that I should know,” Carl Edwards said.