FORT WORTH, Tex. --- With just three races to go, some drivers can't wait for the season to end.

Ten months of racing, including a three-month playoff season, has left many emotionally, physically and financially drained. To some, the sport has become too consuming, and the Chase for the Championship too important.

"We've created our own monster," Greg Biffle said.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said the racing season is too long, and that doesn't give fans enough time to catch their breath. The National Football League, he said, has the best business model because it always seems to leave its fans wanting more. NASCAR, on the other hand, leaves fans thinking about the finish.

"What's happened is we have saturated the market with race after race after race," he said. "I hate to keep comparing to (the NFL) and using them as examples, but they do the best job. They give you just enough to keep you wanting more. The season ends before you want it to. You just get just enough to get excited and then it's all over, and there's such a long wait. The model works.

"We're driven by the ability to go make another dollar and make more money, and there's no way we would ever trim it down.

The season currently has 36 regular-season races and a pair of all-star events. The season starts during the same week as Valentine's Day and doesn't end until the week before Thanksgiving.

FOOTING THE BILL: Bobby Hamilton Jr. didn't want his Nationwide Series season to end prematurely, so he's paying the bills to keep the No. 25 and 35 Fords on the track.

Sponsorship money ran out after last week's race at Memphis, and car owner Ed Rensi considered shutting the doors. That's when Hamilton decided to pay the bills to keep both cars on the track for the final three races.

"It was would be cheaper for me to sit at home and wait for a call and hope everything worked out, but what was most important and what we talked about was that we've got a good group here and it was more important to make sure these guys have paychecks and finish the year out," he said.

SPORTS CARS: Business partner Boston Ventures has decided Kyle Petty doesn't fit into Petty Enterprises' full-time plans for 2009, so the driver is mulling a move to the Grand Am Series.

Petty tested last week in the BMW-powered Riley sports car at Daytona to prepare for January's Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona.

"We're trying to put something together to run not only the 24 hours, but all year long," Petty said. "Obviously, I'm in a place with the Cup stuff where I don't really have a ride right now. ... I don't want to go back to Nationwide and I don't want to go run Trucks. That's a step down from the Cup series. This is a step over."