A season of change arrives for NASCAR

New faces. New cars. New rules. New teams. New TV shows. Ready or not, a very different NASCAR is back for 2007.

As the sport’s top-level Nextel Cup series prepares for its first and biggest race of the season, the Daytona 500 on Feb. 18, apprehension and uncertainty are pervasive because change is everywhere.

There’s the arrival of former open-wheel racing stars Juan Pablo Montoya and A.J. Allmendinger, who will now test their skills against 2006 Cup champion and defending Daytona 500 winner Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the rest of stock car racing’s elite.

Also new on the scene is Toyota, which is introducing its Camry to the Cup series. So far, there are three Toyota teams, whose drivers include Allmendinger, veteran Dale Jarrett and Brian Vickers.

Fans are scheduled to get their first glimpses of how Toyota fares against Ford, Chevrolet and Dodge tonight in the Budweiser Shootout, a no-points sprint with a $215,000 paycheck for the winner.

The Shootout, which opens a week of racing here that culminates with the Daytona 500, is a 70-lap race around Daytona International Speedway’s 2.5-mile, high-banked oval -- 175 miles -- for last year’s pole-position winners and former Shootout winners.

That excludes Montoya and Allmendinger, but 21 other drivers are scheduled to compete, including Jarrett, Vickers and Denny Hamlin, who won last year’s Shootout, then went on to become Nextel Cup rookie of the year.

Others include Johnson, Earnhardt, four-time Cup champion Gordon, part-time Cup driver Boris Said of Carlsbad and David Gilliland of Riverside, who jumped to the Cup level in the middle of last season.

Other major changes coming to NASCAR include the Car of Tomorrow, new rules for the “Chase for the Cup” -- NASCAR’s late-season playoff format -- and the arrival of ESPN as one of NASCAR’s TV partners.

NASCAR designed the Car of Tomorrow to improve driver safety and foster closer racing, and is mandating its use in a staggered fashion over the next three years.

It will debut March 25 at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee, the fifth race of the season, and will appear in 16 races this year. The car, whose outer shell will only vaguely resemble the production cars made by the four automakers in the series, will be mandatory for all races in 2009.

The Chase, meanwhile, was expanded to include 12 drivers, up from 10, and drivers will score more points than before for winning races. The dozen drivers with the most points after 26 of the series’ 36 races will battle over the final 10 races to determine the title winner.

There was speculation that NASCAR made the changes partly because Stewart, a two-time Cup champion and one of NASCAR’s most popular competitors, just missed the Chase last year. And Kasey Kahne, who won six races, barely qualified for the Chase.

Asked about the changes, Stewart said, “As long as it’s the same for everybody, and as long as the guy with the most points wins, versus the guy with the least points, the theory is still the same.”

Kahne said, “In the past, I feel, it’s been a lot more about consistency, and this year it’s going to be a little bit more about winning. But in order to win the championship, you’re going to have to do both. That’s what Jimmie Johnson does. He’s the guy to beat as far as I can see.”

Fans watching TV will now see NASCAR’s season split among Fox, which is showing the Shootout; TNT, and ESPN/ABC, which took over for NBC this year. ESPN also is showing all of the Busch series races and has a new daily program called “NASCAR Now.”

As usual, fans also will have to adjust to seeing drivers with different teams.

Casey Mears of Bakersfield moved to Hendrick Motorsports from the Chip Ganassi with Felix Sabates team, taking over the No. 25 Chevrolet formerly driven by Vickers.

Vickers and Allmendinger are driving the Nos. 83 and 84 Toyotas for a new Red Bull team, and Montoya is taking over the No. 42 Dodge from Mears at Ganassi.

Ricky Rudd, 50, came out of retirement to join Robert Yates Racing, and will drive the No. 88 Ford Fusion formerly driven by Jarrett, who moved to the Toyota team owned by driver Michael Waltrip and will drive the No. 44 Camry.

Martin, long a driver for Roush Racing, is driving a limited schedule this year for Ginn Racing, sharing the No. 01 Chevrolet with Regan Smith.

After the Daytona 500, the Cup series returns to the California Speedway in Fontana on Feb. 25 for the Auto Club 500.

*

james.peltz@latimes.com