Competition has caught up

Many Cup teams now in contention

When he showed up at last year's NASCAR Nextel Cup finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Rick Hendrick was guaranteed of going home with the championship, as he was the only car owner who had drivers in contention. Jimmie Johnson did the honors, beating teammate Jeff Gordon to win back-to-back titles.

So impressive was Hendrick Motorsports in 2007, with 18 wins among its four drivers, that the only thing the competition could do was offer a salute.

During the offseason, though, the competition went back to work. And if the first five races this season are a barometer, it appears the battle has been joined.

Witness the 1-2 finish of Penske Racing teammates Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch in their Dodges in the season-opening Daytona 500; Roush Fenway Racing's resurgence with back-to-back wins by Carl Edwards in California and Las Vegas and Greg Biffle's No. 2 standing in points; and Kyle Busch's delivery of his first win with his new team, Joe Gibbs Racing, in Atlanta.

And then, last week at Bristol, Tenn., there was the 1-2-3 finish by Richard Childress Racing drivers Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick, and Clint Bowyer.

"You know, Bristol is a tough place sometimes to even finish," Childress said. "To have all three cars [end] up 1-2-3 was great."

It was another sign that there is likely to be more than just two championship-caliber cars showing up at Homestead this year.

"I think it is," Burton said after he won the Food City 500, when he led only the last two laps. "The 99 car [of Edwards] has probably been the car that you'd point to and say - not counting Daytona, but for the other four races, they've probably been the best on average. They've made all of us have to step up a little bit because they've been really fast.

"But there's no question, multicar teams, you have less owners but you have more high-quality teams. If Richard Childress owns three teams, you might have three really good teams. If Rick Hendrick owns four, you have four really good teams. The quantity of quality teams is higher than it's ever been. The championship, we're still about 20 weeks away from the championship starting to take shape, but it will start to take shape. Every car owner will be well represented in the Chase."

While it was one of his team's objectives to catch Hendrick Motorsports, with all three of its drivers among the top nine in points, Burton was not prepared to say RCR had supplanted Hendrick as the top Chevrolet team.

"We'll talk about that in December," Burton said. "I can assure you that the 24 [of Gordon] didn't run the way today that you normally see them run here [after Gordon finished 11th]. You wake the sleeping giant, they're going to be hard to beat. There's no getting around that. We can answer that question in late November."

Ins and outs

For the first five Sprint Cup races of 2008, the top 35 teams in the final 2007 points standings were assured starting spots in the 43-car fields. After the top 35 in owner points were reset in Bristol, 2008 points will determine the weekly top-35 guarantees, meaning rookie driver Sam Hornish Jr., 35th in the points, will be guaranteed of making next weekend's Cool Orange 500 at Martinsville, Va., but Roush Fenway Racing veteran Jamie McMurray, 36th, will have to qualify based on speed. Among those in the top 35 owner points were none other than Red Sox owner John Henry (11th), primary owner of Matt Kenseth's No. 17 car, and Red Sox chief operating officer Mike Dee (22d), primary owner of David Ragan's No. 6 car. Others outside the top 35: rookies Dario Franchitti (38th) and Regan Smith (39th), and veterans Dave Blaney (37th) and Kyle Petty (40th), which prompted speculation this week that Petty Enterprises might swap owner points with Bobby Labonte (18th) in order to take advantage of Labonte's past-champion status, much like Roger Penkse did at the beginning of the season with Kurt Busch in order to protect Hornish in his first five races. But as it turns out, that's not likely to win NASCAR's approval, as the sanctioning body frowns upon such midseason manipulation of points . . . Dale Jarrett, who started and finished 37th in his 668th and final NASCAR start last Sunday, was treated to a moving tribute when fans at Bristol held up placards in his UPS sponsor's brown-and-gold color scheme that read, "Thanks Dale." Said Jarrett, "It wasn't the finish I would have liked. I'm able to go out with the best sponsor in the business in UPS, and I would have liked to have had a better day for them, but I really can't be too upset when you take into consideration the kind of career I have been fortunate to have." . . . On the day Jarrett's career came to a close, Aric Almirola, alternating this season with Mark Martin behind the wheel of the No. 8 car fielded by Dale Earnhardt Inc., gave his career an immeasurable boost with an impressive eighth-place finish . . . While most of his Sprint Cup colleagues will take this weekend off, Edwards, the reigning Nationwide Series champion, will compete today at Nashville, where he has won the last three series races and been awarded three electric guitars. "The guitar is such an awesome trophy," he said.

Fast learner

Formula One phenom Lewis Hamilton seemed to pick up where he left off last season when the McLaren driver won last weekend's Australian Grand Prix. Hamilton, who was joined on the podium by BMW's Nick Heidfeld and Nico Rosberg of the Williams-Toyota team, set the pace in yesterday's practice session for tomorrow's Malaysian Grand Prix in Sepang. Sebastien Bourdais, the four-time Champ Car champion turned Formula One rookie, had a bittersweet result with his seventh-place finish in his F1 debut. Although he scored 2 points, giving the Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari its first constructor points of the season, it could have been more had he not retired three laps from the finish of the 58-lap race because of engine failure . . . After he escaped serious injury at Pomona, Calif., from one of the most spectacular explosions in NHRA history, defending POWERade Series Funny Car champion Tony Pedregon captured his first victory of the season (and 37th career) last Sunday in the ACDelco NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla. Pedregon, who defeated Jerry Tolliver, Ashley Force, and Jim Head in the first three elimination rounds, clocked a 4.921-second pass (315.270 miles per hour) at Gainesville Raceway's quarter-mile strip to edge out veteran Gary Densham (4.924 seconds, 309.13 m.p.h.). Tony Schumacher took Top Fuel honors, while Jeg Coughlin won the Pro Stock division and Matt Guidera the bikes in the NHRA's third of 24 races. "Winning is definitely the best medicine for this team right now," said Pedregon, who moved to fourth in the standings. "A little more than a month ago I was in the hospital with a burned hand. Today we were able to win the race and get this season turned around." . . . Chalk another one up for Penske Racing. After winning the Daytona 500 in February, Penske added to its trophy mantel, combining with Porsche Motorsport to win last weekend's Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring, America's oldest sports car race. Penske drivers Romain Dumas of France, Timo Bernhard of Germany, and Emmanuel Collard of France drove their 3.4-liter, V8 Penske Porsche RS Spyder to a one-minute victory. "This is a great win for Porsche Motorsport and Penske Racing," said Tim Cindric, president of Penske Racing. "To win the Daytona 500 and the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring within four weeks is a tremendous accomplishment for our entire organization."

Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com; material from race sanctioning bodies, teams, sponsors, and track publicity departments was used in this report.