OBSERVATIONS Rick Minter's
Chevy dominance

HARVICK

Despite rules that have made the bodies and engines of cars from various makes very similar, Chevrolet drivers are speeding away from the pack this year. Kevin Harvick's victory Sunday at Watkins Glen was the 14th victory for Chevrolet in 22 points races this season.

Harvick also had a victory at Phoenix this season, but the bulk of Chevy's victories have been scored by drivers from Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing.

Drivers from those two teams had swept six consecutive races leading into Watkins Glen and have 11 this year.

Dodge has five victories, four by Kasey Kahne and one by Kurt Busch. Ford has three, two by Matt Kenseth and one by his Roush Racing teammate Greg Biffle.

HARVICK

Last year, Ford had nine victories at this juncture, but the speed is not quite there this year, according to Biffle, who appeared to have a fast car at Watkins Glen, only to be knocked into the wall, which relegated him to a 38th-place finish.

"Our cars just aren't as good as they have been in the past," he said during a teleconference last week. "We're off little bit. I think the drivers are making up for a lot of it right now ... [but] I think our competition has got us beat a little bit, certainly more than they did last year."

Chase scramble

The top 10 in the Nextel Cup standings were scrambled somewhat by the finish of Sunday's race at Watkins Glen, but the players remain unchanged with four races left before the start of the 10-race Chase for the Nextel Cup that will determine the season champion.

The challengers just outside the top 10 held their positions in the standings, but most weren't able to close the gap on the top 10.

Kasey Kahne, who was third in points after the Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway on June 25, held onto the 11th position, but went from 37 points out of 10th to 54 back after crashing on the last lap for the second consecutive week.

Greg Biffle, last year's points runner-up, wrecked at The Glen and limped home 38th, which leaves him 174 points behind 10th-place Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Kurt Busch, the polesitter at The Glen, appeared to be in position to challenge for the race victory and gain needed points, but was sent to the back of the line for pitting too soon when a mid-race caution flag flew. He wound up 21st, but added just three points to his deficit to Earnhardt. He's still 13th in points, 177 points out of 10th.

Carl Edwards remains 14th in the standings despite an impressive fifth-place finish at The Glen, but he's 185 points out of the elite 10.

It's all silly

NASCAR used to have a "Silly Season" late in the year, when drivers and crew chiefs began revealing plans to move to new teams. But Silly Season has become a year-round event, and in many cases, the changes take effect immediately rather than at the end of the year as they once did.

Last week, veteran crew chief Todd Parrott left Petty Enterprises, which he joined this year, and returned to Robert Yates Racing, which saw two of its crew chiefs leave two weeks ago. One of Yates' ex-crew chiefs, Tommy Baldwin, already is at work at Bill Davis Racing.

And Jeremy Mayfield, after making the cut for the Chase the past two seasons, was fired by car owner Ray Evernham after the team dropped out of the top 35 in owners' points.

It's possible that Elliott Sadler, who already has announced plans to leave Yates, will take over for Mayfield, possibly as soon as this week, while Yates may turn to Mayfield as a temporary fill-in in the No. 38 Ford.

Mayfield is expected to join one of the teams planning to field Toyotas next season.

Yates team co-owner Doug Yates said mid-season swaps are best if a change is going to be made anyway. "There's no point in waiting until the end of the year if you can go ahead and get a start on next year," he said.

Foreign invasion

The addition of several new Toyota teams next year is going to swell the ranks of Nextel Cup entries, but that may not necessarily be a good thing, according to some of the sport's major players.

"There are going to be too many cars," said Chevrolet driver Jeff Burton. "I don't think it's healthy for our sport to have 47, 48, 49 fully sponsored, fully prepared teams because we're going to send major sponsors home."

Only 43 drivers start Nextel Cup races under the current rules.

Burton and plenty of others also believe that Toyota is spending freely on personnel and equipment, driving up the cost for every other team.

"Toyota, regardless of what they are saying, is throwing a lot of money at a lot of people," he said.