Chevrolet teams continue string of dominating races

AVONDALE, Ariz. -- You can change the chassis but you can't change the outcome. For the seventh time in eight 2007 Nextel Cup races, a Chevrolet found its way into Victory Lane.

How dominant was Chevrolet on Saturday night at Phoenix International Raceway? The Bow Tie Brigade led 311 of 312 laps -- the lone exception being Kyle Petty's Dodge when he stayed out as the rest of the lead-lap cars pitted on Lap 39.

Eight of the top 10 finishers were Chevys, including the top four. Coincidentally, eight of the top 10 drivers in the point standings drive Chevys. For fans of the other three makes, it has to be getting monotonous.

Close, once again

For the third COT race Denny Hamlin felt like he had the car to beat. And for the third time, Hamlin felt like he left the track with nothing to show for it.

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Three Hendrick drivers -- Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch -- have won, as well as Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton of RCR. And that's not counting the Joe Gibbs team, which once again dominated a race without achieving a victory.

So why are things so one-sided in favor of Chevrolet?

Denny Hamlin said it's more a matter of good teams, good drivers and good luck. When you can trot out a lineup that includes Hendrick, Gibbs, RCR and DEI, it's hard to match that kind of depth.

"Chevrolet just has a lot of good teams right now," Hamlin said. "All of the good teams that are running well -- Gibbs, Hendrick -- they are all Chevrolets. And they have got good drivers, and that counts for a lot.

"So I think it's just they have got pretty much an all-star team and it's hard to beat them."

In the past, NASCAR's rule has been "if you can't beat them, change the rules." But in this case, it's hard to see what the sanctioning body can do to even things out, even though the competition wouldn't mind a helping hand.

"They can come up with something, I'm sure, but it's hard to say it's coincidence," Hamlin said. "These powerhouse teams are the way they are, winning all of these races for a reason, and it's because of the people they have got with them.

"They have got great people."

The Car of Tomorrow, with its common body template, was supposed to give smaller teams a better opportunity to compete with larger ones -- but Hamlin doesn't see that anything's changed. The big teams -- especially ones with Chevrolet power under the hood -- have the advantage.

"Everyone talks about the how the cream rises to the top and that's the way it's going to be," he said. "It's going to take a while for some of the other teams to figure it out. But then the teams that are already dominating are going to figure something else out.

"So it seems like the guys that get a jump on it are going to stay on top of it for a while and you're just not going to keep a team like Hendrick or Roush or Gibbs or any of those teams down."

The reason? Resources.

"[Top teams] are going to run good," Hamlin said. "There's nothing that you're going to do within the rules to make them run bad. They have just got too many resources, too many people, too many good drivers.

"If that was the point [of the COT], to make it more competitive for everyone -- mission failed, in my opinion."