Before James Hylton began his first full season on NASCAR's top circuit in 1966, he bought a year-old Dodge Coronet from Cotton Owens' factory-backed team for $5,500. Hylton loaded the car onto a trailer, which he drove to Riverside, Calif., for the season-opening event. His total investment for that one race was $18,000.

That's the way it was back then for independents, those owners and drivers who ran their own teams without any direct support from car manufacturers. Carmakers supported the sport's top teams -- organizations like Holman-Moody or Petty Enterprises -- which in turn won the bulk of the races. Independents like Hylton, who often comprised half to three-fourths of a starting field, scrounged what equipment they could. When they won, it was considered an upset.

"The factory guys, they didn't have to worry about where they were going to get money to pay the crew," Hylton said. "Back then, we just got all my buddies together. About four of us, I think, went racing. We'd pick up help along the way. The factory guys, you didn't have to worry about who was going to pay your tire bill. It's strictly a money thing.

"A factory guy can relax and just concentrate on driving the racecar. He doesn't have to worry about where his next meal is going to come from, or whether he's going to get enough money to buy enough fuel to get across the United States."

Although manufacturers like Ford, Dodge and General Motors occasionally dropped out of NASCAR from time to time because of changes in corporate strategy or leadership, they played a key role in shaping the sport's competitive hierarchy during its formative years. That much is evident in the record books, which are full of races won by factory-backed drivers, while independents subsisted from one event to the next. And it stands in stark contrast to the NASCAR of today, where virtually every team in the Nextel Cup garage receives some form of factory support.

NASCAR has labeled the current era as its "golden age," citing a statistical analysis as showing closer competition now than ever before. More drivers lead races, more drivers finish on the lead lap, and finishes are closer than ever, according to data released by the sanctioning body. But if this truly is a golden age, then it was manufactured partly on the assembly lines of greater Detroit, by automobile companies who have spread their support dollars much more evenly than in decades past, and in turn helped fund more cars with an opportunity to win.

"You talk about factory support then versus now, we try to be very fair in making as many teams competitive as possible," said Kevin Kennedy, communications director for Ford Racing Technology. "A lot of that is going to be dependent on the teams with their engineering resources, and the money they have for personnel and other things. A lot of things are out of our hands. But what we try to do is be as fair as possible in terms of offering technical support and resources to them to help them get better."

It wasn't always like that. Years ago, manufacturers backed only the top teams. Those teams would sell their extra equipment to independents running the same nameplate, but the deal was far from equitable. Factory-backed teams ran cars in the current model year, while independents wound up with cars a year older. (Continued)