LAS VEGAS -- As he prepared for Saturday's Sam's Town 300 in the Nationwide Series at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Kevin Harvick said he was feeling outgunned.

Harvick, known mostly for his exploits as a driver in the Sprint Cup Series, also is a part-time driver and full-time car owner on the Nationwide and Craftsman Truck series sides. He said, point blank, that Toyota has more horsepower than everyone else in all three garages and that he believes the difference in power between his Chevrolet engines and Toyota's engines is significant.

"I think everybody in the garage is down on horsepower compared to what the Toyotas are," Harvick said. "In the Nationwide Series, it's almost a joke about how much power they make compared to everybody else. I feel good that our team has made gains in the engine department power-wise, but it's hard when you're racing almost restrictor-plate races every week and you're racing against cars that are making 20-plus more horsepower than you. It's hard to keep up. Hopefully that's the reason we put these inserts in these motors, to keep the fields even.

"Obviously the whole field is not completely stupid. They've been here for a long time, and that particular brand makes more power than everybody else in the garage. That's obviously got something to do with the parts and pieces that they have compared to everybody else."

Jack Roush, co-owner of Roush Fenway Racing, runs Fords. His driver, Carl Edwards, won the Auto Club 500 at Auto Club Speedway this past Monday when the rain-delayed race was completed. But he said he basically agrees with Harvick.

"I think the chassis dynamometer inspections that NASCAR has done have shown that they've got more power than the other manufacturers," Roush said of Toyota. "Again, that's a reflection of how much money they spend and what NASCAR has approved for them to have in terms of configuration of the engines."

Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's vice president of competition, said he disagrees with Harvick and Roush and that he has the test numbers to back him up. He said that NASCAR "doesn't deal in speculation" and pointed out that dynamometer tests on engines from all the manufacturers that run in the sport have consistently shown no significant difference in horsepower.

"We take 'em home and dyno 'em. We have the results," Pemberton said. "There is nothing that shows us that anybody has got anybody by a significant advantage. And I think they might have been referring to Truck and Nationwide series more than the Cup Series." (Continued)