SportsLine wire reports

Those who thought this Winston Cup season would be business as usual -- Jeff Gordon and whoever -- need only glance at the winners to realize parity has arrived.

A different driver has won each of the last eight races. If someone else takes the checkered flag Sunday in the Kmart 400 at Michigan Speedway, it will mark just the third time the streak has reached nine in NASCAR's modern era.

Bobby Labonte made it eight faces in eight races by winning last Sunday in Dover, Del.

"I knew if we continued to be consistent, it would come," Labonte said after taking the MBNA Platinum 400.

Then Labonte pretty much summed up the state of racing on the world's top stock car circuit.

"I'm happy enough to just keep getting top-fives and win the championship," he said.

Like many, Jeff Burton thinks a legitimate run at the title is built on consistency. That prevents most drivers from taking chances that could lead to a points-depriving finish well back in the field, instead of a victory.

"The big thing now is you have to run up near the front and take whatever points you can get," said Burton, a three-time winner this season who's second in the points standings.

Richard Childress, who owns cars driven by seven-time series champion Dale Earnhardt and Mike Skinner, believes dominance in the sport is slowly becoming the exception rather than the rule.

"I think it says a lot about the competition in Winston Cup today," he said. "But I still think you'll see somebody win six or seven races before the season is over."

That could be Burton or Gordon, who a year ago had a record-tying 13 victories. This year, he has three, but mechanical failures, accidents and bad fuel mileage last Sunday have kept him from dominating.

He's sixth in the standings as he pursues a record-tying third straight title. But he never figured it would be easy, saying before the season started that he probably wouldn't be able to continue a run that produced 40 victories over the previous four years.

"The competition is better than it's been since I've be in Winston Cup," Gordon said. "There are so many guys out there who can win."

Among them is Jeremy Mayfield, who got his first victory a year ago in the Pocono 500.

"I always thought the first one would the toughest to get," he said. "Now I'm thinking the second one is."

John Andretti didn't win until his fourth year on the circuit. And he had to wait another two years for his second victory -- last month in Richmond, Va.

He says the level of competition can get a driver down unless he understands just how tough it can be.

"Only one guy is going to win each weekend, and 42 guys are going to be disappointed," he said. "Obviously, it's a lot easier to be one of the 42 than to be the one."

That kind of thinking sustained Labonte's team through a third of the season, when he often came close without winning. And he wouldn't have made it last Sunday had Gordon not been forced to make a fuel stop with five laps remaining.

"It's heartbreaking," said Labonte's crew chief, Jimmy Makar. "But it's a good situation to be in. To finish second or third and to run up front in every race is an encouraging thing because you know you've got the potential to win every week."

Even when things go extremely well, it's a crapshoot, Makar says. A miscalculation in any area late in a race can lead to defeat.

He says in most races there are as many as 10 cars qualifying within a hundredth of a second of each another.

"That's a reflection of the competition level," Makar said. "Five years ago, you could be off a little bit and still be a top-five car. No more."

Despite winning just once in 1999 after seven victories a year ago, Mark Martin sees little change.

"I had a great year," he says almost defensively. "But I don't think the competition's much different when you look at what Jeff Burton has done."

Perhaps Martin will begin to roll in Brooklyn, Mich. -- when he defends his title in the Kmart 400.

If so, he can be the footnote, because he's the only big winner on the tour without a victory over the last two months.