Parity has arrived in NASCAR.

Nine events into the 2003 Winston Cup season there have been nine different winners. The modern era record to open the season is 10, set in 2000.

	Jeff Gordon picked up his first win of the season Sunday at Martinsville.

It seems that Y2K began this renaissance of equality. Since that year's Daytona 500 there have been 29 different winners, including 14 for their first time. Subsequently many believe this could be the most competitive period in Winston Cup history.

"Going back in the sport, say 20 years ago, there were probably only three to five cars that could win a race," said Ricky Rudd, who entered Winston Cup in 1975. "When I started out, and I'll probably leave somebody out, it was the Pettys, the Wood Brothers with David Pearson, Junior Johnson and Bud Moore. The rest of the teams just didn't have a real good chance of winning. Where today, you've got 30 teams that could win on a given day."

Between 1992 and '99, there had not been more than 12 winners during any season in the modern era (since 1972). However, in the last three years the fewest winners per season has been 14 (2000). Last year there were 18, and in 2001 there was a record 19 different winners.

There is no simple explanation for the sudden equality. A variety of factors, including the common template, new-generation tire compounds and expanded schedule have contributed to this trend.

Still it's more complicated than that. Today there are 12 multi-car teams, accounting for 32 cars. But instead of monopolizing the sport, as many expected, these organizations have cannibalized themselves and in turn helped level the playing field.

"It's the exact opposite of what people feared (multi-car teams) would do to the sport. More multi-car teams have increased the competitiveness based on the level of wealth, knowledge and expertise," Jeff Burton said. "With the multi-car teams, as soon as you find something that works it's not long before your teammate or teammates have it so your are constantly trying to stay on top and it's really hard."

Despite today's weak economy there is more money in racing than ever. While the quantity of sponsors has declined, the quality has increased. It has been reported that some corporations are investing in excess of $15 million per year. That, coupled with the influx of new television money, has helped close the gap between the haves and have-nots.

"These teams have never had more money than they do now to hire people, do research and development, and whatever it takes to make these cars run fast," said Johnny Benson, who captured his first career win at Rockingham last year. "On any given Sunday even the cars in the back of the field are very fast, well financed teams."

Much of the wealth is being spent on personnel. Like its stick-and-ball sport cousins, NASCAR has been impacted by free agency. But unlike Baseball or Football, race teams prioritize knowledge over physical ability.

"What happens is that the technology transfers as crew members change jobs," Rudd said. "This happens quite frequently in the sport and the technology transfers from team to team. Some teams might be working off year-old knowledge because the crew chief they've hired or the car chief brings knowledge to the team. So no one is really behind."

And no one can maintain an advantage either. The level of competition has halted some of the sport's most successful teams. Rusty Wallace has 54 career wins but hasn't been to Victory Lane in 71 races. Burton, shares similar statistics -- 17 career wins but has been shutout in the last 49 events.

"I think wins are much harder to achieve today than they were 10 years ago," Burton said. "Before you might have three great teams that would win a lot. Then it moved to 10 great teams so they would win a few less each. Now you have 30 teams who are competitive week in and week out so it becomes harder to beat everybody."

With that, the margin for error is very slim.

"To win you have to be perfect," Benson said. "You can't even be slightly off. Maybe in the past you could be off but get your car right as the race goes on. Nowadays if you aren't right at the start you could get lapped."

Gordon agrees.

"I think NASCAR is the most competitive sport right now that I've ever raced in," he said. "I don't think I've ever worked so hard and had such mediocre results in my entire career. I can't believe how competitive it is right now."