If Winston Cup racing gets any closer than it already is, don't be surprised if someday soon you find 43 cars heading to Victory Lane at the same time.

Things are that close, tight and competitive.

Parity has created a near-perfectly level playing field in the sport, giving regular winners and perennial also-rans equal footing when it comes to vying for the checkered flag. It's gotten to the point where some folks have started referring to Winston Cup as "one size fits all racing" due to the parity and evenness we've seen develop in recent years.

Look no further than the course of events during the first 16 races of the 2003 season for the perfect example of parity, with 13 different winners and only two multiple winners (Kurt Busch with three wins and Ryan Newman with two).

	Jim Hunter doesn't mind NASCAR's week-to-week controversies if it means more exposure.

And as the series resumes Saturday for the Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway, the start of a grueling 20 consecutive weekends of racing to the eventual championship, we asked Jim Hunter, NASCAR's vice president of corporate communications, to talk about the series' past, present and future.

Here are some excerpts from that interview:

ESPN.com: Jim, can you capsulize your thoughts on how the season has gone so far?

HUNTER: It has certainly been an exciting year with plenty of drama. It makes you wonder if we're going to have more different winners this year than ever before (the record is 19 different winners in 2001, with a second-highest mark of 17 last season). There's still a bunch of drivers who haven't won this year but are certainly capable of winning. Who would have believed Rusty Wallace would have gone more than two seasons without a win? How about Ricky Rudd? Or Sterling Marlin? Kevin Harvick?

Mark Martin hasn't won a race this year. That's like saying Barry Bonds won't hit a home run! Jeff Burton knows what it takes to get to Victory Lane, and he hasn't won this year. Neither has Bill Elliott. And you certainly can't count out Ward Burton, a former Daytona 500 winner, or Elliott Sadler.

Besides the excitement of so many different winners, who will ever forget that unbelievable finish at Darlington last spring when Ricky Craven and Kurt Busch threw everything they had at each other on the final lap, including the kitchen sink. Craven inched across the finish line first in one of the most thrilling finishes in NASCAR history, belching smoke, scattering sparks and earning a rightful place in the tradition of NASCAR's oldest track.

In the meantime, Matt Kenseth and his team continue their chase for a championship, without a lot of frills and braggadocio. They just get the job done. But peering over Kenseth's shoulder in the championship hunt is a guy who has been there before, four-time champion Jeff Gordon. And, right on Gordon's bumper is a young guy who knows his way to Victory Lane but hasn't yet won a title, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Also in the thick of the points battle is Michael Waltrip, a driver who loves racing at Daytona and Talladega as much as the guy who brought him to the DEI, Inc., stable -- the late Dale Earnhardt Sr. Bobby Labonte is back on track this season while teammate Tony Stewart fights off bad luck like that which dogged Labonte a season ago. The competition is really incredible. That's what it's all about.

ESPN.com: The significance of Nextel coming in as the series title sponsor for the next 10 years -- was it a surprise that Nextel came to the surface when so many people believed companies like McDonalds, Coca-Cola and Budweiser were rumored to be the front-runners?

HUNTER: When our longtime partners at Winston told us they felt the timing was good for us to start looking for a replacement, our guys went to work. Brian France, our vice chairman, along with George Pyne, our chief operating officer, and Brett Yormark, our vice president of corporate marketing, viewed the opportunity as something that doesn't come along very often and began looking at every option. Many companies had expressed an interest over the years, if for any reason Winston ever went away, but Brian Cocoran in Yormark's New York office knew of Nextel's interest, and it seemed to be the perfect fit. Nextel is a technology company, the best run, most profitable company in its category. They're going to be great for the sport.

ESPN.com: There has been very little on- or off-track controversy thus far this year. How surprising is that, especially in light of the controversy we had last year (Tony Stewart's double probation for most of the second half of the season, Dale Earnhardt Jr. racing nearly a half-season with the after-effects of a concussion, etc.)?

HUNTER: There's controversy every week in our sport, and that's a part of the sport's appeal. It would be OK with me if we never had any controversy, but that's not going to happen. Any time you have the equivalent of the Super Bowl every time you line up 43 cars for a race, and there's only going to one winner, one guy or one team is going to be happy, and everybody else is going to be mad. Sometimes, the controversy is more noticeable than others, like two weekends ago when Jeff Gordon took exception to Robby Gordon's (the race winner) pass of his teammate Kevin Harvick coming back to the yellow flag at the start-finish line earlier in the race at Sonoma.

ESPN.com: There have been various reports that Winston/R.J. Reynolds may or may not continue to have some involvement in the sport after this season (i.e., still sponsoring The Winston, may still hold the T. Wayne Robertson preseason preview, may still remain in a diminished capacity as an associate series sponsor, etc.). Can you expand upon that and tell what the situation is?

HUNTER: It's too early to talk about things like the Winston Preview. Details on things like that will be worked out at a later time. The Winston All-Star race will now be known as the "NASCAR All-Star race presented by Nextel." We'll have discussions about that non-points race after the NASCAR Nextel Cup schedule for 2004 is completed.

ESPN.com: Parity continues to get closer and closer. How much of an impact has common templates had on the sport this season?

HUNTER: The competition now is better than it has ever been. The premium today is on the driver and the pit crew. It all boils down to which driver can handle his car the best on any given day and which pit crew can communicate with their driver to make their car work better and go faster as a race progresses. That's the way it should be.

ESPN.com: From a competition standpoint, can you talk about the surprises we've seen thus far this year -- how drivers like Dale Jarrett and Tony Stewart dropped down so quickly in the standings, the struggles of Ryan Newman, and how some drivers still haven't managed to mount any type of comeback (like Jarrett)?

HUNTER: The competition is so close today, being just a fraction of a second off can make the difference in qualifying and not qualifying. At this level of competition, one-thousandth of a second can mean the difference. Dale Jarrett has been having one of those seasons you'd like to forget, but that team will turn it around. And Tony Stewart's luck has been anything but good. This sport has a way of going full-circle. I can remember years when a certain driver couldn't do anything wrong and the very next year, the same driver couldn't do anything right. The competition is so close today, you don't have to be off but just a tick and you're not in the hunt. Sometimes, not even in the race.

ESPN.com: Peer into your crystal ball. What do you see the remaining 20 races looking like and do you see any potential surprises/darkhorses?

	“	The competition now is better than it has ever been. The premium today is on the driver and the pit crew. It all boils down to which driver can handle his car the best on any given day and which pit crew can communicate with their driver to make their car work better and go faster as a race progresses. That's the way it should be. ”
		— Jim Hunter

HUNTER: I think the second half of the season is going to be just as exciting as the first half, maybe even more so. Luck is such a big part of things. Ryan Newman has certainly shown he can win races and will probably win again before the year is out. I would expect Kurt Busch to win again as well. And Rusty Wallace is definitely anxious to get back into Victory Lane. Dave Blaney is a fine driver, and he has had several really good runs this year. If I had to pick a darkhorse to win one of these Winston Cup races, I'd pick Blaney. That team is getting better and better.

ESPN.com: Lastly, from a NASCAR corporate standpoint, what is on the horizon for the sanctioning body? We've obviously seen California get a second race, Darlington shifts one of its dates, and Rockingham loses a race. Any other significant changes on the horizon, particularly on the schedule? Also, what, if any, other changes may be in store in other areas, from safety to competition to technology, etc.?

HUNTER: Outside of the changes recently announced regarding realignment in 2004 and beyond, there probably won't be any other significant changes to next year's schedule. I've also learned to never say never in this sport. (NASCAR Director of Competition) Gary Nelson and his team are making great progress on a number of fronts at the new Research and Development Center in Concord (N.C.). Gary and the engineers are focusing on safety, containment of costs and the car of the future. They're at work every day trying to make the race cars safer than the day before. NASCAR's commitment to the future has never been more evident than the state-of-the-art facility in Concord. The R&D Center has already made a difference and will continue to make a big difference for everyone in the NASCAR industry.

Jerry Bonkowski covers NASCAR for ESPN.com. He can be reached at Motorsportwriter@Yahoo.com.