AVONDALE, Ariz. -- It is conceivable that the cars at the top of the standings are so close to one another in points because they are so close to one another in strength. That would help explain why there was so much follow-the-leader racing Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway, where no one really came from the back to make strong moves late in the race.

However, points racing would be explanation, too, if that's what was going on out West.

Throughout the race, and especially at the end, it appeared that nobody could or would pass anybody. Nobody blamed it on the race track, so the question is why did it happen from a driver's perspective? Are too many guys out there points racing, or were the top cars just that equal?

"There weren't any cars on the track faster than us, it's just that we weren't faster than the top five there, either," said Ford driver Mark Martin, who finished fourth on Sunday and is the only driver left to challenge Pontiac driver Tony Stewart for the 2002 Winston Cup championship. "It was an equal day for the top five cars."

While that may be true, at times it looked like Stewart, who holds an 89-point edge over Martin going into the final race of the year, wasn't taking as many chances as he usually does to get to the front. And four-time champ Jeff Gordon, who finished third on Sunday, said other drivers are sort of driving on egg shells when they're near the points leaders -- taking it easy on everybody so as not to disrupt the season-long battle for the trophy.

"Absolutely. Those guys have worked hard all year long to get into that position," Gordon said. "I don't have a shot at either one of them in the points from where I'm sitting. I have the utmost respect for those guys. I'm going to do everything I can to race them clean. If they're racing one another, I'll give them the respect that they deserve to race for a championship. You'd hate to see a championship taken away from a guy because somebody just gets into them and turns them around and knocks them out of the race. I don't want to see that person. I don't think anybody does."

Of course, Gordon says the taking-things-easy deal is a two-way street.

"I'm going to race for a win," he said. "If they want to battle me hard and race for a win, they're putting themselves in a little bit of jeopardy. So I think they need to think a little bit about it at the same time."

	Stewart maintains he's racing aggressively, but it didn't necessarily show on Sunday.

From Sunday's performance, it looked like they were -- Stewart driving a little conservatively on the track and Martin operating conservatively off the track.

Stewart had a car that, after falling back to ninth after one set of pit stops, stormed to the top five within just a couple of laps. Had he pushed the limits of his Pontiac, he may have caught Gordon and Ford drivers Rusty Wallace, Kurt Busch, Martin and eventual race-winner Matt Kenseth.

But, after narrowly escaping being claimed in another car's wreck, Stewart cruised around toward the back of the top 10 for most of the final run before eventually finishing eighth. He said it was the best he could do, but crew chief Greg Zipadelli didn't echo that.

"We had a great car," Stewart said. "We did the best we could with what we had. The second run from the end there we got a set of tires on there that got really free. We went and came back in on a pit stop, put the change back, put another set of tires on and got a little bit too tight. We were just an eighth-place car today. That's all we had. It wasn't because we weren't trying. That was just all the faster we could go."

"We had a much better car than that," Zipadelli said. "We kind of progressed through the day to have a good, top-five car."

Whether Stewart is points racing or not is irrelevant, though. Even if he is, who could blame him? He's been bit by misfortunes in the past that have kept him out of championship contention in the Cup Series, so why shouldn't he guard against that, now?

Martin doesn't have as much room to play it safe, though, because as he went into the race trying to stay in contention, he was also trying to cash in on contention and catch Stewart. But late in the race, when it occurred to him to try a two-tire pit stop to gain track position, No. 6 crew chief Ben Leslie wasn't ready to gamble. They went with four and a two-tire pit stop performance by Kenseth and Wallace yielded first and second places, respectively.

"We can't afford to do anything stupid either, so four tires was the conservative route," Martin said.

	“	I have the utmost respect for (Stewart and Martin). I'm going to do everything I can to race them clean. If they're racing one another, I'll give them the respect that they deserve to race for a championship. ... (But) I'm going to race for a win. If they want to battle me hard and race for a win, they're putting themselves in a little bit of jeopardy. ”
		— Jeff Gordon

Whether the cars were really that equal or whether folks were easing up just a tad to maintain strong finishes down the stretch and finish as high in the points race as possible will be determined at Homestead (Fla.) this weekend.

Only Stewart has the luxury of points racing if he chooses -- although he still says he won't. He could finish 22nd, without leading any laps, and clinch the championship. If he leads a lap, he can clinch by finishing 24th. If he leads the most laps, he'll clinch by finishing 25th.

Martin has to be balls-out to catch Stewart, and third-place through eighth are separated by only 72 points so there will be a lot of racing for that third spot among six drivers. Meanwhile, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who faltered after suffering a concussion earlier this year, is focused on salvaging a top-10 points finish this year and will be racing hard to make up the 52 points on Ricky Rudd, who currently sits 10th.

So there shouldn't be the same follow-the-leader deal come championship Sunday. Wallace may have said it best. Though he was talking about chasing down his first victory, his comments apply as much to everyone's individual agendas clashing in race 36 or 36.

"There's no doubt about that -- there's a lot on the plate," he said. "It's going to be a high intensity week next week."

Rupen Fofaria is a beat writer for The Raleigh News & Observer and a regular contributor to ESPN.com.