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FORT WORTH, Texas -- Lead changes, a sign of competition in NASCAR races, are down dramatically this Sprint Cup season and some drivers say the problem remains the car.

This season has seen an average of 13.8 lead changes per race. Last year, that average was 26.1 lead changes per race at this point of the season.

"I still think we have an aerodynamic issue with this car," points leader Jeff Gordon says of the Car of Tomorrow, which debuted in 2007. "You just really get stuck behind cars. I don't think we've got it 100 percent figured out. We don't talk about it as much anymore but the issue hasn't gone away."

Instead, lead changes drop as a few drivers dominate. Gordon and Hamlin combined to lead 88 percent of the 500 laps last weekend at Martinsville. Kyle Busch led 75 percent of the 500 laps in his Bristol win, and Kurt Busch led 70 percent of the 330 laps in Atlanta.

For those who judge competition solely on lead changes, those results the last three races are not encouraging.

Kyle Busch, who has led a series-high 25 percent of the laps run this season, says that the car is so fickle that if one driver gets the right setup, he's hard to catch.

"That's a very fair statement," Kevin Harvick says of Busch's comment. "Everything is affected by such minute changes that you can get off so easily. That's the reason that guys hit it and guys don't. Most of the time, guys don't hit it."

Denny Hamlin says this is a sign of NASCAR's desire for parity among the cars.

"Everyone runs the same speed," he says. "All of our skill level is relatively the same. When you have that &ellipses; and a tire that doesn't wear out as much, everyone is going to consistently the same speed. When you do that, there's no passing."

Hamlin says the high speeds at Texas Motor Speedway -- David Reutimann's pole-winning speed of 190.517 mph is the fastest pole speed run at any track this year -- could limit lead changes in Sunday's race.

"You come here to Texas, the speeds are so fast, I don't know how in the heck you pass somebody," Hamlin says. "Luckily, it's a multi-groove race track so there will be a little bit, but NASCAR has wanted to get everyone on a level playing field and they've accomplished that but the downside is that there's not going to be a lot of passing unless people make mistakes."

The fewer average lead changes, though, is not all the car's fault. Rain shortened the Daytona 500 by 48 laps. Project a lead change there about every third lap -- as happened in last year's race -- and the average increases but it still would remain significantly lower than last year's total.

Not everyone, though, measures competition based on how many lead changes are in a race. Tony Stewart cites last week's Martinsville race where with about 150 laps left, the top five cars were running nose to tail.

"You can't say that isn't exciting," he says. "We have had some of the most exciting racing we have seen in a long time."

Robin Pemberton, NASCAR vice president of competition, says he sees no reason to make changes to enhance competition.

"When you look at what goes on all the way around the race track, some people only focus on the lead car &ellipses; but there's 43 competitors and there's more going on than is in the lead," he says. "So, there is good competition on the race track. Who knows what will happen, but my personal opinion is that I think throughout the field the competition has been better this year."

Contact Dustin Long at 373-7062 or dustin.long@news-record.com