On Wednesday Nascar made an attempt to even the competition of the Nationwide Series by ordering all teams using Toyota engines to use a small restrictor, which will knock off about 15 horsepower.

If you ask me, this is wrong and unfair to the teams using Toyota motors. The only reason this has come to be is because of the success of Joe Gibbs Racing cars in the Nationwide Series, in particular the #20 car which has found victory lane 9 times. This frequent success has led to the assumption that Toyota has some sort of advantage, though Joe Gibbs Racing has provided all but one of Toyota's victories, the other coming from Braun Racing with Kyle Busch behind the wheel.

It would be understandable to think there was an overwhelming advantage if Morgan Shepherd switched to Toyota and suddenly started leading 50 laps a race and running lap times two-tenths quicker than anyone else in the field, but that's not the case. Talented drivers such as Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin and the young Joey Logano are getting behind well-setup cars and using them to their full potential.

Of course, even if there is a horsepower advantage for Joe Gibbs Racing over the entire field, critics will claim the success only comes because of that. Well according to the engine tests Nascar performed on the Nationwide engines a couple of weeks ago, Toyota had a 21 horsepower advantage over Ford, 20 over Chevrolet and only 5 over Dodge. However, the individual motor results showed Roush/Fenway Racing's #16 and #17 car's Ford motors both in front of the #20's, which has had the overwhelming success.

If those two Ford motors generated more horsepower than the #20, obviously horsepower isn't the reason it's won all of those races this year. And even if it was, this is Nascar, and in Nascar you are supposed to prepare your equipment to perform at the best level possible, and if you're in front of the competition it's up to your competitors to step-up their performance, rather than Nascar's responsibility to lower your performance.

Regardless Joe Gibbs Racing will still be a threat to win the remaining races this season despite the lost horsepower. Something similar to this happened back in 1997 when Jeff Gordon and Hendrick Motorsports were winning all of those races in the Cup Series. They decreased how big the rear spoiler could be for all Chevrolets, but in the end Gordon still went on to win ten races, even after the adjustment had been made.

Success in this sport doesn't come just because of an advantage in one area like horsepower or downforce, it comes from high performance in all areas, and until the other teams improve on all areas of their team, Joe Gibbs Racing will continue to win, despite the lost horsepower.