LONG-DISTANCE RUNAROUND; Matt Kenseth rocks steady, while Jeff Gordon closes in.(Winston Cup standings)

Byline: BILL McGUIRE Between the road-course event at Sears Point on June 22 and the Pepsi 400 under the lights at Daytona on July 5, Winston Cup teams got their final week off before hitching up for the long haul to season's end-and it won't end until mid-November. With 18 races in 18 weeks and thousands of miles of competition remaining, the second half of the Winston Cup season is the most grueling march in major motorsports. At the season's unofficial halfway point-but with still a long way to go-the big story on the track is parity. NASCAR's efforts to keep the competition ...