by Rea White, NASCAR Scene, Special to FOXSports.com

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Except for Hendrick Motorsports, the majority of the sport's Cup operations find themselves with at best a slim shot at the 2009 championship. That leaves the other teams — even those inside the Chase — with a variety of options for the final three races. Obviously, everyone wants to win and to finish as high in the standings as possible, but those who are well off the pace may be thinking about how soon they turn their attention to 2010.

Rea White (NASCAR Scene)

Teams can use this final segment of the season to test new models, new engines, new parts and pieces — and some are even trying out new driver-crew chief combinations. All of it is done with the Chase in mind, it's just that the championship run that some are now eyeing is for 2010.

While it's nothing new for teams to begin working early toward the next season, it may be unusual to have so many in position to make such choices. But Jimmie Johnson's 184-point lead in the standings — a record in the six-year history of the Chase format — has changed things. His two closest competitors, teammates Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon, are 184 and 192 points back, respectively. Behind them is Earnhardt Ganassi Racing's Juan Pablo Montoya, who is 239 points back and has spoken about using this Chase as a learning experience from the start.

So what do the other teams do?

For those both in the Chase and out of it, moves are already being made. Ford put its new engine in two Roush Fenway Racing cars at Talladega Superspeedway to give it a test for next season.

Richard Petty Motorsports drivers are taking turns, except for Chase contender Kasey Kahne, competing in the Fords the team plans to use in 2010 after a planned merger with Yates Racing is completed.

Kyle Busch debuts with his new Joe Gibbs Racing crew chief this weekend.

Richard Childress Racing's Jeff Burton and Casey Mears enter their second race with new crew chiefs.

One big change to come for Kurt Busch: He'll need a new crew chief. (Rusty Jarrett / Getty Images)

Penske Racing is putting Brad Keselowski in the No. 12 Dodge he'll drive next season, replacing David Stremme in the final three races of 2009. His teammate, Kurt Busch, is seeking a new crew chief as Pat Tryson has already announced plans to move to Michael Waltrip Racing with driver Martin Truex Jr. next season.

And Dale Earnhardt Jr. ended all speculation when Hendrick Motorsports announced that interim crew chief Lance McGrew would take over that role on a full-time basis.

For many teams, it's an odd time of the year as they try to balance winning races and finishing as high as possible in the points while also setting themselves up for a 2010 title run.

"We're looking forward to next year," Roush Fenway Racing's Greg Biffle says. "We're trying to get the highest position in points we can this year, but we're looking forward to picking some wins up. We think we can still win this year. We've got three ... more chances, so we'll get by those and see what we can do, but we're excited about next year."

Welcome to the post-Chase NASCAR world, a place where making the championship run has taken on added importance and impact.

No one at JGR says that Steve Addington was replaced by Dave Rogers as Kyle Busch's crew chief because Busch missed the Chase this year, but you have to wonder just how much of an impact that could have had.

After all, many teams would envy the success of the pair. Addington joined ranks with Busch for the 2008 season. They won eight races and finished 10th in the series standings. This season, they missed the Chase by eight points, but sit 13th in the standings.

Busch said simply that it was a decision made by team owner Joe Gibbs and President J.D. Gibbs.

"I love Steve. Steve was a great asset to the team. He has done a great job over the past two seasons, and unfortunately we haven't quite had the success we would have liked this year, and we've struggled a lot," Busch says. "It seems like we're either feast or famine; we're either going to win the race or finish 30th. Some of that's my fault, but some of that is just not having the right things in the cars for me, and Joe and J.D. felt like we needed to try something new and see if we couldn't get a more consistent basis and something that was more championship-caliber."

Others who compete against the duo week to week admitted surprise at the move.

"I was shocked to hear they had parted ways," Johnson said. "I guess maybe there's a bigger vision internally of how things are going on that maybe we don't understand or know. Steve has done an awesome job and I'm sure (he's) a very hot commodity if he's not in the crew chief role at Gibbs."

Petty and Roush Fenway, meanwhile, are getting a jump on 2010 by trying things that will be used next season. Roush Fenway's Matt Kenseth and David Ragan raced with the new Ford engine at Talladega, though the model is not expected to be fully integrated until midway through the 2010 season. Still, it held up well in the race as the pair ran with the leaders at times.

Team owner Jack Roush saw signs of promise — and areas in which to work for improvement.

"The engine did what it might," he said. "We've got to work on getting it as lean as we had the existing engine. We weren't as lean. We didn't quite get the fuel mileage out of the No. 17 (of Kenseth) and out of the No. 6 (of Ragan) that we did, but that's not because of anything inherent in the engine. That was just my lack of confidence in what I was seeing to do what I thought I might do, and I'll be more confident, and we'll be more aggressive with that when we go to Daytona."

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It's all part of that crucial learning curve.

So is trying out the Ford at RPM. Elliott Sadler, a former Ford driver, raced with the model last weekend and teammate AJ Allmendinger will use it at Texas this Sunday. Prior to the race, Sadler said that a lot could be gained in terms of preparing for Daytona by running the model at Talladega, another restrictor-plate track.

"We can learn a lot as far as drafting is concerned, as far as the carburetors and the cowls and the engine stuff that the Ford has," Sadler said. "I can put it through its paces during the race and learn where it's strong at, where it's weak at, what my advantages are going to be and what my disadvantages can be, and I can run that back to my teammates and say, 'Look for this when we get to Daytona or look for that.'"

Obviously Sadler wants to finish this season as well as he can, too.

So that's the balancing act teams find themselves facing as they head into these final races — finding a way to get the most out of the 2009 season while also preparing for the next year and, hopefully, an even better run.

After all, Earnhardt Jr. admits that naming McGrew the full-time crew chief for next season has made this a sort of unofficial start to the new year. That's just one example of teams getting aligned for the coming season.

"I know that Lance has a lot of great ideas, and he is very smart about the team and understanding where we can be better," the driver said. "We can start facilitating some of those ideas and some of that thought process within the team."

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Rea White is a writer for NASCAR Scene, which is published weekly, 46 weeks per year. Visit www.scenedaily.com for more information.