No matter what anybody tries to tell you, it’s points season in NASCAR’s Nextel Cup Series.

With just four races left before the field for this year’s Chase for the Nextel Cup is set, everyone with even the faintest hopes of qualifying for the title drive will factor in “the big picture” as they plot strategy for Sunday’s race at Michigan International Speedway.

“We think about being in the Chase every week,” said Kevin Harvick, who’s coming off his second victory of the season at Watkins Glen as he tries to nail down his first Chase slot in the format’s third year of existence. “That’s a topic of conversation before we even get in the race car, before we even get to the track.”

It certainly will be increasingly such as the circuit moves through this weekend’s race and the subsequent pre-Chase outings at Bristol, California and Richmond.

But as important as the Chase has become, there are still races to be won.

In his victory last weekend, Harvick lost the lead to Tony Stewart with less than nine laps to go. But instead of settling for second and “a good points day,” the driver of the No. 29 Chevrolet fought back and reclaimed the lead with just more than three laps left.

“If you’re running seventh or eighth you have to figure out how to finish seventh or eighth, trying to get sixth without wrecking or doing something stupid,” Harvick said of the driver’s mind-set at this stage of the season.

“But when you have a chance to win, you throw all that out the window and you have to go after winning the race and not worry about anything else.”

Balancing the competitive desire to go after a victory against the larger issue of maintaining a top-10 spot in the standings over the next four weeks might wind up being the difference between having a shot at the title or not.

Kasey Kahne’s situation, in fact, shows just how fine that line can be.

Kahne has been involved in last-lap incidents in each of the past two races, a crash at Indianapolis and a run off the course at Watkins Glen. Combined, those two incidents have cost him perhaps 90 to 100 points.

Going into this weekend, Kahne is 54 points outside the top 10. Add back 100 points and he’d be ninth in the standings.

The gap between those inside the Chase and those trying to make it widened a bit at Watkins Glen. It’s another 118 points back to 12th-place Kurt Busch, with Greg Biffle eight behind Busch and Carl Edwards 11 behind Biffle. As long as 10th-place Dale Earnhardt Jr. starts the race on Sunday, nobody besides Kahne could catch him in the standings this weekend even by winning the race and leading the most laps.

But this is not the final weekend of the “regular season.” Those chasing those currently in the Chase still have four races to make up ground, and every point counts.

And the way to earn the most points you can is to do what Harvick did at the Glen.

“When you have a good car, you have to run in the top 10 because all the guys that you’re racing against run in the top 10 pretty much every week,” Harvick said. “When you have the car that can win a race, you need to try to do everything you can to win because it’s not easy to win in this deal.

“We’ve been on the other side of the fence and been running 15th to 20th and struggling to do that, and so when you have an opportunity to win, you need to give it all you’ve got and go for it.”