2008 Woodie Awards
Car of Tomorrow makes Jeff Gordon yawn at Talladega
Kendall Rich
Issue date: 10/17/07 Section: Sports
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For fans at Talladega Superspeedway, the new Car of Tomorrow (COT) made for some-not-so-typical racing Sunday.
For most of the race, there were long periods of single-file racing with two- and three- wide racing at times.
Fans at the track did not have much to cheer about until late in the race when fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the number 8 Budweiser Chevrolet, took the lead.
"It was really, really boring," Earnhardt said to reporters after another blown engine took him out of the race early.
The new cars did seem to be a little safer with no cars flipping over, but one major collision still happened.
The Big One came on lap 144 in turn 4, causing an 11-car pileup. In the pileup were chase drivers Matt Kenseth, driver of the number 17 Dewalt Ford, and Kyle Bush, driver of the number 5 Kellogg's / Carquest Chevrolet.
"It's unfortunate for our chase chances but we knew that Talladega was going to be our mulligan," Bush said. "We knew this was the one we were going to wreck in because every time we come here, it seems if there's a wreck, we're right in the middle of it."
Busch ended the race in 36th - place and eighth in the points, 260 behind race winner and chase leader Jeff Gordon, driver of the number 24 Pepsi / DuPont Chevrolet. Kenseth ended up 26th, 313 points behind Gordon and 11th in the chase.
"We rode around for about 350-400 miles and then sooner or later you've got to go race and try to get a partner up there and see how your car is gonna handle," Kenseth said. "When we decided to go up there, we got up to the third or fourth row on the inside and then the leader wrecked. When the leader wrecks, there's not a whole lot you can do to miss it."
Gordon's win was no surprise even with the COT, but it was much different then his six previous wins at Talladega.
Gordon spent most of the race near the back trying to stay out of trouble. It wasn't until 30 laps to go he started to get daring and head toward the front.
"It was terrible," Gordon said. "It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do in a racecar. I like to think that I've got pretty good patience, but that's beyond patience. There's just nothing fun about that, but I knew it was a smart thing.
"I've never yawned in a racecar in my life and I yawned back there."
The COT is scheduled to race at two more tracks this season, Martinsville Speedway and Phoenix International Racewa
For most of the race, there were long periods of single-file racing with two- and three- wide racing at times.
Fans at the track did not have much to cheer about until late in the race when fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the number 8 Budweiser Chevrolet, took the lead.
"It was really, really boring," Earnhardt said to reporters after another blown engine took him out of the race early.
The new cars did seem to be a little safer with no cars flipping over, but one major collision still happened.
The Big One came on lap 144 in turn 4, causing an 11-car pileup. In the pileup were chase drivers Matt Kenseth, driver of the number 17 Dewalt Ford, and Kyle Bush, driver of the number 5 Kellogg's / Carquest Chevrolet.
"It's unfortunate for our chase chances but we knew that Talladega was going to be our mulligan," Bush said. "We knew this was the one we were going to wreck in because every time we come here, it seems if there's a wreck, we're right in the middle of it."
Busch ended the race in 36th - place and eighth in the points, 260 behind race winner and chase leader Jeff Gordon, driver of the number 24 Pepsi / DuPont Chevrolet. Kenseth ended up 26th, 313 points behind Gordon and 11th in the chase.
"We rode around for about 350-400 miles and then sooner or later you've got to go race and try to get a partner up there and see how your car is gonna handle," Kenseth said. "When we decided to go up there, we got up to the third or fourth row on the inside and then the leader wrecked. When the leader wrecks, there's not a whole lot you can do to miss it."
Gordon's win was no surprise even with the COT, but it was much different then his six previous wins at Talladega.
Gordon spent most of the race near the back trying to stay out of trouble. It wasn't until 30 laps to go he started to get daring and head toward the front.
"It was terrible," Gordon said. "It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do in a racecar. I like to think that I've got pretty good patience, but that's beyond patience. There's just nothing fun about that, but I knew it was a smart thing.
"I've never yawned in a racecar in my life and I yawned back there."
The COT is scheduled to race at two more tracks this season, Martinsville Speedway and Phoenix International Racewa
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