Talladega Brings Frayed Nerves
Published: Oct 7, 2007
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TALLADEGA, ALA. - Elliott Sadler is 32. He figures he will leave Talladega Superspeedway tonight feeling a little older.
"I didn't think we could make Talladega racing tighter than it was, but I think we've doubled it," he said during Saturday's qualifying for the UAW-Ford 500. "It's going to be a pretty hair-raising, aging race for a lot of drivers."
Not all drivers agree that the first super speedway race for the Car of Tomorrow will be any worse than the racing that took place with the old cars. But any worse on the NASCAR track famous for big wrecks could make today's race the most harrowing of the year.
That's particularly worrisome for the 12 drivers competing in the Chase for the Nextel Cup. Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Clint Bowyer are separated by only 14 points at the top of the standings with seven races left, and they are bearing down on the championship. Everybody from fourth-place Tony Stewart back is between 117 and 248 points behind and trying to stay in contention.
"There is no doubt you leave here just mentally spent," Johnson said. "You're focused so much and trying to look through windshields of cars in front of you to see where momentum is going - to see if there's a problem that you can miss. So … you leave here just drained with headaches and worn out from all of it."
Racing at Talladega is three-plus hours of three- and four-wide tailgating at 190 mph. When one driver in the pack has a problem, the result can be a catastrophic melee of spinning, sliding and even flipping cars.
Strategies differ on how to avoid the infamous "big one" at Talladega. None seems to be particularly effective, since the wrecks at Talladega occur at the front, in the middle and in the rear of the field.
"It seems like you want to be up front and as close to the front as you can to avoid as many accidents as you can, but sometimes they start up front and you're in it," Daytona 500 winner Kevin Harvick said. "[But] sometimes trouble finds you, and I've made mistakes and caused trouble, too. So it's all about making the least amount of mistakes from your part and trying to dodge the rest of the mistakes that people make on their part."
Jeff Burton says drivers who try to hang back and stay out of the fray could be taking a chance with the COT. The car is taller and wider and punches a bigger hole in the air. While the closing rate within the draft is quicker than with the old car, a driver who loses the draft completely may have a harder time catching it again.
"So I'd be afraid to drive around in the back and wait for the big wreck to happen, because I don't think you'd ever catch back up," Burton said.
All of the Chasers will start the race vulnerable to early race mishaps. Drivers needing to qualify on speed took the top seven starting berths in Saturday's qualifying - led by Michael Waltrip and Dave Blaney - and the Chasers qualified between 11th (Stewart) and 37th (Harvick). Kurt Busch will have to start in the back because his car failed the post-qualifying inspection.
Gordon has won five Talladega races, including three of the last seven. Johnson has a win and a second in the last three races here, and he was trying to pass Dale Earnhardt Jr. for the lead on the last lap of last year's race when Brian Vickers spun both out and won himself.
"We've seen guys win it different ways," Sadler said. "Jeff Gordon always tries to lead as much as he can. He does not want to push anybody [in the draft]. He wants to be up front all of the time and hope the wreck is behind him. Dale Jarrett, we saw just a couple of years ago, rode around in the back for three-quarters of the race and came up and won it at the end.
"We don't know what's going to work with this new car. I've heard guys say they're going to try to drop back, and I've heard guys say they're going to go as hard as they can and try to be up front."
Gordon says he doesn't know how he'll race because the new car creates a new set of circumstances. His goal, he says, is to leave Talladega a step closer to a fifth championship.
"I think that while we all know it's like playing Russian Roulette when we come here," he said, "I still think it's one of those races that it's too spectacular not to be in the Chase."
Reporter Tony Fabrizio can be reached at (813) 259-7994 or afabrizio@tampa-trib.com.
