TALLADEGA, Ala. - Crashing spectacularly on the front straightaway at Talladega Superspeedway is one habit Elliott Sadler would like to drop.
A year ago, Sadler walked away without injury from a wild, barrel-rolling crash. He did it again in Sunday's EA Sports 500, this time sliding backward through the grass and flipping once before sliding across the finish line on his wheels on the last lap.
He was okay after a mandatory checkup at the infield hospital.
"Everything did its job again and it wasn't half as bad as last year," Sadler said. "It was just a few tumbles and everything was fine. Last year it just kept flipping and flipping and flipping. I don't think I got as high this time as last time.
"I couldn't get as much lift off the grass as I could off the asphalt, so I'll work on that next time," he joked.
Sadler finished 22nd and dropped from sixth to eighth in NASCAR's new 10-man, 10-race Chase for the Championship. That was disappointing for Sadler, though he also had battery and overheating problems.
LOSING GROUND: Jeff Gordon was in the top five and threatened to win his third consecutive restrictor-plate race before failing to pit with the rest of the leaders late.
Gordon said rookie Scott Wimmer was close behind when the other leaders suddenly turned toward pit road and Gordon couldn't slow soon enough.
Gordon pitted the next time around, but lost valuable track position and wound up 19th. He fell from the points lead to third, 61 behind race-winner and new leader Dale Earnhardt Jr.
BUMPING AND BANGING: Matt Kenseth is one of many drivers who doesn't like the racing produced at Talladega, where NASCAR requires the use of horsepower-sapping carburetor restrictor plates to keep the cars under 200 mph. That bunches up the field into huge drafting packs that can be very dangerous.
"I was back in there three-wide and getting hit and hitting people," the defending Cup champion said. "Everybody was bouncing off of everybody. It's kind of stupid, really. I know it's fun to watch, but it's kind of a bad situation you're sitting in.
"We're going 185 mph and being pinballs like that."
Kenseth finished a quiet 14th and is fifth in points, trailing Earnhardt by 150.
PIT STOPS: Track officials, hoping to avoid a repeat of the beer-and-garbage barrage that flew out of the stands in April when NASCAR placed Gordon ahead of crowd favorite Earnhardt during a race-ending caution, issued a series of severe warnings. But, with Earnhardt winning this time, there were only cheers at the end. ... After canceling a scheduled protest because of safety concerns, the director of the National Association for Minority Race Fans made a brief appearance outside the track. Jirard Brown said the main thrust of the new organization is "our desire to force NASCAR to create a safer race for all races. "We regret not being able to stage our formal protest here today," he said from the lawn of the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, adjacent to the speedway where more than 150,000 spectators were streaming in. He said the 7-acre site a half-mile from the main gate that was offered to the group for its protest was "not acceptable."
