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MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- In retrospect, Jeff Gordon sounds as if he feels bad about trying to bang Jimmie Johnson out of the way at Martinsville Speedway last spring.
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Either that or he's trying to buy some forgiveness before Sunday's race.
A year ago, Johnson had the lead and Gordon was right behind him in the still relatively new Car of Tomorrow, and Gordon hammered Johnson from behind repeatedly.
But the newer cars' design means that a nudge -- or more -- in the tail no longer caused the lead car to wiggle or spin, making passing more about the quality of the cars and less about the desperation of the trailing driver to grab the lead.
"I really hit him hard on that last corner and I still didn't move him up the track enough to make the pass," Gordon, a seven-time winner at Martinsville, said Friday.
"And honestly, you really don't want to win races that way. I wouldn't have felt good about it if I hit him any harder, moved him up the track any further."
In the past, drivers often claimed their innocence after moving the car ahead of them out of the way, but the design of the COT makes masking such intentions hard.
"This car, you actually have to hit them," Gordon said.
New chief
This week's departure of Gene Nead as crew chief for the Wood Brothers Racing left thee team scrambling to find a replacement.
The team settled on Mike Smith, a team veteran.
"He's been with us for 20 years and knows the ins and outs of what we do anyway, so that was the logical choice," co-owner Eddie Wood said Friday at Martinsville Speedway.
Bill Elliott will drive the car this weekend, and brings a past champion's provisional for Sunday's race, guaranteeing the team a spot in the field. Standing 44th in owner points, the team would have had to race its way into the field otherwise.
"Yeah, that's a different feeling and, of course, we want to qualify our way into the race," Wood said at the track 20 miles from where the team shop used to be.
