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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.
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.
"We don't want to use up one of Bill's provisionals here, but just knowing you've got that as a backup means you can at least make some race runs and get your feet under you a little bit, which we haven't been able to do the past few weeks.
"Everything has been about qualifying, so that's kind of reassuring."
Questionable
Elliott Sadler's Gillett Evernham Motorsports team has Dennis Setzer on call this weekend to fill in if Sadler's lower back doesn't feel better.
Sadler hurt himself Wednesday and was stiffer on Thursday. Setzer drove the car in practice Friday, but Sadler made the qualifying run, getting the 25th spot.
"There's a lot of pain right now in my lower back," Sadler said. "When you hit the brake here, it pushes your back up against the back of the seat."
The decision on who drives will be made by Sadler and Mark McArdle, the vice president and managing director of competition for the Gillett Everham teams.
Sadler said he planned to focus on being ready to race.
"It's 50-50 right now if we'll try to run the whole deal," he said.
End quote
"People either love me or hate me. So love me or hate me. I don't care." -- Kyle Busch, the Sprint Cup Series points leader after five of 36 races.