The Big One

Jeff Gordon won the pole for Sunday's NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. It was the 60th of his career and his first at Talladega.
Racing at Talladega, one of two tracks Cup cars use restrictor plates, has produced some of the more horrific crashes in the history of NASCAR.
Gordon said there is no way to avoid the big crashes at Talladega. After qualifying on Saturday, one reporter asked Gordon why Cup drivers keep racing at Talladega knowing the danger at the track.
Gordon said he and the other Cup drivers don't have a choice of where they race.
"Mark Martin is the only out there who has got a choice," said Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. "He's the smartest guy out there right now."
Martin, a Cup veteran, is racing a partial schedule for Ginn Racing. He decided to skip the Talladega race and Regan Smith is driving the No. 01 Chevrolet on Sunday.
As for the crashes at Talladega, Gordon said he hopes they don't happen, but they get harder to avoid with each race.
"Every year it gets tighter and tighter," Gordon said. "Since they did repave this race track, it's allowed the teams to get a little more aggressive with their shocks and their springs and make these cars grip that much better and get through the corners better, where we don't have these huge bumps and dips that we used to have to adjust for."
In an effort to reduce speeds at Talladega, NASCAR made Cup teams use a smaller restrictor plate last year. But that only made the cars race in tighter packs than usual and made for even more dangerous conditions.
"We were going too fast, and they had to put a smaller restrictor plate on us last time we were here and that just tightens up the field that much more," Gordon said. "There is just nothing you can tell the drivers -- including myself -- like don't bump draft. If everybody doesn't bump-draft all day long, on the last lap it's still going to get out of control and there is still a chance for it to happen. So I don't know. I don't have an answer. Why are we not? I don't know."
Gordon said drivers prepare the best they can for Talladega. And when a wreck does occur, Gordon said he is confident in the safety of the cars.
"We're racers and we go out there and do the best that we possibly can and hope it doesn't happen," Gordon said. "And when it does happen, you hope you're not in it. I feel very safe inside the car; don't get me wrong. Even if that wreck happens, I still feel very safe. I don't feel like it's as much of a safety issue as it is tearing up race cars and ruining your day. Not to mention, I don't think it'd do any good. Somebody is going to get inside that car and drive it."