With that most important question out of the way, we ask: Was the racing any better? (Full disclosure: I caught the final 30 laps on radio coming home from the Redskins’ whitewash of Detroit, and saw some highlights later.)

The finish was, certainly. But the race as a whole? I’m not so sure.

I have one highlight stuck in my mind: A group of 10-12 cars in one long line, riding around the track. That certainly happened with the old model, but I also seem to remember more frequency of three-wide, one-mistake-will-wipe-out-the-field racing. That’s exciting.

Running in a train? Much less so — especially when you know that the penalty for jumping out of line is so severe.

Moreover, winner Jeff Gordon admitted afterward that he was hanging around the back, waiting to make a move, hoping he could avoid any serious mid-pack problems. Later, in the press conference, crew chief Steve Letarte said the decision was based on the unknowns with the COT and the fact that the bigger car makes it easier to suck back into the draft.

What kind of racing is that? Well, it’s smart racing. But it’s also not very compelling, unless you watch only the last 30 laps.

I think the jury’s still out. I’ll wait until Daytona to make a serious judgment — though by then, we’ll be stuck with the Car of Tomorrow whether we like it or not.

• NO BIG DEAL: The Gordon-Jacques Villeneuve sideshow turned out to be no big deal. Villeneuve kept his nose clean and wasn’t involved in any incidents, a relief to Gordon, who had been critical of Villeneuve making his Cup debut at Talladega in the COT.

Gordon too was a little contrite after the race.

“I wasn’t around him a whole lot. The fact that he didn’t run into anything and that he had a clean race and finished on the lead lap says a lot,” Gordon said. “Today wasn’t a typical Talladega race ... I’m glad he was here and he got to run here. I hope he got to mix it up there at the end to see what it’s really like and get this experience and move on.”

Villeneuve was actually the second-best Toyota, placing 21st. Relatively speaking, it was a banner weekend for Toyota with Michael Waltrip winning the pole and Dave Blaney finishing third.

• POINTS REPORT: Gordon, with the win, moved to the front of the pack. He and Jimmie Johnson — who finished second — put some distance between themselves and Clint Bowyer, who is now 63 points back. Tony Stewart, in fourth, is 153 behind.

There are still six races left in the Chase, so it’s hard to get too wound up about where the standings are right now.

But it’s getting dark quickly. Anyone below fifth (currently Kevin Harvick, 202 points back; Carl Edwards is 205 back and Kurt Busch is 215 back) is going to need a ton of help from Gordon and Johnson. Stewart will need help as well, though not to the degree of some others.

Consider that the next stop is Lowe’s Motor Speedway near Charlotte: Hendrick Motorsports has won six of the past nine races there, including Casey Mears’ win in May. Johnson won there four straight times, sweeping both events in 2004 and 2005.

After that, the series moves to Martinsville, where Hendrick has won seven of the past nine races, including two straight by Johnson.

By then, it’ll be pretty darn dark. To keep the championship away from Hendrick, Bowyer, Stewart or any of the others, they’ll need a bad race soon from Johnson or Gordon, against all odds.

(Photo by Dave Martin/Associated Press)

Those of us in journalism often debate whether readers care about what goes on at a newspaper. Some believe they do; they may not say as much, but in writing certain pieces about why and how certain things happen, they make that case. Others say it’s like sausage; consumers care about the final product, and that’s it.

So I’ll play it safe and assume you don’t care; thus, I won’t bore you with the details.

At any rate, a quickie post because of all the other things going on. But I did want to let you know I’ll have a column in Sunday’s paper and I’ll be focusing on Talladega. You’ll be able to find a link on the sports page after it gets posted.

That’s why this entry is so short.

After all, I wouldn’t want to use up all of my good ideas, right?

Jeff Gordon: “I am a big fan of Jacques, but I think this is not the right decision. I didn’t think it was the right decision with David Gilliland. Nothing against their talent, or anything else, I just look at that race in the Chase. Why? You want to run a race, go to Atlanta, go to one of the mile and a half tracks. I am very, very surprised that was approved as his first Cup race. I don’t agree with it, but I am not going to lose sleep over it either.”

Jimmie Johnson, in a later interview session, agreed with Gordon’s assessment.

So that’s the question: Is Talladega the right place for anyone to make their debut?

I think, in the case of Gilliland, it’s a no-brainer. He was a raw driver thrust into an unusual situation.

It’s more muddled with Villeneuve. The man has a win in the Indianapolis 500 and raced in Formula One, which has drivers at least as talented as NASCAR. Pedigree and experience ought to count for something.

And even in any other year – even this spring – this would be an easy answer. But this race, this Talladega race, is going to be a lot different. The Car of Tomorrow makes its superspeedway debut, and no one’s quite sure how it’s going to act. Not Gordon, not Tony Stewart, not Matt Kenseth. That makes the decision a little tougher.

But I still think Gordon’s overreacting (while also acknowledging his point). I think Villeneuve will be smart enough not to take too many chances. I’m certain he understands what’s at stake for the Chase drivers; I’m also certain he’s smart enough to make adjustments along the way.

Then again, it could all be a moot point. BDR and the rest of the Toyota field have been mostly uncompetitive; and without any standing, Villeneuve has no backup during qualifying. If he misses the race, then Gordon’s hot air will have been for nothing.

All of that’s easy for me to say. I don’t have to put complete faith into a guy – though accomplished – that I’ve never raced before; all at one of the most dangerous tracks out there. Gordon’s concern is understandable, but I think Villeneuve is a factor he won’t much have to worry about.

—BACK TO FRANCHITTI: He’ll replace David Stremme in Ganassi’s No. 40 next year; what does he bring to the table?

Instant marketability for starters. I think we all know who his wife is. (And if you don’t, it’s Ashley Judd, who won’t exactly repulse the male viewership.)

Franchitti has been among the best over on the IRL circuit for several years. He’ll need some time to transition as well; but he has the driving skill that should make him competitive. The guy’s accomplished about all he could in that series; trying his hand with NASCAR seems like a logical step.

I usually don’t notice because I’m flipping between channels. I also write a lot about the Redskins, but don’t travel to their away games; I watch them from home, because you’ve got to know what the storylines for the upcoming week will be.

But last week, with a Redskins bye week, I was free to watch the race uninhibited (because, by then, the early NFL games weren’t very competitive).

It’s little things. But it’s things you’d expect ABC/ESPN to get right. ESPN wants us to believe it’s the be-all and end-all of sports, right?

The biggest complaints have been about the network’s ill-timed commercial breaks that miss action or crucial moments.

That certainly happened on Sunday. During one of their breaks, Kenny Wallace wrecked; and that’s not exactly something you’d cut into programming for. I do understand that.

The wreck, of course, brings out a yellow. Everyone pits. Except we don’t see that. We come back just in time to see the cars at the very end of pit road.

That’s ridiculous.

I remember in the past at Daytona, when the big one happened, Fox broke into its commercials to show the wreck and the immediate aftermath.

Kenny Wallace wrecking at Kansas isn’t anywhere near that level; again, I understand that. But do you mean to tell me that no one in the truck is willing to audible out of the commercials so we can actually see the pit stops?

The first lap of caution was lap 61, meaning it fell considerably after the first rain delay. So if you’re ABC and you have X number of ads to run, wouldn’t that have been mostly accomplished during the first rain delay?

Wouldn’t it have been easier to knock one commercial out of the sequence and pick it up again on the next break? I can’t specifically recall if there were local ads during that break, which might have complicated the situation. But again, it’s a network; shouldn’t things like this be figured out?

Or maybe they just want to get paid. And if they drop the ball here or there, whatever. The check’s still in the mail.

After Kyle Busch got punted by Dale Earnhardt Jr., he was interviewed while his crew worked to fix his car. According to the transcript from the PR folks at Chevy, the question was phrased like this:

“You’ve come from behind before in the Chase. How will you overcome this?”

Busch looked away and chuckled, “Yeah, right.”

He had every right to. It was a silly question.

He didn’t qualify for the Chase in 2004 (when he ran only a handful of races) and as a rookie in 2005. Last year, he started the Chase with finishes of 38th and 40th; the highest he ever got in the Chase was eighth, and he finished 10th.

How is that coming from behind?

Granted, I have the benefit of looking all this stuff up after the fact. But my first reaction to the question — and Busch’s too, apparently — was, Huh? He was never a factor last year.

If I were to make such a claim even in this forum, which is considerably less formal than in the actual paper, I would get rightly hammered.

Later, I hear Brad Daughtery blabbing about how well Martin Truex Jr. is doing.

“He’s moving through the field as we speak,” Daughtery said.

Then they cut to a shot of the field running under caution.

Yeah, it’s a small thing. But it’s something you hear and you think, Huh?

Maybe ESPN doesn’t sweat the details, I don’t know. But they continue to risk losing viewers with these sorts of shenanigans; just read the comments on TGOM’s posts.

NASCAR, who is the ultimate dog in this fight, might not be too pleased to hear that.

(Photo by Jim Cole/Associated Press)

You’ll remember Robby Gordon took the lead from Marcos Ambrose when a huge pileup further back in the field resulted in a full-course caution. Gordon was ordered back around 13th or 14 because he didn’t maintain a “cautious pace.”

Different series, certainly, but NASCAR’s got one rulebook, which was handed to Gordon after his meeting in the Busch series hauler.

Now flash back to yesterday: Biffle’s leading when Juan Pablo Montoya shreds a tire and leaves a track full of debris; when the yellow flies, he’s clearly in the lead. No question about that.

But while under caution, his engine sputters coming to the frontstretch. He pulls down to the apron to pull the last bit of fuel out of his tank and slows. Biffle maintained he had some fuel left; but why slow down and not keep up with the pace car?

David Poole’s story in the Charlotte Observer said that Biffle maintained a “reasonable” pace; AP writer Jenna Fryer quoted NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston as saying that the field was frozen as soon as the yellow came out and, obviously, you can’t pass under a yellow.

Caution flag flies, the field is frozen — supposedly.

There was no indication of any limitations (no maintaining a certain pace) to keep whatever position you’re in, at least according to the AP story.

But according to Poole’s story, there was a limitation placed on the frozen field — that everyone maintain a “reasonable” pace, a term that’s certainly open to debate.

We did hear back from Poston, who said the difference between Montreal and Kansas was that in Gordon’s wreck, he came to a complete stop, which makes sense as a clear breach of a cautious pace. Poston said Biffle did keep a reasonable pace and that Johnson made an assumption about how much gas Biffle had left; Poston said during post-race inspection, a half-gallon of fuel was in Biffle’s tank.

That’s an explanation that makes sense. So, as we said before, it sounds like Johnson standing up for his manufacturer; both he and Bowyer run Chevys.

• STANDING DEMOLITION: The other major aspect to Sunday’s race was the major shakeup in the standings. That in itself was quite surprising, since most everyone expected Talladega and Martinsville to be the places where the shake-ups happened — not a more benign place like Kansas.

So let’s take a look at who blew up:

Denny Hamlin (29th); Matt Kenseth (35th); Jeff Burton (36th); Carl Edwards (37th); Martin Truex Jr. (38th); Tony Stewart (39th); Kyle Busch (41st).

Wow.

Stewart got the worst of it, obviously. The defending race champion was in position to win when the second rain delay hit. But once the race restarted, he got knocked into the wall when Kurt Busch punted him as a wreck happened in front of them.

I’ve read some pundits in the past week saying the title was going to come down to him, Johnson and Jeff Gordon. That line of thinking is now worth another examination.

Johnson now has a six-point lead over Gordon and a 14-point advantage over Bowyer. Stewart is fourth, but he’s more than 100 points in back of Bowyer.

There are six races left, and that’s a lot of racing. But Stewart’s going to need help from the top three to get back in the running. Certainly that’s not out of the realm of possibility, but right now, his destiny is in someone else’s hands.

Now, the tour’s off to Talladega, where things could get just as crazy. Maybe Stewart gets some of the breaks he needs.

Who knows? We’ve seen crazier things. Like yesterday.

(Photo by Jeff Roberson/Associated Press)