Testing Speeds | Photos

Tuesday's test at Talladega Superspeedway went very well in Jeff Gordon's mind as the Hendrick Motorsports driver now sets his sights on trying to score another Sprint Cup Series win at Bristol Motor Speedway in Sunday's Food City 500.

Gordon was one of 24 drivers on hand during Tuesday's sessions at the 2.66-mile superspeedway as NASCAR works on implementing the rear spoiler to replace the Sprint Cup car's wing.

"Yeah, you know, we made some single-car runs," Gordon said of the day's activities. "Didn't do a whole lot of like qualifying runs or anything like that. Felt like we learned some things, enough to where we could go ahead and start getting in the draft.

"There was about five of us out there. It was definitely productive. Nothing eye-opening. Felt like it went well. The cars have a little bit more turbulent air when you're behind other cars. Makes the car rattle and shake a little bit more, which I heard was similar to what the Nationwide cars have."

Since Cup cars had spoilers before the wing went into play with the debut of the COT in 2007, Gordon wasn't totally surprised at how the car felt during the test.

"So no big surprise there," he said. "A little bit of visual, not necessarily behind you, but when you're behind a car, because the corners of the spoiler are real tall. Just seeing across those corners to the side of somebody, trying to look further ahead.

"But, you know, other than that, I thought everything went really well."

In Gordon's mind, going back to a traditional spoiler is a step in the right direction both from an appearance standpoint as well as a competition level.

"Yeah, I was never crazy about the way the wing was mounted on the back of the car," he said. "When I envision a wing being put on our car, I envisioned it a little bit more like a Trans-Am car, where it was raised up, more of a cool-looking concept, and also fit a function of aerodynamics, just made the cars a little bit more futuristic."

However, he reiterated the wing didn't affect the car's handling as much as some would believe.

"But, you know, the wing that we put on there was just a glorified spoiler," Gordon said. "It sat down on the deck lid. It wasn't very appealing. We weren't really using it efficiently. So when I heard about going back to spoilers, I was totally fine with it. This car looks good with a spoiler on it. You know, from what I'm hearing, we're going to get more downforce in the car."

Downforce won't be that much of a concern Sunday when the series hits the short track at Bristol, where Gordon is expecting a good race despite the groove being narrowed by the extension of the SAFER Barriers.

"You know, I think as drivers, we like a track that's not a one-groove race track," Gordon said. "That's what they did at Bristol, they created a multi-groove race track where we could get side-by-side, get our nose, get completely underneath or to the outside of a car and race 'em clean for the pass, but still be able to make those passes.

"You know, I still think it's great racing at Bristol. I think it's some of the best we've ever seen. But that's not always what the fans, you know, want. So I think this should be a happy medium with narrowing up the race track, but we'll see."

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