Things were going so slow that during the 135th lap, Jeff Gordon made a quilt for his daughter.

The last week in NASCAR has been busy to say the least. What with newcomers making their debut at Talladega and the much-ballyhooed first COT race on a plate track, it’s made for a very interesting news week.

Today this will read more like news and notes, as I don’t have an issue this week that I want to speak out for or against. I do, however, have a few things I’d like to say…

Scotsman Dario Franchitti and Quebecois Jacques Villeneuve made their debuts in NASCAR this past week. Franchitti opened in the ARCA race with Villeneuve making the Craftsman Truck and Cup shows. Many drivers expressed doubts about these Indianapolis 500 champions joining the field on such a brutal track. I guess no one told them that Dega will eat you up and spit you out. Several drivers haven’t finished in the last few races. People like Greg Biffle and Kyle Busch come to mind, with the latter calling it his team’s “mulligan” and Biffle wryly quipping that he doesn’t come to Talladega to finish, but to give the fans some nice wrecks to watch.

Both Franchitti and Villeneuve showed that they could finish decently, though Villeneuve had been involved in a wreck in his truck. Villeneuve’s people put out a press release that celebrated their driver’s courtesy and presence of mind to drop to the back and how he didn’t make any waves. Don’t tell that to Elliott Sadler, though. In the first large, smoky wreck, Villeneuve sideswiped the No. 19, effectively dooming the day in Sadler’s mind. Sadler complained that Villeneuve’s spotter should have done a better job of guiding him through the wreck, and that Villeneuve should know enough about wrecks to drive carefully through the smoke and debris.

Aside from the pumped-up television coverage on our new foreign drivers, we kept hearing all week from the drivers and talking heads alike that this had the potential to be the most exciting Dega race ever. The COT “punched” a bigger hole in the air, the wing was impeding sight, and the possibility of the cars going airborne during a crash were all hot topics on the tube.

Well. Um. You see…the race was pretty boring. If you’ve been reading or watching any post-race coverage, you know that Jeff Gordon proclaimed the race so boring that he yawned as he rode around the 2.66 mile superspeedway at speeds reaching 198 mph. If you didn’t see the race and you’ve been hiding for the past week, let me explain this.

The first few laps showed some promise, but only a hint. Several drivers were slicing and dicing on the track, but a few laps later the lead pack broke away, cars began running single file, and the (nearly worthless, in my opinion) ESPN crew divulged that the Ford camps of Roush-Fenway and Yates were dropping to the back of the field to create their own pack and ostensibly stay out of the big one.

Side note here: Kenny Wallace pointed out on SPEED’s Victory Lane that Dale Jarrett has long been a proponent of the “fall to the back, miss the wrecks, get up front at the end” strategy. And he had long been made fun of for this approach, though it was pretty smart and it did help keep him out of trouble. When the Roush-Yates group and Hendrick Motorsports teammates Gordon and Jimmie Johnson went to the back to accomplish the same thing, the tactic was suddenly okay. It took Jeff Gordon doing it to validate something that Jarrett had known for years was a fairly effective idea. I agree with Kenny on this one. (Does anyone know if I can still get an “I agree with Marty” tee shirt? Just asking.)

But back to the race. As the cars became strung out, the wild race became nothing more than a joke. The most excitement viewers got was six out of seven DEI/RCR engines failing, leaving Clint Bowyer as the only survivor. There were a few other things going on, like Bobby Labonte still mystified over what happened to his car to cause a crash, Kyle Petty running over the back of Jarrett and apologizing roundly on TV: “I’m 47 years old, and I should know better than that.”

Michael Waltrip, the polesitter, blew a tire and clipped Sadler, which brought out a slew of emotions for the Virginian and his crew. I won’t repeat some of the things I heard, but if you’ve read any of Sadler’s post-race comments, he wasn’t very happy with the way Mike was driving. Waltrip did appear to blow a tire, but nevertheless it left a lot of people upset, as several other cars were caught in the melee.

With about 30 laps to go I was talking with a friend and I said that I hoped something would happen to cause the drivers to break out of the single file lines they had formed and do some real racing. Finally I got my wish, as people like Dave Blaney, Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch, Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne, Gordon and Johnson suddenly appeared up front. I was happy and surprised to see so many new faces at the front and I was holding my breath, let me tell you that.

As it came down to the last lap, I sincerely thought that Stewart or Johnson had it in the bag. But with a huge push from Blaney, Gordon cut in front of Stewart (who had no choice but to run into the back of Gordon, effectively pushing him to the lead) and led maybe the last third or quarter of lap 188.

The bottom line is that the excitement was few and far between. A quote from Matt Kenseth summed it up neatly. I paraphrase him: “Out of 188 laps you got maybe 30 laps of racing.”

This weekend the show goes under the lights at Jimmie’s House that Bruton and Humpy Built. The Beast of the Southeast, Lowe’s Motor Speedway, will host the drivers in the Chase’s only night race. Yes, it is the original cookie-cutter track, but it is Charlotte and dreams are made there. Can Casey Mears sweep the points races this season? Will Kasey Kahne get his first win of the season here?

Lots of questions and the answers come on Saturday night. Until next weekend, remember that rubbin’ is racin’!

Questions and comments may be sent to samanthamaynard@sportsgrumblings.com