In the Field: Elliott Sadler (cont'd)

There's a lot of shuffling that's going to be going on.

And even though we had a bigger plate, the biggest we've had in a while on Monday and then one on Tuesday that was smaller, but bigger than the last one we ran on the standard cars; there really wasn't any difference that I noticed in throttle response.

This track has so much grip and it's so wide -- it's as wide as a football field -- so there's no such thing as throttle response at this racetrack. You're just wide open all the way around, and all you're worrying about is how fast can you go, and how fast you can hook up with the draft.

Talladega is all about speed, and how the COT handles, or has handled anywhere else this season, is no issue.

The track is so smooth and there's so much grip -- and the bumpers of these cars line up so well that you can just bump draft all the way around the racetrack.

I guess we were running a little bit too fast with the bigger plate and the bigger wicker on Monday; which I think made it better for racing because you couldn't bump draft the guy in front of you as much because the bigger wicker was stalling out the air and you couldn't really get up and push the guy in front of you as much as you wanted to.

With the smaller wicker, man, you could knock the crap out of the guy in front of you. You could really push him and hit him, which is just going to put us all that much closer together.

Tuesday we saw a lot more bump drafting -- all kinds of beating and banging. We've always bump drafted a little bit, but Tuesday, by far there was a lot more beating and banging going on.

With the rules that we have with the COT, with the bumpers, we can't really stiffen up the rear of these cars. The rear bumper is really soft, because there's not much material back there to keep the bumper stiff.

If a guy doesn't know what he's doing when he bump drafts you, he can hook you pretty badly; because all of our back bumpers were bent-in, a lot.

It's going to be new and it's going to be a lot different. I think it's going to be a great race -- and I think it could have the best potential for a surprise winner than any other racetrack that we race at this year, because of the way that the draft works -- and that your car doesn't have to be running exceptionally well to be running up front.

But I have a feeling, with the way the draft now works, that our back bumpers, after we've raced at Talladega, will look like they've raced at Martinsville.

No doubt, there will be some interesting things brought to the table come that Sunday.

Elliott Sadler, now in his ninth full season in the Cup Series, shares weekly with NASCAR.COM readers life on the road through staff writer Dave Rodman.