Notebook: Reutimann OK after hard crash (cont'd)

Dark clouds, silver lining

Jeff Gordon won the pole, but he was so concerned with the handling of his car during Saturday's practices, he switched to teammate Jimmie Johnson's setup and promptly spent the first of several early cautions trying to loosen the car up.

"We just overtightened the car from practice," Gordon said. "I think the overcast really hurt us more than we thought it was going to."

Gordon, at one time running outside of the top 25, battled back to finish second.

"The biggest difference was it was warm [Saturday], probably 25 degrees warmer," Gordon said. "[Sunday], the conditions were great, but the conditions we had set up for weren't right. It took us a while to make those adjustments and once we did it, we were a top-three or four car the rest of the day."

Dodging trouble all day

Kurt Busch had an uneventful day, finishing seventh -- a welcome change from Daytona, where he wound up 41st.

"We're cool with a finish like this, no mistakes all day and we didn't get caught up in traffic and get bottled up," Busch said. "To come home seventh and race our way to that position felt good."

Busch, like several others, lost a lap when the caution flag flew in the middle of green-flag stops, but was able to regain his spot on the lead lap.

"We got caught by an early yellow and that put us on the tail end of the lead lap for the longest green run of the race, almost," he said. "We raced our way back into the lucky dog spot and got our lap back, then raced our way back through the pack."

For Burton, green was keen

Jeff Burton was another driver who wasn't happy to see the yellow flag with 25 laps to go. Right behind Kenseth when the field took the green for the final time, Burton spun the tires and wound up fourth.

"That long, green-flag run, we were really fast," Burton said. "We were mowing them down, big-time.

"I wish those last two cautions would have never come out. We would have had a great chance, I think. But all in all, it was a good day."