TALLADEGA, Ala. -- In the drivers' meeting prior to Sunday's event at Talladega Superspeedway, Jeff Gordon didn't hear the message he wanted to hear from NASCAR warning competitors against aggressive bump-drafting on the sport's biggest track. So the four-time series champion took it upon himself to speak up.

Gordon used the open question-and-answer portion of the meeting to tell NASCAR that, in his opinion, it was up to the sanctioning body to police aggressive drivers. "I don't believe there is a fine line," he said. That drew a response from series president Mike Helton, who countered that NASCAR couldn't keep its eyes on 43 cars at one time, and that the onus was on competitors as much as officials.

Gordon's concerns stemmed from Saturday's Busch race, in which he thought aggressive driving at times got out of control. Whether it was the multiple crashes that marred that event, or the exchange between Gordon and Helton on Sunday morning, the 43 drivers competing in the Aaron's 499 raced each other about as cleanly as they ever have on the sprawling 2.66-mile Talladega track.

Yes, there were accidents, a few of them multi-car pileups typical of restrictor-plate tracks. Yes, there was bump-drafting -- Gordon used such a push from Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson to win. But the aggressive "slam-drafting," which got so bad last season that NASCAR placed more officials around the racetrack to monitor it and barred the practice in the corners, was noticeably and welcomingly absent.

"I think NASCAR should be pleased with the drivers' attitudes, demeanors and the way they handled themselves on the track," said third-place finisher Kurt Busch. "To see that many quality cars at the end of the race, that's something we haven't seen at Talladega in years. I believe everybody did what they needed to."

Gordon, who on Sunday won his 77th career race to break a tie with the late Dale Earnhardt and claim sole possession of sixth place on NASCAR's all-time list, grew concerned about bump-drafting while watching Saturday's wreck-filled Busch event. He said he wasn't trying to speak for all the drivers, and he wasn't trying to prove a point to Tony Stewart, who earned a tongue-lashing this week for venting concerns about debris cautions not to NASCAR, but to listeners of his satellite radio program. Rather, Gordon spoke up when he felt the issue wasn't being fully addressed by NASCAR officials.

"I was waiting for them to address what we all saw in the Busch race, which was out of control, and I didn't hear it addressed. It was kind of a spur of the moment thing. I didn't have a chance this weekend to go up and talk to them. After I watched the Busch race, I wanted to go see them before the driver's meeting. I didn't get a chance to. I don't know, something sparked inside me, and I just had to say something," he said.

"You look at the Busch race [Saturday], you just had guys slamming into one another through the corners and just doing silly things. Getting a run from 10 car lengths back and carrying momentum and never checking up and running into the back of a guy and turning him into the wall. I think my point was, even though I knew it wasn't going to stop bump-drafting all together, it would just make guys and NASCAR think about it. If they see somebody being aggressive, to get on top of it right away."

Lap-by-Lap

Jeff Gordon passed Dale Earnhardt on the all-time wins list but it wasn't easy in a race that saw 42 lead changes.

• Complete story, click here

Gordon's comments just might have made a difference. Sunday's race often featured drivers on their best behavior, with long green-flag stretches and only two accidents involving more than two cars. There was a mini-Big One on Lap 131 when Tony Raines and Ricky Rudd found themselves squeezed in tight traffic, and the typical pileup near the end. Other than that, it was relatively clean. Coincidence?

"I don't know if that made a difference or not, but I will have to say, [Sunday] was one of the best days. Yeah, they were bump-drafting, but they weren't doing it in a way that was out of control. Yeah, there were still crashes, but once you get to the end of the race, all that's off. It's going to get crazy. But let's at least wait until we get to the end, if we're going to do it at all," Gordon said.

"It's going to be an ongoing battle that we're going to have as drivers, as competitors and with NASCAR as to how we manage that. You want them to make the call and force us into a box, but then you don't want them to make a judgment call. You want to be able to police it as a driver, but at the same time, your mind isn't capable of doing that on the racetrack. Your mind's definitely not thinking rational."

The entire episode was somewhat out of character for Gordon, who despite his stature as NASCAR's most successful active driver has shied away from becoming the voice of the garage. No driver has truly embraced that position since Earnhardt, who knew his opinions carried a tremendous amount of weight both with his peers and series officials, and wasn't shy about using it to try and influence policy.

That's not Gordon's style. But Sunday's drivers' meeting, and the race that followed, may have offered evidence of just how much clout the four-time champion really has in the garage.

"I know that Jeff doesn't want to be Dale. He wants to be himself and do things his own way. I know he doesn't want to be in this position to be the voice of the drivers, but he almost has the responsibility that's developing for him, and he has the right approach on how to handle NASCAR and how to handle divers and how to present things the right way," Johnson said.

"I feel if many other drivers would have spoken up and said what Jeff did in the drivers' meeting, it would have come off wrong and people would have laughed. It wouldn't have come off the same way. But Jeff is at that spot in his career, and he's so well spoken, and comes from a fair place when he's speaking about those things, that people are listening. I think that role is developing for him whether he wants it or not."