FORT WORTH, Texas -- It's not easy to get a consensus of Sprint Cup drivers, but they do agree on one thing: the new car is a handful, especially on intermediate tracks. But whether that's a positive or negative is still up for debate.

The top three finishers in Sunday's Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway -- Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch -- combined to run all but one lap in the top 15, showing that clean air is more important than ever when dealing with "aero push" conditions that appear to become more pronounced when running in traffic.

But each had a markedly different opinion of what should be done to alleviate the situation.

“

It's not supposed to be easy for everyone. I'm tired of hearing people complain, the media make up stories about how terrible it is and stuff. This is auto racing.

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CARL EDWARDS

Johnson was never a factor at the two previous races on tracks similar to Texas, winding up 29th at Las Vegas and a deceiving 13th at Atlanta -- when he used a pair of free passes to stay on the lead lap. But on Sunday, he led five times for 65 laps and ran no worse than sixth.

"I was really shocked [Sunday] at how bad the cars drove in traffic," Johnson said. "It was really unfortunate, you would catch people and the guy in front of you would run your pace.

"I really think we need to look at some changes to help these cars not be so aero-dependent. They are safer, they are doing a lot of things the right way, but we really need to look at making some changes so these cars can have a little more downforce."

Johnson said there's only one question that needs to be answered.

"Did you enjoy the race? That's the ultimate judge of it," Johnson said. "We're all afraid to run side-by-side and you can only get so close to the guy in front of you and we just sit there in a safe spot and ride because you can't go anywhere."

Busch, who led twice for 50 laps, predicted that Sunday's race would feature a lot of "follow the leader" racing. Despite a pair of late-race cautions, he was unable to make his car work well enough to chase down Edwards and Johnson.

"There at the end, it was just survival," Busch said. "It was about holding off those guys behind us. It wasn't going to be to 'move forward' at all because we were so tight. If we had a different racecar, probably I would've tried a little bit harder, but it wasn't worth it [Sunday]."

When asked if he thought he had a good race, Busch was succinct in his response.

"We didn't wreck, so that's OK," he said. "We battled our car all day long, and couldn't really ever get it right. Was it fun to drive? No. Was it hard to drive? Yes. Did it survive the day? Yes. So was it a good day? Sure."

On the other hand, Edwards finds the constant complaining about the handling of the new car a little hard to take. Of course, he hasn't dealt with aero issues that much, since he's been dominant in each of the three intermediate-track races this season. He led a race-high 123 laps on Sunday, including the final six.

And in his post-race victory news conference, Edwards was quick to make his feelings known.

"I've heard people say that the races are boring, and people always want something to complain about: if it's too hard to drive, you don't get enough side-by-side racing," Edwards said. "The fact is that these are the 43 best drivers in the world. The cars have 900 horsepower and go 200 miles an hour, and the track is slippery and the tires are slippery, and that's a spectacle -- and that's what it's supposed to be."

Yes, the new car is a challenge, Edwards said, but that's part of being a Sprint Cup driver.

"It's not supposed to be easy for everyone," he continued. "It's not supposed to be driving down the interstate. I'm tired of hearing people complain, the media make up stories about how terrible it is and stuff. This is auto racing.

"There are going to be people that are faster. We're going to have days when we can't keep up because the car is too hard to drive. Somebody's going to win. That's racing."