Hold the phone. Was that actual praise for the way the new Sprint Cup Series car races that we heard in the aftermath of Sunday's Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway?

The car everyone once seemed to love to rip is catching more and more love these days from the guys driving it.

That isn't to say it's perfect or not still somewhat a serious work in progress in many Cup shops. But after garnering kudos for its improved safety features earlier in the season following bad accidents involving first Jeff Gordon during the race at Las Vegas and later rookie Michael McDowell during qualifying at Texas, many of Sunday's post-race comments seemed to be about how much, well, fun it was to drive the car.

"I enjoyed it [Sunday]. This car drafts well," said Brian Vickers, who drove his No. 83 Toyota to a fifth-place finish. "There are some new features to it, as to how we can draft with it versus the old car, that make it pretty fun."

Denny Hamlin, who finished third in his No. 11 Toyota, was even more emphatic in his praise for the new car -- with his only misstep being that he called it by its old name (NASCAR frowns on that; although most people couldn't care less what it's called as long as it contributes to entertaining, competitive races).

"I think NASCAR has come with a great package. I couldn't be happier with this Car of Tomorrow," Hamlin said.

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The package of this racecar that NASCAR has given us is great for racing. You can run into each other even in the corner and still have relatively good control of the car. That's all we can ask for as racers.

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DENNY HAMLIN

Time is today
Not everyone was smiling about the new car after Talladega. But then, most Sundays the only guys left smiling at the end are the ones standing on pit road, talking with reporters because they were stopped there after good runs.

Winner Kyle Busch was cautious in his assessment of the new car's suddenly improving image in the drivability department. Which is funny, because this is the same guy who said the car "sucked" after winning the very first event in which the new car was used in spring of 2007 at Bristol.

He may not care much for how it drives, but should he? He's driving it better than just about everybody else right now.

"I wouldn't say it's great," Busch said. "When the cars get side-by-side, they get stuck. So it takes a lot more help and a lot more bump-drafting to get through people and to get more racing going on.

"I don't know if it's because they punch a big hole in the air or what -- but you know when you pull out on someone, you just stall. ... It's just a product of the way this car is, so everybody has to learn what to do and how to race it and how to use it to their advantage."

Bingo. That has been true all along.

The new car is different. It is not the old car. That is why it is called the new car -- or was called, you know, the thing that Hamlin called it earlier.

But guys are learning how to race with it. And yes, Talladega is different, too. It always has been and always will be, so the fact that the car was racier there in a restrictor-plate event doesn't mean it necessarily will be everywhere else overnight.

The fact is, though, that these guys are learning what they can and can't do with it. And that by itself should produce better racing with the new car at virtually every track they go to -- especially once they have been to each track a couple of times with it to learn what works at a particular place and what doesn't.

Bump and grind
Even as he withheld affection for the new car, Busch couldn't help but wonder how it was that he pulled off the save of the day -- along with Jamie McMurray -- when the two got together and banged into each other's side-doors coming out of the tri-oval and into the frontstrech on Lap 170 of the 188-lap event Sunday.

"I didn't know what was happening," Busch said. "All I remember was I got knocked out of line first to begin with, and then I looked up in my mirror to see who I had behind me. I think it was Juan [Montoya], a couple car-lengths back, and I don't know if McMurray was looking at his car and trying to get in front of the 42 or what, but we made contact and I thought I was going out of the park.

"I thought I was getting hooked in the right-rear and going right up on the fence. Luckily, somehow we got off each other and we kept it straight. ... So that was cool."

It was cool, indeed. And in the old car, he would have been unable to save it and it would have triggered about a 12-car pileup.

Hamlin said he couldn't believe how much bumping and grinding the car was able to take Sunday, even through the corners that include 33-degree banking at intimidating Talladega.

"It was really, really fun from our standpoint," Hamlin said. "You could make contact with someone, and it would be stable. And that's what we like. They always talk about bumping in the turns, and [Sunday] we were able to bump in the turns with relatively few incidents.

"I think this package is right where it needs to be. The package of this racecar that NASCAR has given us is great for racing. You can run into each other. The cars are durable. You can run into each other even in the corner and still have relatively good control of the car. That's all we can ask for as racers."

Well, that and improved safety. Despite driver complaints earlier in the season about this car's drivability and even earlier in the weekend about how hard it is to see what's happening in other cars in front or in the rear, this car is doing its job.

Now it's up to the rest of the drivers and crew chiefs and engineers to quit complaining and do theirs. If Hamlin and others can get their cars to where they're driving them well and even perhaps having some fun doing it, others should be able to do the same.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.