Jeff Gordon Talks Expectations: New Spoilers and New Son

Drivers were consistently topping 200 mph Tuesday during NASCAR's first major test of the new spoiler at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. Twice during the afternoon drafting session, NASCAR called the cars back into the garage to switch to a smaller restrictor plate and slow the cars down.

Four-time champ Jeff Gordon -- second fastest in the morning session behind his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson -- was encouraged by the performance of his No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet and the driveability of the cars.

Good news. But Gordon also shared what he considers even better news.

He and his pregnant wife Ingrid found out during last week's bye-week that they will be having a baby boy this August to join 2-year old big sis, Ella.

"I can tell you last week I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about this test. ... Luckily I had a team that was thinking about it before then,'' Gordon conceded with a laugh during a lunch break at Talladega.

"My week was about waking up at 6:30 in the morning with Ella and spending days with her and Ingrid and just having a great family week until I got on the plane this morning to come here,'' Gordon said.

"There's no doubt we were rooting for a boy. We wanted two [children] and we wanted both, so the ultimate to us was a boy and a girl. But the most important thing is just a healthy baby.''

That established, Gordon -- admittedly not a big fan of the winged COT (Car of Tomorrow) -- said he's taking a similarly pragmatic approach to this week's test and the return of the rear spoiler.

"It's definitely been productive, but nothing eye-opening,'' Gordon said. "There's more turbulent air, no big surprise.''

Twenty-six cars -- more than half a race field -- are participating in the Tuesday-Wednesday test to give NASCAR a better chance to evaluate the impending switch from the rear wing back to the more traditional spoiler.

NASCAR is also experimenting with different-sized restrictor plates. In mostly single-car runs during the morning test, Johnson and Gordon topped 196 mph, faster than last season's race speeds by a full mph.

When the cars return to race here on April 25, they are expected to run with a larger plate than used in years past. And that increase in horsepower was immediately evident when the field started running in the draft Tuesday afternoon -- and exceeding 200 mph.

But Gordon thinks overall, the changes NASCAR is making to the cars will be less evident at Talladega because, "I think the races are pretty darn good here, it's hard to make them better.''

"You're still going to have strategies of wanting to be in the front versus wanting to hang in the back and you're still going to see big pile-ups, bump-drafting and a lot of passes,'' Gordon said.

He, like most of the drivers and crew chiefs participating this week, expects the real tests of the new spoiler to come later this month during another multi-team test at the 1.5-mile Charlotte Motor Speedway and ultimately when it's introduced during a race. NASCAR still hasn't announced when that will be.

Probably the most notable thing about the spoiler from Gordon's initial perspective was what he called a "bit of visual.'' When lined up directly behind another car, it was harder to see around that car because the corners of the spoiler sit higher on the rear deck and are more prominent in the line of sight.

That along with the loosening of strict bump-drafting regulations and faster speeds should produce what Gordon calls the same sort of "wild and crazy" action we've come to expect at the 2.66-mile oval, the sport's biggest track.

"It's hard to have a bad race at Talladega, in my opinion,'' Gordon said.