by Darrell Waltrip

Updated: October 8, 2007, 11:54 PM EST 208 comments

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Some of you are saying, "DW, the racing wasn't very good." Well, the start was great, and you couldn't ask for a more exciting finish. When you bunch them up with four or five laps to go and drop the green flag at Talladega, it's going to get intense and exciting.

In between, there were points when drivers just lined up and ran the high or low line for a while. They hit a part of the race when they're just logging laps, putting miles in the book and waiting for a caution to tighten up everything. Remember a few years ago when the No. 8 got to the front and was the pied piper? It was almost like a sign on his back bumper read, "Follow me."

That's kind of the way Sunday's Cup race went. It looked like everybody said, "OK, he's fast." And he was, really fast. When Dale Jr. went to the top, they all followed him. Certainly, the clock starts ticking, and the intensity increases.

It looked like Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch were going to hold everybody at bay. All they talked about on TV was how strong the Dodges were and how great the Ganassi Penske cars were. Newman did end up with a top five, and Busch finished seventh, which were great showings for them. Reed Sorenson finished 10th, but his car was found to be too low in postrace inspection. So the Dodges did run better than normal.

But when the day was all said and done, you had two Chevrolets at the front of the field with Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson finishing first and second. Dave Blaney slid in with a third-place finish. If I'm looking at Toyota — particularly next year's Joe Gibbs Racing lineup of Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch — I'd be pretty excited about Toyota's chances in 2008 because the Camry looked really stout the whole weekend.

And, oh by the way, how about old Mikey on the pole? That was another reason why Talladega was entertaining. How many weekends have the go-or-go-homers had the disadvantage of the draw and just didn't get a good lap? On Saturday, the first 11 drivers and 13 of the top 15 qualifiers were go-or-go-homers. It was wild and appropriate to give those guys their day in the sun. They have to struggle around at the back and hold their breath if they're going to make races.

On pole day, drivers like John Andretti and Joe Nemechek were up there. People that have really struggled this year had a shot at getting a little limelight for a change. It was awesome, and it wouldn't have happened if it wasn't an impound race. But all three Michael Waltrip Racing cars raced as well as they qualified before they all had trouble. I didn't see them make any wholesale changes on their cars like I saw No. 27 crew chief "Slugger" Labbe do to Jacques Villeneuve's car.

The former F1 champ handled himself pretty darn well. He listened to the critics and some of us that were worried about him being in his first Cup race in the Car of Tomorrow at Talladega with the Chase going on. Even though he qualified sixth, he elected to start at the back. Now, that's a smart race car driver. He got back there and stayed out of trouble.

When he got the chance, "Slugger" brought the car in, made a bunch of adjustments on it, put him in race trim and got a top-21 finish. Sure, he was the last car on the lead lap, and a lot happened to create that finish. But the record books are going to show that he finished 21st in his first Cup race at Talladega in the Car of Tomorrow. Well done, Jacques.

I watched the Craftsman Truck race on Saturday. Wow! That was exciting. It was a great finish with pole-sitter Todd Bodine just squeaking out a win. It was pretty cool and typical Talladega. The start/finish line is down at the first turn, and you never know who's going to win until you get way down there. Bodine was able to hold on and pull off that one. It was a pretty entertaining race.

Overall, I didn't see where it was a different Talladega weekend. There were points in the Cup race when the drivers just rode around, which we've always done. Then, they had the "Big One," and you can't go to Talladega and not have the "Big One." All in all, it lived up to its billing. It wasn't as wild and crazy as some had predicted, but I thought it was just a typical Talladega.

It was really unfortunate that the Childress DEI engine package had the troubles they did. There are some big concerns there. That's Dale Jr.'s sixth engine failure this year, which is just unbelievable in this day and age in Cup racing. Those problems really ruined his whole year. Now, his crew chief and cousin, Tony Eury Jr., will start working at Hendrick Motorsports. Tony Gibson, who did a good job filling in during Tony Jr.'s suspension earlier this year, will become the crew chief in the last six races. Junebug's on-track performance won't fall off if they can just get their engine problems solved.

The wing car continues to amaze me when drivers like Greg Biffle get knocked sideways off of Turn 4, running 195 mph. He did a 90-degree turn and headed toward the infield. That big old wing and those end plates straightened up the car. He caught it, kept on going and didn't hit a thing. When the COT gets out of shape, it seems like it's impossible to spin it out. If you have a tire failure or something on the car fails — as seemed to happen to Bobby Labonte — the wing isn't going to save you. But if you get sideways like Biffle did, that big old wing can save you.

The new car seems to be pretty durable. Kyle Petty took a hard driver's side impact. He got out of the car and was fine then they interviewed him, thanks to SAFER Barriers, big seats, HANS Devices, foam in the doors and the added safety features in the Car of Tomorrow. I waited for a track like Talladega, where the COT would go fast. It took a couple of hard crashes, and the guys walked away. The car put on a decent show. Other than just needing a tweak to give the guys a few more options to work on the chassis and get the car to handle a little bit better, I was impressed with the way the thing did this weekend.

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Jeff Gordon led one lap and won the race. It reminds me of a couple of times when Dale Jarrett didn't even lead a whole lap. He just beat his competitor back to the timing line. Making the right moves late in the race can get you up front and beat somebody down to the start/finish line in Turn 1 for the win. That's what Jeff did on Sunday.

I don't like to be the one that says "I told you so," but I wrote last week that this was Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson's championship. One of the two will win it. It's going to be a two-man battle. I've been doing this a long time, and I'm not bragging. I'm just stating the facts. The championship always comes down to two or three guys at the most. Clint Bowyer is hanging in there. He can't afford to get any further behind. Everybody else has pretty much dug themselves a pretty deep hole to get out of when they've got to beat Gordon and Johnson.

Charlotte is going to be another exciting race, but I'm putting my money on Johnson. Jeff hasn't had that great of luck there. These guys that are far behind in Chase points, like Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr., Matt Kenseth and Jeff Burton better have a great weekend in Charlotte. If they don't, they can forget the championship this year, which they pretty much can forget now anyway.

Oh, by the way, too

I got a lot of e-mails from folks — some agreed and some disagreed — on Carl Edwards' penalty at Dover. One person wrote if Carl's car was the only one that was low, why would I not expect NASCAR to penalize him? Well, the problem I have is they didn't check all of the cars. Where they finish determines whether they check you or not.

If you're going to check one Chase driver, you should check all 12 of them. If they pulled all 12 Chase cars in there, and 11 of them were legal, then I would say that Carl deserves a penalty for being low. But under the circumstances, I'm still convinced that was a harsh penalty for the No. 99 car's infraction.

As far as Kansas City goes, I got a lot of e-mails about whether I thought they should have restarted the race or if the ending was right. It reminds me of something that a good friend of mine told me once. "When something is done right for the wrong reasons, it always ends in disaster." If you just ponder that a little bit, you'll put some reasoning behind it.