updated 8:12 p.m. ET Oct. 6, 2004

TALLADEGA, Ala. - Crashing spectacularly on the front straightaway at Talladega Superspeedway is one habit Elliott Sadler would like to drop.

A year ago, Sadler walked away without injury from a wild, barrel-rolling crash. He did it again in Sunday’s EA Sports 500, this time sliding backward through the grass and flipping once before sliding across the finish line on his wheels on the last lap.

“Everything did its job again and it wasn’t half as bad as last year,” Sadler said after the mandatory checkup at the infield hospital. “It was just a few tumbles and everything was fine. Last year it just kept flipping and flipping and flipping. I don’t think I got as high this time as last time.

“I couldn’t get as much lift off the grass as I could off the asphalt, so I’ll work on that next time,” he joked.

Sadler finished 22nd and dropped from sixth to eighth in NASCAR’s new 10-man, 10-race Chase for the Nextel Cup championship showdown. That was disappointing for Sadler, although he had battery and overheating problems during the race.

“I think if I hadn’t flipped or wrecked we might have been 11th or 12th, so that’s tough,” he said. “That put us in a big hole for the championship.”

LOSING GROUND
Jeff Gordon was running in the top five and looked like a definite threat to win his third straight restrictor plate race before failing to pit with the rest of the leaders late in the race.

Gordon said rookie Scott Wimmer was close behind him when the other leaders suddenly turned toward pit road and Gordon couldn’t get slowed down soon enough. He pitted the next time around, but lost valuable track position and wound up finishing 19th and falling from the points lead to third, 61 points behind race winner and new leader Dale Earnhardt Jr.

“That’s why you love and you hate this place because it can give you a great day like it did Junior, or you can be back here and the next thing you know you can be in a wreck with five to go in the back of the pack. It was unfortunate for us,” Gordon said.

“We had a great car. We knew we were in trouble when those guys came to pit under green. I waved at the No. 22 (Wimmer) and he just had no idea that all these cars were going to pit. If I would have put on the brakes, he would have run right in the back of me. So that messed up the rest of our day.”

BUMPING AND BANGING
Matt Kenseth is one of the many drivers who doesn’t like the type of racing produced at Talladega, where NASCAR requires the use of horsepower-sapping carburetor restrictor plates to keep the cars under 200 mph. That bunches up the field into huge drafting packs that can be very dangerous.

“I was back in there three-wide and getting hit and hitting people,” the defending Cup champion said. “Everybody was bouncing off of everybody. It’s kind of stupid, really. I know it’s fun to watch, but it’s kind of a bad situation you’re sitting in.

“We’re going 185 miles an hour and being pinballs like that.”

Kenseth finished a quiet 14th on Sunday and is now fifth in the standings, trailing Earnhardt by 150 points with seven races to go.

YOU’VE BEEN WARNED
Talladega Superspeedway officials, hoping to avoid a repeat of the beer and garbage barrage that flew out of the stands in April when NASCAR placed Jeff Gordon ahead of crowd favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. during a race-ending caution, issued a series of severe warnings Sunday.

Before and during the race, the crowd was warned that anyone throwing any objects onto the track would be “prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Each time the announcement was made, it was greeted by a chorus of boos. But, with Earnhardt winning the race this time, there were only cheers at the end.

NO PROTEST
After canceling a scheduled protest because of safety concerns, the director of the National Association for Minority Race Fans made a brief appearance Sunday morning outside Talladega Superspeedway.

Jirard Brown said the main thrust of the new organization is “our desire to force NASCAR to create a safer race for all races.

“We regret not being able to stage our formal protest here today,” added Brown as he stood on the lawn of the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, adjacent to the speedway where more than 150,000 spectators were streaming in for the race.

He said the seven-acre site a half-mile from the main gate that was offered to the group for its protest was “not acceptable” and added, “Police officials could not guarantee our safety while protesting in smaller groups. Our main concern is safety.”

“They asked us for protection and did not really give us any indication of who they wanted protection from,” said Major Patrick Manning of the Alabama State Patrol.

Brown introduced Shawn Griffith, who said he is producing a documentary film that will detail racism and ill treatment of minorities, including women, in NASCAR’s infields.

“Over the last three years, we’ve been documenting the life and times of NASCAR fans,” Griffith said. “I think the results are shocking, as a matter of fact, provocative to say the least.”

NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said the stock car sanctioning organization takes the safety of its fans seriously, adding, “It is only logical to make sure that you have these safe and secure environments for all our tracks.”

Neither Brown nor Griffith would answer questions, referring reporters to the NAMRF Web site which they said would be opened to the public on Wednesday.

The group has previously talked with officials in Georgia about a possible protest at the Nextel Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Oct. 31.