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Jeff Gordon on Friday admitted he was one of the Sprint Cup drivers who approached NASCAR officials last weekend and urged them to prohibit bump-drafting in the corners at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. "I was one of them," Gordon said at Texas Motor Speedway. "Bump-drafting through the corners is ridiculous. I don't think that had anything to do with the race you saw last week."

Charlotte Observer

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Nearly a week removed from his harrowing wreck at Talladega, Ryan Newman insists he wants to be part of the solution to preventing cars from getting airborne in NASCAR races. Newman's car flipped in a wreck late in last Sunday's race at Alabama's Talladega Superspeedway and he spent 12 minutes upside down before he was extricated from the car. "From an aerodynamic standpoint, ultimately our biggest thing is to keep the race cars on the ground," Newman said.

Charlotte Observer

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NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston, in a blog posting on nascar.com, specifically knocked ESPN/ABC's coverage of Sunday's Sprint Cup race in Talladega, Ala. At issue: Whether the race was boring. Usually, TV sports analysts go to great pains to avoid even hinting what they're showing is boring. But Poston suggested ESPN/ABC analysts, including Dale Jarrett, "certainly weren't happy with the race and felt compelled to remind viewers of that virtually every lap. ... And along the way, ABC missed a lot of very good racing."

USA Today

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Danica Patrick is nearing completion of a two-year contract with JR Motorsports, the NASCAR Nationwide Series operation owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr., and a source close to the negotiations described them as "in the final phase." The partnership is expected to make its on-track debut during next February's Daytona Speedweeks.

Jayski

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Teams have predicted that the unemployment lines following the season finale at Homestead will exceed the numbers we witnessed following 2008. Under NASCAR's four-car rule, Roush Fenway Racing loses one team under its roof and another across the street at Yates Racing. While employees have been told there will be movement in the ranks with the potential of a Richard Petty Motorsports/Yates merger, in either case a minimum of two teams will dissolve -- the No. 26 and the No. 44. The No. 96 Hall of Fame Racing team will no longer use the services of Yates Racing in 2010. However, the No. 98 team could remain under the Yates banner -- and not RPM -- in order to keep Paul Menard in the fold. Regardless, the four teams (98, 9, 19 and 43) are expected to operate under one roof.

FOX Sports

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