Martin, Johnson recall 2002 incident

TALLADEGA - Mark Martin and Jimmie Johnson have been here before.

Persistent rain at Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday morning forced NASCAR to use its points standings to set the field for today's AMP Energy 500 putting the Hendrick Racing teammates, who sit first and second in Cup points, on the front row.

But Martin and Johnson were here before in 2002, and the memory isn't pleasant for either driver.

"Jimmie reminded me," Martin said with a laugh. "I'm still embarrassed about that."

So what happened? In the fall race here that season, the pair started on the front row, and both drivers saw their day ruined before it began thanks to a freak failure in Martin's steering box.

Before the green flag, Martin was violently sawing the wheel of his car back and forth to scrub debris off his tires. Unfortunately for Martin, his steering wheel froze with his wheels cut sharply to the left, sending him down into Johnson's car. The damage doomed Martin to a 30th-place finish, while Johnson came home 37th.

"It looked really crazy, but I almost hit the inside wall down here before I finally released the pressure and I still don't know," Martin said.

Johnson also is at a loss on the incident. "I remember thinking 'What the hell just happened?' " Johnson said. "Initially I saw him coming at me and we made contact, and with it being Mark, it's just impossible that it would be intentional or that he had made a mistake like that. It certainly hurt us and kept us from being on the lead lap in that race."

Martin had the last word on the matter. "Why don't we look forward here instead of back? Not my proudest weekend."

Gordon hopes feud with Montoya is over

Championship contenders Jeff Gordon and Juan Pablo Montoya were involved in an extended period of close, hard racing last Sunday at Martinsville, Va. Montoya made contact with Gordon's bumper repeatedly early in the event, and appeared to drive his No. 42 Target Chevy wide into the side of Gordon's car as he passed the four-time Cup champ."

Both drivers would come away with top 5 finishes - Montoya was third and Gordon was fifth - but after the race, Gordon seemed a little puzzled by Montoya's aggression and he remains hopeful the dust-up is behind them.

"I certainly hope so," Gordon said. "We didn't really speak. I just said that I hope whatever it was that did to make him mad was over and left it at that. That's all you can do."

New ride for Sadler

Elliott Sadler will be behind the wheel of a Ford today for Richard Petty Motorsports, as the four-car team will switch from struggling Dodge to the blue oval full-time in 2010 following a merger between the Petty-owned team and Yates Racing to be completed later this year.

The No. 19 Stanley Tools Ford was 34th in both of Friday's practice sessions with a best lap of 189.831 mph, more than six mph slower than the best lap of the day, ironically turned by Sadler's RPM teammate Kasey Kahne, who is still driving a Dodge.

The rain will force Sadler to start 26th today alongside teammate A.J. Allmendinger, but the veteran feels better after Friday's track time, even without a qualifying attempt.

"We learned a lot in practice yesterday, which, (Saturday) being three qualifying laps and what can you really learn from that?" Sadler said. "We learned a lot of stuff yesterday, and I think our guys learned a lot about the Ford Fusion and how you work on it and the adjustments we can make to it."

Sadler knows Ford and Yates Racing well. He earned his first Cup win behind the wheel of the legendary No. 21 Ford of Yates Racing at Bristol in 2001, and he drove the No. 38 Ford for Yates Racing from 2003-06 before leaving in August, 2006 to drive the No. 19.

"It's great, because it's like Doug (Yates) and I never left each other," Sadler said of the reunion with his former owner and engine builder, who will stay on with the team in 2010 in the engine department. "As soon as I called him, we went right into talking about what we needed to do when we came down here and what the objective was and what the goal was."

Rainy day blues

Rain on race day can be boring for everyone, but at least fans can leave or change the channel. Drivers, however, are pretty-much stuck. Jimmie Johnson said he was 'eating breakfast in his pjs' when he learned at 10:25 a.m. that he would start from the pole today thanks to a pesky drizzle that refused to subside. The pole is the fourth for Johnson in 2009, and it marks the sixth time rain has washed out qualifying for a Cup event.

The three-time defending Cup champ says rain makes for a dull day, especially at impound events, where teams have limited access to their cars after qualifying. Following a two-lap qualifying run, a NASCAR official escorts each car to the garage area, and only two crew members are allowed to work on the car at a time. Only a limited number of pre-approved repairs and adjustments are allowed after qualifying.

"Normally, on non-impound weekends, there is plenty to do at the track," Johnson said. "We can go over data with the crew, but with impound events, you are kind of stuck."

The rain actually gave Johnson a rare day off in the midst of his quest for an unprecedented fourth consecutive Cup championship. "I guess I will watch college football and eat too much," Johnson said of his Saturday plans. "I might work out if I get really motivated. Is there a gym nearby?"

Heading home

There were 43 spots open in today's Amp Energy 500 for 44 cars, but Tony Raines' No. 37 Long John Silver's Dodge took the suspense out of things early Saturday morning. The team inexplicably packed up and went home before qualifying for today's event was called off. That decision meant that those required to qualify on speed - Regan Smith, spring race winner Brad Keselowski, former Cup champ Bobby Labonte, rookies Scott Speed, Joe Nemechek, Robert Richardson Jr., and Max Papis as well as journeymen Joe Nemechek and Dave Blaney were assured of starting today's race. This will be Richardson's season debut in Tommy Baldwin Motorsports' No. 36 Toyota.

The cold and rainy conditions at the second Cup weekend were a far cry from the brutal heat that used to greet fans every July. Long-time NASCAR fans who remember scorching heat at the World's Fastest Speedway also might never have believed that a race would be held at Talladega on Halloween weekend.

At least one driver was in the Halloween spirit Saturday, as Carl Edwards hammed it up with Subway spokesperson Jared Fogle - aka, the guy who lost more than

240 lbs. eating Subway sandwiches. The buff Edwards, who recently posed bare-chested for ESPN the Magazine's Body Issue, wore a

rubber bodysuit, wig and glasses to a promotional news conference and introduced himself as 'pre-diet Jared,' while Fogle was wearing a fake muscle suit and claimed to be 'Carl.'

Edwards' No. 99 Ford will carry the Subway colors in today's race as he starts 10th.