The Car of Tomorrow met the track of today at Dover International Speedway on Sunday, and the result was every bit as calamitous as the putting the bull in the proverbial china shop.

Dover was already known as a tight track with very narrow turns and a hazardous pit road. Add four inches to the width of each race car, as NASCAR did with the COT, and tight and narrow becomes simply treacherous.

Sunday's race was marred by 13 caution flags, only three of which were for debris, as well as two extended red flag periods for track clean up. There was even a Talladega-style "Big One" that adversely affected 12 drivers, including four title contenders.

In fact, only one driver involved the Chase maintained his position in the point standings by day's end. The other 11 shifted places either up or down depending on how they faired, with the overall result a tightening of the points race among the top six spots. While the gap between first and sixth was 40 points after Loudon, it has shrunk to just 18 points after Dover.

The race started off under bright blue skies with Jimmie Johnson on the pole and Juan Pablo Montoya in P2. Johnson led just one lap before a hard-charging Denny Hamlin, winner of Saturday's Busch race despite battling the flu, slid under him for the lead. In a bit of foreshadowing, the first caution came out early - lap 12 to be exact - when David Gilliland put Johnny Sauter in the wall exiting Turn 4.

Many drivers complained of loose conditions throughout the race, but as has become common in COT events, the cars would not roll through the corners the way drivers wish they would. Hamlin held on to the early lead until being passed by Matt Kenseth on lap 43. The two swapped the lead several times and appeared to be the drivers to beat in the early going.

Kenseth went on to lead a race-high 192 laps, but dropped a cylinder and eventually lost the engine for his third DNF this year, finishing in 35th place. Hamlin, meanwhile, got into the back of Kyle Petty on lap 204 and both cars ended up in the garage. In a strange turn of events, Kyle confronted Denny in the garage while Hamlin was still strapped in his seat, with Petty pulling down Hamlin's window net and slapping the visor of Denny's helmet. An outraged Hamlin leapt out of his car to go after Petty, but was restrained by his team and a NASCAR official. The two finished the race just two spots apart, with Hamlin in 38th and Petty in 40th.

Carl Edwards, the eventual winner, struggled early with a throttle issue, but came on strong in the latter third of the race, leading 95 laps and giving team owner Jack Roush his 100th career Cup win. But hold all tickets - Edwards' No. 99 car failed post-race tech with a too-low right rear measurement despite two attempts to get through inspection. NASCAR officials were quick to point out that the infraction was not a structural alternation involving the Car of Tomorrow body - which would presumably require a mandatory 100-point deduction. But the transgression still merits a penalty of some type later this week that could possibly involve a loss of points.

The worst wreck of the day occurred with just 14 laps to go, bearing out the old adage that cautions breed cautions. Following a series of five successive yellow flags between laps 355 and 381, the big lap-386 wreck was touched off when Kurt Busch, whose crew had been adjusting on the car all day, slammed the wall and came back down the track in the direct path of oncoming traffic. With nowhere else to go, cars started piling up and eventually 12 drivers had damage, including Reed Sorenson, Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne, Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch, Jeff Green, Scott Riggs, Jimmie Johnson, J.J. Yeley, Elliott Sadler, Bobby Labonte, and of course Busch himself. The biggest upward movers in the Chase picture were Carl Edwards, climbing five spots from eighth to third, and Jeff Burton, who overcame miserable handling and a 36th-place starting spot to finish 7th and move from 11th to 8th in the points. On the flip side, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, and Denny Hamlin each fell three spots with their various problems to 4th, 10th, and 12th respectively.

Although Jeff Gordon is now in sole possession of first place, he is closely trailed by Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards, and Jimmie Johnson, each separated by just one point. It is only another six points back to Kyle Busch in fifth and then eight more back to Clint Bowyer in sixth. The margin of 158 points from first-place Gordon to 12th-place Hamlin keeps all 12 Chase contenders within the 161-point total that a driver can earn in a single race.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s third-place finish at Dover keeps him in 13th overall - the highest possible ranking for a driver outside the Chase. Junior is now 130 points ahead of Ryan Newman in 12th and 220 ahead of Greg Biffle in 13th.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of Dover was the overall performance of the Roush-Fenway cars, which struggled earlier this season in Car of Tomorrow races. Roush had three cars in the top 10 Sunday, including race winner Carl Edwards and second-place Greg Biffle with his best finish of the entire season. Jamie McMurray overcame problems mid race to finish eighth, and Matt Kenseth had the dominant car until his engine failed. David Ragan, the Roush rookie, finished 25th. There were six Chevys, three Fords, and one Dodge in the top 10, with Juan Pablo Montoya the highest finishing rookie in 10th place. Michael Waltrip had a surprisingly strong performance, climbing from a 43rd-place start to a 15th-place finish for the best Toyota run of the day.

Next week it's on to Kansas, a 1-1/2 miler that the circuit visits just once a year. Tony Stewart won here a year ago despite leading only five laps - but he led the one that matters most.