Towards the end of Sunday's Nextel Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway, I had already formulated a few ideas about how to lead into tonight's race recap.

But those plans flew out the window in an instant, as Jeff Gordon made a brilliant move, capitalizing on a push from third-place finisher Dave Blaney to get out from behind teammate Jimmie Johnson. While Johnson hugged the yellow line, Gordon moved to the outside, putting the rear bumper of the No. 24 right in front of a hard-charging Tony Stewart. The No. 20 car had no choice but to push Gordon past Johnson to victory.

Gordon's masterful move demonstrated why he has 80 Cup wins overall, now adding "most restrictor plate wins" to his impressive list of career accomplishments. Today's victory gave Gordon 12 plate-track wins, passing Dale Earnhardt Sr., who had 11.

It was clear from the start of the race that a few of the Chase drivers, including Gordon and teammate Jimmie Johnson, intended to stay as far away from any trouble as they could, deliberately staying in the rear of the field most of the day.

In fact, Gordon didn't lead a single lap all day, except the one that mattered. The No. 24 team did overcome a pit road penalty for leaving the pit stall dragging an air hose.

The win pushes Gordon back to the top of the point standings, now nine points ahead of teammate Jimmie Johnson in 2nd.

The concerns of many pundits regarding a possible big wreck early on never materialized. The race started off with the top 11 cars, and 13 of the top 15, being those outside the top 35 in owner's points, who timed their way into the field. Because this was an impound race, teams who were locked in ended up qualifying in race trim, which put many of them far back on the starting grid. Jacques Villeneuve had qualified 6th in first-ever Cup start, but he showed a lot of class with his decision to drop to the rear of the field before the green flag in deference to concerns that his inexperience might play a part in triggering an early wreck. Casey Mears and Jamie McMurray also had to start from the back for having work done on their cars after qualifying.

During the opening laps, it looked as if there might be a lot of three-wide racing and passing. One example: Kevin Harvick, who moved from 37th to 2nd and challenged for the lead in just the first five laps.

But it didn't take long before drivers started lining up single file, creating what race announcers called a parade, "follow the leader", a conga line, and various other euphemisms for the strategy of drivers cautiously logging laps behind whoever happened to be in the lead.

In fact, a lot of the attrition today had less to do with crashing than it did with catastrophic engine failures. Notably, at least three of seven engines built by the DEI/RCR engine shop expired, including those of Jeff Burton, Martin Truex Jr, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Kevin Harvick reportedly dropped a cylinder, though he did make it home 20th, and Aric Almirola, driving for DEI, also had a poor finish at 30th, though it was not clear at press time what his malfunction was.

There was one big multi-car wreck that occurred on lap 145, when Bobby Labonte's No. 43 car inexplicably took a sharp left and set off a collision that eventually collected three Chase contenders - Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin - along with non-Chasers Jamie McMurray, David Reutimann Paul Menard, Dave Blaney, Brian Vickers, David Ragan and Robby Gordon. Some of those cars had major damage, while others suffered less.

Pole sitter Michael Waltrip surprised many by running well all afternoon until he cut a tire with 12 laps to go, setting off a smaller wreck that involved Elliott Sadler, last week's Kansas winner Greg Biffle, and Tony Raines.

Today's lap leaders included Denny Hamlin, who led 40, Tony Stewart, 38, Dale Earnhardt Jr, 31, and Elliott Sadler, 25. Of those, only Hamlin and Stewart finished on the lead lap, coming in 4th and 8th respectively.

Although TV broadcasters sang the praises of the Dodge and Toyota engine packages and their ability to handle the higher RPMs required for this race, Chevy continued their tradition of domination here. 9 cars in the top 13 were Chevy's, including 1-2 finishers Gordon and Jimmie Johnson. Dave Blaney in 3rd was the highest finishing Toyota, not just today but for the entire season, and Carl Edwards was the highest finishing Ford at 14th. There were three Dodges in the top 10 - Penske teammates Ryan Newman in 5th and Kurt Busch in 7th, along with Reed Sorenson in 10th - although it has been reported that the No. 41 car failed post-race tech.

Like the three separate packs that formed for much of today's restrictor plate race, the Chase contenders are also divided into three distinct groups after Talladega. The frontrunners are Jeff Gordon in first, Jimmie Johnson (-9), Clint Bowyer (-63), and Tony Stewart, still within a one-race striking distance at (-154). There are three drivers, Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, and Carl Edwards, in the mid pack, ranging from -202 to -215 points back. The remaining five drivers, all more than 260 points back, appear to have lost the draft for good this year, though I would not rule out a miracle just yet. That group consists of Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr., Matt Kenseth, and Jeff Burton.

Denny Hamlin was the biggest gainer in the Chase today, moving up three spots to 9th, while Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr., and Jeff Burton each lost two spots. Dale Earnhardt Jr. still holds the highest point ranking for a non-Chaser at 13th, but Ryan Newman moved up two spots to 14th and now trails Junior by just 115 points.

Next week the circuit visits Lowe's Motor Speedway for a non-COT race at the track where Casey Mears notched his first Nextel Cup win in the spring.