For the competitors in the Chase for the Nextel Cup, it must feel like wrestling an alligator and then getting tossed into a pit with a bear. For two consecutive Sundays now, they've been beaten up by wrecks and mishaps that have shattered NASCAR's championship field. All this even before they arrive at the one racetrack that's long been their greatest worry -- Talladega Superspeedway, the sinister, snarling 2.66-mile monster of a facility that greets them this week.

They've been here before, of course; two times each season the Nextel Cup tour visits the white-knuckle raceway in the hills of northeastern Alabama, where restrictor plates limit horsepower but also compact the field into buzzing, tumultuous, sometimes car-flipping packs. But never under conditions like these, with a Car of Tomorrow that's been on the track for all of two test days, and will reveal some of its characteristics only in the thick of an event crucial to the title chase.

"I feel concerned and worried," said Chase leader Jimmie Johnson. "But that's no different than any other plate race. And with all the new things coming along, it's still going to be a plate race and we still have the same issues to deal with. I think it's a little bit more difficult now. There are a lot of unknowns that we'll have to sort out. But it's still the feeling of a restrictor-plate race in my stomach."

What more damage can Talladega do? Ten of the 12 drivers suffered mechanical issues or mistakes in the event two weeks ago at Dover International Speedway, and 10 more ran into problems last week in Kansas City. The result was a close points race that was ripped apart, with only two drivers -- Jeff Gordon (six behind) and Clint Bowyer (14 behind) -- within 100 points of Johnson. Fourth-place Tony Stewart is 117 points back. Two drivers, Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin, are more than 200 behind.

But those numbers don't assuage the concerns of the drivers at the top of the standings, who have to get through this weekend before they can realistically begin looking at the title hunt's stretch run.

"Everybody is worried about Talladega," Bowyer said. "It's going to be a handful. You can get away with so much more in this car. You can push each other all the way around the racetrack. You have to lift in the corner and in the tri-oval to keep from running over the guy in front of you. You drag the brake a little bit on those areas and go right back to it on the straightaways. Obviously, if everyone can keep their heads it will be fine, but I've got a feeling we're going to struggle with that."

The draft is the big unknown. In the two-day COT test at Talladega, drivers focused on single-car runs and rarely drafted in packs larger than 10 or 12 cars, giving them little indication as to how the vehicle will perform in traffic Sunday. There are all kinds of theories -- it will be harder to pass, it will be harder to stay in the draft, it will be more difficult to go from the back to the front, drivers are going to have to bump-draft almost all the way around the racetrack even though NASCAR doesn't want them to do it in the corners and tri-oval. No one will know for sure until the green flag falls on the UAW-Ford 500. (Continued)