Smelled like the 2000 Daytona 500 to me, what a bore.  At least they got moving on the white flag lap, where normally they just come to the checkers nose to tail, they had a good finish at least but no racing for lap 1-180......

The answer is to shorten the races, start with shorter heat races to decide starting positions for the main, then have a main event race of around 50 laps, so they race, rather than ride around for a couple hours putting the fans to sleep. This way, everyone gets their sponsers out there too.

I have to agree with you on this one Pete. Unlike the 2000 Daytona race, the drivers could pass if they wanted to, but as you clearly pointed out and Gordon demonstrated, there was no need to do so.
Take 43 almost perfectly matched cars, place on a track which allows for consistent flat out driving, and combine with Chase drivers being more worried about an early exit than a win and it's quite the recipe for boredom.

What makes you guys think that the cars are so evenly matched?

The Hendricks guys have had the best COT cars the whole year. Anyone who didn't expect this race to come down to the Hendricks boys hasn't been paying much attention. At least they waited until the end to show all their cards because they probably could have lead every lap.

The COT is the main reason Gordon will win his fifth championship. Hendricks got a jump on testing the COT and that has been the difference. Gordon drives good equipment, well. He can't and never has driven a bad car to victory.

I would rather stick a hot poker in my eye than watch that race, again.

You are right. The speedway races will remain the same as long as the restrictor plate is around. I would think that the COT, being the brick that it is, would warrant some drastic changes in the plate itself. Maybe even give the teams some options to work with. Depending on what characteristics they would rather have on their cars. Larger holes in the plate and a taller gear, or smaller holes with a shorter gear. If the you make the specs exactly the same, on these plate tracks, then the cars are going to run in tight packs. Drafting plays such a big role on these tracks that in order to be competitive, you have to run almost attached to another car. I would like to see them ease the specs so that the cars would have more stand-alone speed so that drafting would not play such a dominant role.

How about making Talladega the last race until the chase, that would promote at least some guys racing!  

Pete I kind of agree yet at the same time I don't. First off, i've been to the past 7 Talladega races and this one was probably the most tame of the last 7. I think part of the reason is because whenever someone would pull out of line nobody would go to help them. I was at the track so I don't know how the tv broadcast went, but whenever people would actually go to the low side to help others out then things got very interesting. I saw Mikey, Jr, Bowyer, and others just get hung out to dry time and time again. Plus, Mikey and Reutimann were able to start up a line of cars on the low side and go from back in the pack to top five in about 6-10 laps.

Also, I don't get your plate argument. They've been running restrictor plates at Talladega for awhile now and last time I checked Talladega has had some of the most exciting races, EVER, with the plates. No other track can even get close to the number of passes, leaders, and lead changes (Before the COT at least). The racing was still the same as past races only everyone seemed extremely content with running single file. Again, tons of times I saw people pull out and try to get something started on the low line but nobody helped them. Perhaps everyone was trying to get out of Talladega unscathed after the past two chase races?

Last but not least, I can tell you why everyone had a boring day, because everyone was racing like they were doing a Sunday drive. Jeff Gordon hung back like Dale Jarret all day (no wonder he was bored, he even said in a tv interview on Friday that he "tried dropping to the back in the past and hated it"), Jr would mix things up but his engine blew early (everyone seemed content just following him for 30 laps single file), and nobody would help push people to the front on the low line.

The drivers should blame themselves for having a boring race. If you don't agree with me take this into consideration... last time I checked the last 30 laps or so were pretty intense and if I remember right they were racing the same cars the previous 158 laps were they not?