Car of Tomorrow faces its first test

Jeff Gordon has seen a lot of changes during his 15 years at NASCAR’s top level, and today’s Nextel Cup Series Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee will be one of the biggest.

The NASCAR-developed Car of Tomorrow will debut today, the first of 16 races for the car that is supposed to cut costs, improve safety and make racing more competitive.

Gordon, the four-time series champion, will start from the pole.

“This is definitely a historical moment,” said Gordon, who has five wins at Bristol. “Somebody asked me the other day ‘How big is this?’ Since I’ve been in the sport, this and the points change are the two biggest things. It’s a big deal. There’s a lot of attention on it.”

Bristol is a tough place to judge the COT because its tight 0.533-mile confines will lead to a lot of bumping and banging. And aerodynamics mean so little there, the full effect of the COT probably won’t be known until next month when its used at Phoenix International Raceway.

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Carl Edwards held off hard-charging teammate Matt Kenseth over the final 12 laps to win the NASCAR Busch Series Sharpie Mini 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

There were 12 cautions for 103 laps and one red-flag stoppage. NASCAR also erred by telling officials to open pit road too soon when a caution came out with 117 laps to go. That confused most of the field and gave Edwards, Kyle Busch and Ryan Newman a second chance.

Edwards used that free pit stop to get fresh tires on his Ford and drive to his first win of the season. Kenseth never got close enough to pass him, and Edwards beat him to the line by 0.260 of a second.

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Dan Wheldon loves Homestead-Miami Speedway, and it’s easy to see why. He ran away from the field to win the season-opening Indy Racing League XM Satellite Radio Indy 300 for the third year in a row.

Wheldon, who started from the pole, fought off an early challenge from Sam Hornish Jr., another three-time Homestead winner.

Wheldon, who led all but 21 laps, pulled away to beat Scott Dixon by 6.499 seconds -- about a quarter of a lap.

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Kawasaki’s James Stewart won his eighth Amp’d Mobile AMA Supercross Series race, beating Yamaha’s Chad Reed in front of 54,626 fans at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis.

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David Beat took advantage of lapped traffic to take the lead from Dan Moore on Lap 47 to win theseason-opening ACDelco Super Late Model race in front of a capacity crowd at Irwindale Speedway.