Burton expects more teams to communicate at Talladega

UPDATE The radio inside the four-time Sprint Cup champion's #24 Chevy can accommodate 16 team channels in Sunday's Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway. But Gordon says it's been programmed only for Hendrick Motorsports teammates #48Jimmie Johnson, #88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. and #5-Mark Martin and the Stewart-Haas Racing Chevys of #14-Tony Stewart and #39-Ryan Newman (whose chassis and engines are supplied by Hendrick).

A prevalence of two-car trains made for strange bedfellows at the Daytona 500 as many rival NASCAR teams shared radio transmissions with one spotter calling the action for two drivers drafting nose to tail. It's expected many will employ the same strategy at Talladega. "We had people coming to us last week wanting our radio approval, and we're like, 'No,'" Gordon said Thursday. "We're not ready to do that. Having somebody be able to get on your channel is more complicated than some people are making it out to be. I'm not for that. We want to stay in control of what's said and be able to talk to the crew chief. I have one of the best spotters, so I want my spotter to be leading the way as much as possible. So we're very hesitant when it comes to that." USA Today

04/13/11 From Tuesday's NASCAR Teleconference:

Q. At Daytona there was quite a bit of communication, starters, drivers, teams blending and that sort of thing. More of that at Talladega? Did we set a precedent for that at Daytona or will it be about the same?

JEFF BURTON: I think it's going to be more of it. I think that it's really an interesting dynamic to be quite honest. We had a meeting this week talking about, you know, who you want to try to get on your radio, and it's pretty odd. I mean, typically it's teams that try to communicate within the team. But for a Childress car to be talking to a Hendrick car, or a Hendrick car to be talking to a Roush car, and a Roush car to be talking to a Gibbs car, we've never seen that. It's pretty interesting how that all is going down and who is going to who and talking and saying, can I put you in my radio. And with the etiquette: When do you go to a competitor's radio frequency? All of that's a moving target. I don't know, I'm a fan of it because I think honestly it's safer doing it with one spotter and two cars. I think it's actually safer. However, I'm not a fan of it because it's supposed to be us against them, you know. We are not supposed to be working together. (Laughing). Chevy PR