HAMPTON, Ga. -- Pole-sitter Ryan Newman will start at the rear of the field in today's NASCAR Nextel Cup race because his team changed engines Saturday morning. Newman said he began experiencing engine problems nine laps into practice.

"This is the best race track if you have to go to the rear,'' Newman said, alluding to the multiple grooves at Atlanta Motor Speedway. "Obviously, we don't want to do it, but we've got a great car. I'm not going to complain at all about luck or a break. This stuff happens once in a while. It's no fun when it happens. The guys at the engine shop are working hard, and we'll carry on.''

New car

NASCAR has a lot riding on the Car of Tomorrow, the bigger, bulkier and, hopefully, safer car that will debut next week at Bristol, the first of 16 races for the COT this season.

"First thing you want is to have at least as good races as we have today," said NASCAR president Mike Helton when asked of his hopes for the new car. "But it's our belief, because of the design and the policeability of the new Car of Tomorrow that there will be more opportunity for more cars to be equally competitive and, therefore, your races will be better.

"And, by definition, the races will also be more competitive. There's no tape measure to that, just results on the racetrack."

Elliott Sadler said everyone's a little nervous about the new car.

"I think everybody is a little excited and a little worried," Sadler said. "Everybody wants their COT program to be up to speed already. But we'll find out next week.

"It's a great place to race the car for the first time, because there's always great racing at Bristol, no matter what you drive.

Starting up

Should Mark Martin skip next weekend's race at Bristol as he claims he will, his consecutive starts streak will end at 621.

Jeff Gordon would then have the longest active consecutive starts streak. Gordon makes his 477th consecutive start today. He's one ahead of Bobby Labonte.

Fast times

Kurt Busch was the fastest in the final practice session with a lap of 188.758 mph. He was followed by Carl Edwards (188.360 mph), Jimmie Johnson (188.322), J.J. Yeley (188.047) and Greg Biffle (188.034).

Tire test

Jeff Gordon was among the drivers who tested tires at Darlington this week in the Car of Tomorrow. Gordon said the test went "pretty well.''

"I didn't see a big difference than just driving the car all by itself,'' Gordon said. "We didn't get to run in traffic at all, I wish I would have had a chance to do that. So we still don't know what the car is going to do in traffic, but by itself I thought it went well.''

Pit stops

Kurt Busch, Michael Waltrip and Mario Andretti are judges who will critique Simon Cowell's high-speed driving abilities in a segment in tonight's "60 Minutes.'' ... Dale Earnhardt Jr. has three consecutive top-five finishes at Atlanta. ... Tony Stewart has three consecutive top-10 finishes at Atlanta, including a win at this track last fall.