All in a day's work?

It didn't take long for fans of the NASCAR Sprint Cup series to witness the first spectacular crash of the season. Preparation for the Daytona 500 (the race is Feb. 26) began this weekend, with Kyle Busch winning the Bud Shootout on Saturday after a multi-car pileup with two laps to go. Carl Edwards won the pole position during qualifying Sunday, but lots of people were still talking about Jeff Gordon's barrel-roll crash the day before.

After some bumping and banging, Gordon's No. 24 Chevrolet rode the retaining wall on its side and then it rolled and skidded. The car skidded along the track on its roof with big pieces of metal flying off. It was still on its roof when it stopped, and it took crews several minutes to reach Gordon and get him out of the smashed car. Gordon told media on Saturday that the crash was the first time in his career he's crashed and flipped over. He sang the praises of the track's safety crews, and of the safety features built into today's NASCAR racing machines.

His tone to reporters was about the same as that of someone describing a bumper-to-bumper commute on the local freeway. "This was not how I wanted to start the 2012 season," he said. "I've never been upside down in one of these cars. The hit to the wall was much harder than the rest of it. The roll was pretty soft and pretty easy. (soft and easy?) The protection we have inside of these cars is amazing because I didn't even hardly feel any of it. The toughest part is when you're laying upside down and you can't get out of the car. The roof was caved in a little bit and that was no fun."

Gordon told reporters on Sunday he cut his finger climbing out of the car, and he had a stiff neck. Explaining the crash to his daughter, 4-year-old Ella Sophia, was an adventure. He said she was sleeping during the race and probably would have been more upset had she seen her Mom's reaction.

On Sunday, he sat her on his knee and explained he had a wreck. Gordon says she has some understanding of the dangers of his job, so he explained the wreck to her. Gordon held his daughter in his lap and they watched the replay of his wreck.

She turned to him and bluntly asked, "Were you OK?"