August 13, 2009
By Doug Demmons
It’s hard to believe there are still NASCAR fans who wish the new car -- the Car of Tomorrow -- would just go away.
Yes, I know, it doesn’t look anything like what’s sold in showrooms.
And you can’t tell a Chevy from a Ford from a Toyota without looking at the nameplate.
And NASCAR won’t let the creative geniuses on race teams monkey around with it.
And it looks like a box.
Drivers complain about it constantly because it’s more difficult to turn. Tony Stewart once called it a “flying brick.” Kyle Busch, who won the first race ever run with the COT, openly trashed it in Victory Lane.
The COT is, indeed, the Rodney Dangerfield of race cars.
And yet, there should be little doubt after Monday’s horrendous crash involving Kasey Kahne, Sam Hornish Jr., Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton that the new car is needed.
There also should be little doubt that since it was introduced the COT has saved drivers from either death or serious injury. Would Hornish and Gordon have walked away from Monday’s wreck in the old Twisted Sister car?
Would Michael McDowell have survived that vicious roll during qualifying at Texas Motor Speedway? We’ll never know for sure. It’s impossible to prove a point by something that did not happen.
But it’s entirely possible that if Gordon had hit that inside steel guard rail head on in the old car, instead of walking to the ambulance he might have been carried to it. The fact that a driver with a bad back can take a hit like that and not immediately hold a press conference to announce his retirement is a testament to the safety of the COT.
And that’s the bottom line.
The real problem with the COT is not whether it looks like a box on wheels. The old car wasn’t exactly available on showroom floors either.
The real problem is that it drives a stake through the heart of the “good old days.”
It is an abrupt departure from the NASCAR many grew up with -- the sport where cheaters were lovable outlaws, where one manufacturer hit upon some new feature, some new engine or tweak that allowed them to dominate until other manufacturers figured it out and caught up.
Of course, those were also the days when the driver in second might be two laps back.
The COT certainly isn’t the only departure from the good ole days. But the COT further homogenized a sport that fans already saw as turning corporate.
That’s a legitimate complaint. NASCAR should look at ways to make the Sprint Cup COT more distinctive. The Nationwide COT to be tested later this season is a step in that direction with Ford using the Mustang.
And NASCAR needs to look at ways to allow crews to tweak the car without compromising the safety features. That would make it harder for NASCAR to police the sport but it needs to be done.
But let’s hope that the debate about whether to scrap the COT ended Monday in Turn 9 at Watkins Glen.
Doug Demmons is a writer and editor for the Birmingham News ~ he writes daily and weekly auto racing columns ranging from NASCAR to open wheel to Formula One, local tracks and more... you can read Doug's columns online at Blog of Tommorow
Follow Doug on Twitter: @dougdemmons
The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.
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