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Has NASCAR Learned From the Car of Tomorrow Disaster

An Opinion




November 9, 2009

By Matthew Pizzolato
Matthew Pizzolato



NASCAR has received nothing but criticism since it introduced the Car of Tomorrow (COT) into his premier Sprint Cup Series last season. Complaints began immediately from drivers and fans alike and have since shown no sign of slacking up.

Drivers claimed the car was too difficult to drive, that the car "drives like a tank" while fans say that the COT has ruined racing, making races boring, and others point to the COT as one of the reasons attendance is down at most tracks, although the sluggish economy probably has more to do with lower attendances than does the COT.

Without a doubt, the COT was a complete and total disaster in all aspects but one, safety. Some of the recent violent crashes at Talladega, from which all drivers concerned have walked away without a scratch, prove the tremendous strides NASCAR has made with driver safety by implementing the COT.

However, there is one aspect of safety that was made evident by Ryan Newman's crash at Talladega last week. The rear wing on the Cup version of the COT provides downforce when the car is running normally, but when the car is involved in an accident and spun around, the rear wing creates lift, the end result of which caused Newman's car to flip over and land on top of Kevin Harvick's car. The Nationwide COT is equipped with a spoiler and not a wing, so such violent crashes should not occur.

When NASCAR announced that it would implement a version of the COT in the Nationwide series, pessimists immediately began complaining about how NASCAR would be ruining the racing in that series as well. However, if early indications are to be believed, that may not be the case.

Instead of the new Nationwide car being a template with the only manufacturer identification being the decals on the front, NASCAR has worked with each of its manufacturers to assure that from each car will has some aspects that will make it different from other makes on the track.

Dodge will be racing its Challenger, and Ford will run its Mustang while Chevy and Toyota run their Impala and Camry, respectively. The front grill of each car will be similar to the production models that fans can buy off the showroom floor, something that the car companies are excited about.

"I think the car has great potential and certainly we're very excited because it's given us an opportunity with a slightly longer front end and a much more production-looking front end, for us to get more of our character and our corporate identity into the car," Toyota Racing Development's president and general manager, Lee White said in a Mark Aumann article on nascar.com. "We love that, our management loves that and that's why we're here."

A testing session occurred with the new car last week at Talladega and so far, driver feedback has been positive.

"It drives like a dream," Justin Allgaier was quoted as saying in a Sporting News Wire report after taking a Penske Racing Dodge Challenger around the track.

The current plans are to run the Nationwide COT in four races next year, beginning with the July Daytona race and followed by races at Michigan, Richmond, and Charlotte, and then change over completely to the new car for the 2011 season.

One would think that NASCAR would have implemented such drastic changes in the Nationwide series first, then after all the bugs had been worked out, gradually phase the COT into its premier division, Sprint Cup. It appears that NASCAR has indeed learned from its mistakes in introducing the COT into the Cup series and plans on making amends with the Nationwide version. Hopefully, the changes made to the COT in Nationwide will gradually work their way into the Cup versions and will provide better on track racing for the fans.



If you would like to learn more about Matthew, please check out his web site at matthew-pizzolato.com.



You can contact Matthew Pizzolato at .. Insider Racing News

You Can Read Other Articles By Matthew Pizzolato

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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