September 29, 2007
By Rebecca Gladden

Rebecca Gladden

If you're not watching Speed TV's Inside Nextel Cup program every Monday, you're missing some really interesting information, much of it shared by driver and regular show panelist Greg Biffle.

Because of his soft spoken manner and unassuming nature, Biffle's insights are often overshadowed by the sassy Michael Waltrip and the salty Ken Schrader - which is a shame, because at times, Biffle is the only one of the three who actually competed in that week's race.

Near the end of Monday's program, for example, after reviewing Dover and briefly touching on this weekend's Kansas race, panel moderator Dave Despain asked Biffle about the upcoming race at Talladega Superspeedway on October 7.

The only restrictor plate track in the Chase, Talladega is considered the biggest "wild card" in the latter part of the season, or, as Boris Said described it today, "a crapshoot." Plate racing at 'Dega usually results in one or more multi-car wrecks that have the potential to take out numerous cars in the blink of an eye.

On Inside Nextel Cup, however, Greg Biffle said there is even greater cause for concern than usual heading to Talladega. The reason? That controversial contraption still known, for lack of a better name, as the Car of Tomorrow.

October's Talladega race will be the first plate race ever for the COT, and while the track is tricky enough in the old car, Biffle explained that drivers are facing a new dilemma in the Car of Tomorrow at 'Dega.

"(It's) the first time with the COT car (that) we're going to restrictor plate test it, and (one of) the biggest concerns that I have - you know, we've all talked about it - is, you can't see inside the car in front of you. Normally when a guy is going to pit - you know, every week in the driver's meeting, they say, 'Wave your hand, pull down to the inside." Well, restrictor plate racing, you're always giving hand signals - 'C'mon,' 'No,' 'They're all bunched up in front of me, don't hit me right now.'" So that's a big concern, that we can not see with that wing. And they have a Gurney lip on the wing. The regular wing only has a quarter-inch lip on it every week, but now they're putting a one-inch lip on there. So they've been talking about cutting the center of (the wing) out, so that we might be able to see inside that car."

Ken Schrader concurred, adding, "I noticed that during the test. And at Talladega, you're jammed up bumper to bumper, where like some of the other tracks we're not quite that close. But it was extremely hard to see."

Keeping the issue of cockpit visibility in mind, consider what Denny Hamlin said a few weeks ago when teams tested the COT at Talladega: "It's tough to say how the drivers are going to take it, but the way the cars are set up and the big hole they punch in the air, it should be way wilder than anything we've ever seen here. I'd say it's going to be a lot like the truck races, where they talk about how big the closing rate is. I really don't see that the cars are going to be pulling apart very much. I think these cars are going to punch such a big hole in the air that we're really going to be stuck together like glue, and if one guy makes a mistake, it could be a big one.''

Other than Biffle's comments Monday, no one else I've heard is discussing the possibility of NASCAR cutting a visibility window in the COT wing before Talladega. But if a solution isn't found before the race, look for plenty of big wrecks and even bigger frustrations as cars that are "stuck together like glue" race at 200 miles per hour with drivers who can't see the hand signals being given right in front of them.

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.