Well it's not completely bad...

Before I write my new views on the NASCAR Car of Tomorrow take a peak at how harsh I was in the past (okay last month lol) about it.
that's another place to read my opinions on NASCAR :) Oh while you're there check out what Don, Angel, and MommaE all have to say too :) The Go Fast Turn Left Team rock :)

Here's my current views on the Car of Tomorrow(Today?)

Race one with the Car of Tomorrow (or would that be Car of Today?) Is officially in the books. Young Kyle Busch won a historic day all around, 600th win for Chevy, first win in a COT car, the 200th win for Hendrick Motorsports and my favorite guy ended up with a top 10 finish so all in all it was a good day right?

I was really tough on the COT car a few weeks ago, and very snarky too in writing about it. But after seeing it out on track and seeing the car painted with all the decals it doesn’t look too bad. Even the wing didn’t look to bad. The only thing was.. How much of the cautions and stuff was COT car related and how much of it was just BRISTOL Baby! :)

There are still some bugs to work out with the COT car, I don’t think it “sucks” like Kyle Busch said it did in Victory Lane, I do think that there are some bugs that need to be worked out. Many drivers said that the car handled differently than the other cars and it was tough to find the balance between too loose or too tight, it’s going to be a big learning curve for drivers, crew and owners. The pit stops didn’t seem like they were that much harder or longer than normal, I think though that as time goes on we may see more incidents on pit road due to a rear tire carrier smacking into the wing while trying to go around it, or the front getting ground up a bit and when a car clips a pit crew member it could lead to even more serious damage than before, but those are risks those guys take on when they slap on their helmets and jump over the wall to service the cars. Look at the crew guy who was injured from Jeff Burton’s team. He was hurt a year or two ago came back and hurt again.

There are still a few things up in the air about the COT car such as how will it perform at Martinsville next week, how bad is it going to be if the front end gets messed up (like Junior’s did last spring at Martinsville.) What if two people wreck and their respective crews have to get new wings? Does NASCAR have enough wings on stand by to give teams multiple wings if needed such as crashes at happy hour, qualifying things like that. Will the inspection process go faster? How will it do at Talladega? All of those will be answered as time goes by and everyone gets more comfortable with things. It’s been suggested that perhaps NASCAR will mandate all cars be COT cars for 2008. Crew chiefs have said it would be better if they all went in 2008 instead of 2009 and it makes sense to this little arm chair crew chief to do that. The poor guys and gals in the shop are running themselves ragged trying to work on two cars so to me it makes sense to go all out next season, plus it will also help iron out the kinks.

Will the COT car help the smaller teams? Who knows? I think that eventually it will level out the field somewhat but your good crew chiefs, Borland, Berrier, Knaus, Eury Jr, Reiser, Richert, Letart, Francis, Zippy, and everyone else out there on a pit box worth their salt is going to eventually figure out ways to tweak the COT car and give them an advantage over everyone else, that’s just the nature of the beast. SO my final assessment of the COT car is, it’s okay, there is room to improve and tweak on but I don’t feel that it totally “sucks”like young Kyle does. I do still however have one big question.. Anyone know where I can find that great rendition of “Sweet Home Alabama” In the new Chevy Impala Commercial :)

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Now that we are two races down with the COT car I'm convinced it's an okay car.. does that totally make me a sellout? Bottom line it is what it is, the car is here to stay and I enjoy racing and I could care less if they race bicycles or COT cars. As long as I get to see my boys (those would be Dale Jr, and Jimmie Johnson and a growing list of others lol) on the track every Sunday I'm one happy little camper.