The Verdict On Nascar's New CarSome like it, some don't. NASCAR loves it, and that's what counts most.
The Car of Tomorrow apparently is here to stay for a long time, at least some version of it.
After Kyle Busch's first NASCAR victory at Bristol a year ago, he announced to the world that the Car of Tomorrow was the worst racecar he had ever driven.
Rick Hendrick, his team owner at the time, thought Busch's timing was very bad.
This year Busch drives for Joe Gibbs, and is still winning races. He doesn't have much to say about the Car of Tomorrow, or at least if he does he says it in private.
NASCAR has turned its premier series into a "spec" series of sorts. The cars are basically identical except for their engines-all built to the same exacting specifications.
The sanctioning body says it has spent five years on the blueprint for the new racer, and its purpose is to increase safety, reduce costs and provide closer competition. It claims driver protection tops the list.
The car is larger than its predecessor, and leaves more space around the driver. The cockpit is two inches taller and four inches wider, and the driver sits four inches closer to the car's centerline. This is to increase crush space. The windshield is more upright, and the car has double frame rails with one rail stacked on top of the other on the left side. The extra rail means better protection.
Four inches of absorbing foam is added to both doors, and there is a 360-degree tapered containment tunnel for the driveshaft. This is to help eliminate cockpit intrusion in case of a crash. And the windows are larger, designed to allow a driver to escape more quickly.
Also, the car's fuel cell is smaller, with bladder walls that are thicker, and the cell has a flapper valve which replaces the previous system's ball-check valve.
To help reduce driver fatigue, the exhaust system has been moved and designed to keep heat away from the driver.
The car is lighter by 100 pounds or so and is supposed to be less aerodynamic and will depend less on the wind for its stability. NASCAR officials claim this and a front bumper-redesigned with a new front splitter to catch the air instead of cut through it-and a new, larger rear wing should increase stability of the cars and slow them down. This is to make for more passing. There is evidence that it works some of the time.
With most of this year's spring races in the history books, NASCAR officials seemed pleased with the results. "There is nothing that we need to jump in and fix," series director John Darby says. "It's just a matter of continuing to race the cars and let the teams do what they do best."
Jim Hunter, one of the sport's top executives, says he doesn't think that drivers and crews should be expecting any rules changes in the near future. "Let's go to some more races and see where we are," he says. "Carl Edwards got out of his car at Talladega and said, 'It's a great feeling when your hands hurt after a race. You just have to get up on the wheel and drive.' Secondary to safety, this is one of the purposes of this thing."
In terms of helping control costs, the Car of Tomorrow utilizes the same frame, rollcage and body for all different types of racetracks, and thus will reduce the cost of building different cars for short tracks, road courses, superspeedways, and restrictor plate races.
Some teams have complained that the new car will not turn like the old car, but crew chiefs are working hard to make it turn.
"We are loose going into the turns and loose coming off the turns," Bobby Labonte, driver for Petty Enterprises, says. "But we're working on that, and I think we are showing some improvement."