Jeff Burton tests RCR's version of the "car of tomorrow." The model is expected to be phased in during the next two years. Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images

Car of Tomorrow hits track at Atlanta test

HAMPTON, Ga. -- NASCAR's "car of tomorrow" has been hailed as a paragon of racing safety that incorporates numerous concepts geared to better protecting drivers.

As far as Jeff Burton is concerned, that's a good thing; as NASCAR and the teams that possess third-generation development models of the cars found out Monday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

NASCAR and the five Nextel Cup teams that tested six versions of the car found them to be stable in solo runs, but remarkably unpredictable when running in traffic, as Burton discovered on his first flying lap of the afternoon.

Joe Gibbs Racing's Jimmy Makar (left) talks with NASCAR's Gary Nelson Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images

Running at the back of a group that included Chevrolet teammates Brian Vickers of Hendrick Motorsports and Martin Truex Jr. of Dale Earnhardt Incorporated, Burton's Richard Childress Racing prototype swapped ends in a heartbeat before spinning through the frontstretch grass.

In a scene repeated all day at the test -- held one day after the seventh race of the Chase for the Nextel Cup, the Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 -- Burton soon joined a group that included drivers, engineers and NASCAR officials.

Burton, Vickers and Truex all grinned as they seemingly exchanged different twists on the same punch line. Burton didn't have any dire predictions when he walked away from the crowd, nor did he say he wished the prototype was the "car of two or three years from now."

"No, it's all part of learning, and trying to figure out the best way to make them work," Burton said. "The only way to do that is to get in there and dig like we're going to do in the race. We learned that we have to be tighter than we thought we had to be, in traffic.

"Traffic actually makes these cars looser. We all know that, now (laughing), so we've all got to work on that."

The test included an eclectic mix of teams and personnel, from Petty Enterprises to Childress Racing and DEI up to the sport's mega-teams: Roush Racing and Hendrick.

The drivers included youngsters Vickers, Truex and Sunday's winner Carl Edwards -- none of whom has two full seasons of experience -- as well as veterans Burton, Kyle Petty and NASCAR's Brett Bodine, a former owner-driver with hundreds of Winston Cup races on his resume.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. even breezed in late in the day to participate in one short run in DEI's car.

Burton's pirouette was not a historic event, as Bodine said he'd executed the first spin, at Richmond, in the inaugural test of NASCAR's first version of the car, a vehicle that he described in less than glowing terms.

But it was a starting point, and to a man everyone queried Monday said the program was very worthwhile, though it would obviously be a lengthy and involved process.

Brian Vickers (left) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images

Bodine's career includes a phase of vehicle development, years ago when he worked in the Northeast with noted chassis builder Bob Cuneo at Chassis Dynamics on different programs including a Mazda factory IMSA GT road race program, Bob Sharp's factory Nissan road racing effort and his own Bo-dyn Modified chassis.

Bodine said part of thrill, for him -- in addition to the opportunity to get back behind the wheel -- was to participate in a historic occurrence.

"It's a bit of history for NASCAR to design and build its own racecars, and then have these race teams copy and develop it from us," Bodine said. "Usually, it's the other way around."

While no current cars were available to provide a side-by-side comparison, it doesn't take much imagination to envision something with the dimensions of a porpoise circulating around the track.

The car of tomorrow has a "splitter" -- a horizontal panel extending out from the bottom of the nose to provide front downforce. Splitters have rarely if ever been seen on Cup cars, though they are common devices in road racing cars.

The front bumper is more pronounced and resembles that of a Craftsman Truck Series vehicle. The rear bumper does the same. The car is four inches wider and two inches taller at the roof so it does look slightly bulkier.

As a result, the cars are slower. Ryan Newman's Bud Pole speed for Sunday's race was 193.928 mph, or 28.588 seconds around the 1.5-mile track.

Running alone, the car of tomorrow was stable, drivers reported.

"These drive a lot more like my Busch car," 2004 Busch Series champion Truex said. "They have a lot more air on the back of them (so) they are real stable getting into the corner compared to a Cup car."

Car of TomorrowTruex Jr. grades the Car of Tomorrow during testing at AMS Sign up for TrackPass now BUY YOUR NEXTEL DRIVER PHONE

Monday, lap times were in the 30-flat range, around 185 mph -- though speed was not a goal of this test.

"You're always happy when they try and make things safer," Truex said. "It doesn't feel good when you hit the wall. They've done a good job with safety over the last two years. I haven't really seen anybody get hurt in the last couple years, so they've come a long way."

"Safety tops the list of things that are different about this car," Gary Nelson, vice president of research and development for NASCAR said. "We've done a lot of things in the last four years to improve safety that are car of tomorrow items, but we put them on the car of today if they would fit.

"You can't just fit a bigger rollcage, a different frame or different exhaust. The average race fan is going to see a taller, wider car that has been designed to enhance competition on the track."

That remains to be seen, and Burton wasn't sure if that goal could be reached.

"As far as racing goes, we are all going to have the same thing, everybody is still going to try and find advantages like they do now, so I don't see it being much different," Burton said. "We're all leaving here with some opinions, and through opinions we can go back and make things better.

"These cars can work. I do think they need some tweaking, and some attention paid, but that's why we came down here, to learn what they wouldn't do well. Now that we understand that, we'll have a chance to make them work well.

"We need to do this several more times, but today is tremendously valuable. From a development standpoint, the more we can have the teams involved, the better we'll be, because the teams are really, really smart.

"Not that NASCAR isn't -- but this is what we do, 24/7. We work to make these cars go fast and the more the teams can be involved, the closer it will be when we start to run."