BRISTOL, Tenn. -- The Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway was a race of many facets.

Sure, Kyle Busch walked off with the winner's trophy, gave Chevrolet its 600th NASCAR victory and Rick Hendrick his 200th as a car owner, but those are just milestones.

The biggest concern was the Car of Tomorrow, which made its debut on the .533-mile short track.

On a day where the winner celebrated in Victory Lane by reaffirming his dislike for the new piece and the man who led the most laps (Tony Stewart) now has reason to dislike it even more, one substantial constituency finally spoke up on the COT: car owners.

The fact that NASCAR took the winning car and a few others to its R&D Center in Concord for post-race testing leaves Busch's team one COT short heading to Martinsville this week, though NASCAR promised it would have the car back at Hendrick Motorsports in good time.

Following Busch's victory, Hendrick joined driver and crew chief in the post-race media conferences, where he was hit with the following question: What was the cost of this car, to make a winner out of it?

"I think that everybody is in the same boat," Hendrick said. "We're building intermediate cars and we've got to build these cars. When you're running parallel programs and you're working on different chassis and waiting for the chassis to be approved, it's a chore.

"We'll run a couple races and we'll go back to our intermediate cars. If we had a wreck, if somebody had a car that wasn't as good as it should be in Atlanta, we're getting a lot of work done to go to Texas. So it's hard to run these different cars but it's just part of the program."

In other words, he wasn't answering the question.

"When the decision's been made that we're going to bring this car along, I think everybody's trying to work to make sure we do the best we can," Hendrick continued, giving further credence that Hendrick knows how to play the game.

"I think definitely it was the right thing to do to bring it to the short tracks first because we're going to probably have some rule changes and some things are going to happen as we get to intermediates and probably to speedways, too. It's going to be something that's going to develop over time and it's never easy when you've got ... nobody would like to have to come out with a whole new fleet, either, so I think NASCAR did the best they could after the decision was made to race it to bring it to short tracks first."

If you add up all the work that was done and put a price tag on what it took to bring nearly 50 COTs (not counting backup cars) to Bristol and again the following week to Martinsville, you could probably buy the island of your choice. What it costs in dollars is one thing; the cost in human terms is a bunch more.

"... these teams are working harder than they've ever worked," Hendrick said. "If we could come test more it would probably be a bit different. Having to go to places that you're not going to race to try to learn doesn't give you much time to really tune the car up."

When the COT hits the track at Martinsville this weekend, it will be the first time. There was no COT test for the .526-mile Virginia oval, which is about as different from Bristol as it can get.

The idea for the Car of Tomorrow, or at least part of it, was to help teams defray the expense of building multiple cars for different tracks. For example, you wouldn't run the same car at Bristol as you did at Atlanta. They are different animals altogether. Theoretically, it would save money if the teams had to build fewer cars.

"We'll see how that turns out," Hendrick said. "I know NASCAR is concerned. They want a good show. The fans want a good show. They want people to race. We've been doing this a long time and we've adapted."

Yes, the team owners have adapted, and so have drivers, teams, officials and fans. What the adaptation that follows will teach us is how much adaptation remains.

"We added rear windows to Monte Carlos when they didn't have downforce," Hendrick said. "NASCAR would come up with rules changes to make the cars more competitive. And they work with the crew chiefs to try to find the fix for things. So I'm confident that NASCAR is not going to let the car be a problem with the show.

"There are a lot of smart people with all these teams. NASCAR is going to keep working with these guys. Once you say you're going to run it, now we've got to fix it. We've got to make it what it needs to be. You're not going to do that the first race out of the box.

"They're going to try to stick to the plan to keep the costs down and the car safe. It's also got to be competitive. Everybody will work together. We're all in this together and we've got a lot of work to do. But I think we'll get it done."

Undoubtedly Hendrick is correct in that assumption, but it begs the question: At what cost? We're about to find out.