Head2Head: COT

Safer this, safer that ... it's racing. Who's to say the COT will make for better racing? Address the late-race "debris caution" and then we'll talk, but I digress ...

Stock car racing's roots are grounded in taking the family sedan to the track and seeing whose ride was the fastest -- or could sustain the most damage and still make it first across the line. Anyone have a Car of Tomorrow parked in their driveway? Anyone think the COT can take a pounding without the splitter splintering or the wing getting catty-wampus?

With all the changes to the sport -- without regard to the safety improvements -- the one thing NASCAR needs to get back to is the on-track product. The racing has become, in a word, boring. If I wanted to watrch a freight train I'd wander down to the tracks and watch Burlington Nothern roll by.

Sure, the COT was designed to be racier. It also was designed to be safer. The pessimist inside me says a .500 batting average ain't bad; I do believe it will be a safer than the looks-nothing-like-a-stock-car Chevys, Dodges, Fords and Toyotas.

But will it make for better racing? The jury's still out on that one. Bristol is going to be a crapshoot; no one can predict what the racing will be like. However, I do know that NASCAR is supposed to be about "stock car" racing, says so right there in the name: National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. And that's my rub with the COT -- it's not a stock car.

If you're going to be in the business of racing stock cars, race what you make -- front to back, top to bottom. Race the Impala, the Avenger, the Fusion and the Camry. Get back to basics: Win on Sunday, sell on Monday. Dale Earnhardt's boat wasn't called Sunday Money for nothing -- and the folks at the Big Three benefitted from on-track success with visual recognition from fans off the track.

There's no proof that the COT will make for better racing. There is, however, a baseline from which to draw a conclusion that the racing will not be.

Anyone remember IROC?

Other racing series have gone the way of identically prepared cars. Those series rank behind NASCAR in the United States, which is the sport's bread and butter.

Read into it what you wish, but unless NASCAR is trying to mold its model to appeal to a worldwide audience, there is no way to rationalize standardizing "stock cars."

• Duane Cross, NASCAR.COM

Aero push. It's the fancy shorthand description for what happens when the car in front disturbs the air enough to where the car behind loses traction.

That's the No. 1 reason why the racing isn't as good as it used to be. The cars are so aerodynamically dependent, just the least little thing causes them to get squirrely. That's why why track position has become so critical. You can have the best handling car by far, but if you're mired in 20th place, it's almost impossible to get enough clean air to use that advantage.

Aero push allows a good car to run away from the field, like Jimmie Johnson did at the start of the race at Atlanta last weekend, where he was lapping the backmarkers within 25 laps. And that forces NASCAR to find seemingly invisible specks of debris every week so that the margin of victory isn't measured in laps behind.

Aero push is a relatively new problem. In the not so distant past, the cars were boxier and punched a bigger hole in the air, allowing for more drafting and side-by-side racing. Now the cars all look like teardrops, just like the ones in the fans' eyes when their favorite driver gets stuck in the same position on the track, lap after lap.

So how does the Car of Tomorrow have anything to do with aero push? It's all about safety, right? Well, that's one of the benefits of the new chassis design.

In addition to all the improved safety features -- moving the driver away from the door and adding crush panels -- some of the other changes made specifically for safety should make the racing better as well. The cars are taller and wider, giving the driver more room, but also punching a bigger hole in the air. The windshield is more upright, which should create more drag. The front "splitter" should create more downforce. And the new rear wing should create less turbulence for trailing cars than the traditional spoiler.

Basically the COT looks like a close relative of the current Craftsman Truck design, and if that's any indication, the racing should be much improved. The trucks put on the best show of any of NASCAR's three major series -- by far -- with side-by-side racing the norm instead of the exception.

If the new chassis design improves both safety and promotes more side-by-side racing, maybe we can finally say goodbye to aero push and hello to "retro NASCAR," back to an era when you didn't need "caution for debris" to keep the racing close.

• Mark Aumann, NASCAR.COM