New COT setups more like old-school racing

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Kurt Busch was among the first drivers to arrive at Bristol Motor Speedway for Wednesday's Car of Tomorrow test session. He stood in the infield talking with Jeff Burton for nearly 20 minutes. Then, while most teams were still setting up computers and pit boxes, Busch fired the engine of his No. 2 Dodge and lit up the track's aluminum bleachers with the echo of engine.

He was the first on the track, and he had good reason.

COT specials

SPEED will air two 30-minute specials from the Car of Tomorrow test sessions from Bristol, at 7 p.m. ET on Wednesday and Thursday.

John Roberts will host the SPEED coverage with analysis from 18-year NASCAR crew chief Larry McReynolds and reporting from Bob Dillner.

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"We came with the Rusty Wallace 1999 setup, so we started there," said Busch, who has won five times at Bristol and is the defending winner of the spring race here.

But in no race that Busch has won at the half-mile bullring has he dominated like Wallace did with that 1999 setup. He took the pole at Bristol in the spring race that year, led 425 laps and easily won the race. In fact, only 10 cars finished on the lead lap that day.

Mirroring that setup, however, didn't necessarily translate to speed for Busch. He was 28th on the morning speed chart, turning a fast lap in 16.053 seconds, or 119.529 mph. In contrast, Wallace's 1999 pole-winning speed was 125.142.

But to go nearly eight years back in the playbook as a base for notes shows what the Car of Tomorrow is presenting teams as they prepare for the series' first race with the machine in less than a month.

"It's definitely starting over," Busch said. "It's a fresh start for everybody."

Just like the front splitter that slices through the air, and just like the rear wing that sticks up 6 inches off the deck lid, the largest growing pain in transforming to the COT may be building a new notebook.

"There isn't any," crew chief Greg Zipadelli said of what notes translate from the current cars to the COT. "You're actually closer to what you were doing five, six, seven years ago than last year."

For somebody like Juan Montoya, as odd as it sounds, that's not a bad thing.

Although Montoya is in his first full year of racing stock cars, he believes the Car of Tomorrow will level the playing field. He said that may be something that can progress his learning curve.

"If you ask the guys who have been here before, they'll probably say [the COT] is horrible," said Montoya, who was 30th on the charts in the morning session at 119.373. "I've never been here in the other cars so I didn't know what to expect. From that point of view, maybe I have an advantage, but lack of laps."

That showed. Less than four hours after walking through Bristol's gates for the first time and acknowledging the track looked more like a football stadium, Montoya turned his No. 42 Dodge around in Turn 2. He did, however, manage to keep it off the wall.

Montoya said the spin was because of his attempt to adapt to the track, not his adjustment to the new car.

David Gilliland and Casey Mears both brushed the wall as well. Combined, the trio of drivers involved in incidents have a combined nine starts at Bristol.

In fact, most drivers said adjusting to the COT was nothing major.

"The cars still drive the same," Tony Stewart said. "They're either tight or they're loose or you're working with grip. It's those three things all the time. It's just a matter of the crews figuring out what the cars like and what they don't like. After that, it's back to those three basics."

Stewart has been one of the most vocal critics of the COT, saying it looked ugly. That stance hasn't changed, but he did lighten his view of the overall implementation.

"We're stuck with it," Stewart said. "It's not any prettier than last year. But it is what it is. That's why everybody's here. We've got to race this thing in less than a month, so we've got to learn."