Inspection process fine ... depending on point of view (cont'd)

Robbie Loomis, vice president of Petty Enterprises, said that while the inspection process overall went as smoothly as could be expected, it simply must get faster.

"I'm glad they brought us here on Thursday," Loomis said. "I mean, obviously it took a long time to get 'em all through. But mostly there was good communication between NASCAR and all the teams. I'm sure NASCAR will pick up the pace of the inspection process. The inspection process moving forward will have to be speeded up quite a bit from where it's at right now."

The five stages of COT inspection

The 42 Dodge team took advantage of an extra day allowed by NASCAR to go through COT inspection at Bristol Motor Speedway. It's a process that requires five stages and several hours.

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Loomis said that from what he saw, most of the inspections themselves were taking roughly twice as long as they usually do.

"It was probably taking 15 to 20 minutes a car and they're going to have to cut that down to six or seven minutes a car," Loomis said. "So they're going to have to cut it about in half."

Of course, some cars, such as the No. 42 Dodge of driver Juan Montoya, took much longer to get through the inspection process. And then there were the lines that all the cars had to snake through, just to get to the front where the actual inspection could take place.

"The line took forever, and because this is a short track, it's kind of hard to get through," Loomis said. "It's not a real good layout [for inspections] and it's hard to get through. But I'm sure they'll improve on that and we'll get through better."

Darby said that all the preparation NASCAR has put into getting the COT program off the ground paid off. But he added that there is no substitute for actual on-the-job experience, which is what made Thursday such a unique experience.

"All the conference calls, all the meetings, all the question-and-answer sessions and even the hands-on stuff that we've done since last June, it was all valuable and all very justified and all worth taking the time to do," Darby said. "But nothing is more valuable than being able to have the extra day here to deal with the guys who are actually racing the cars."

Darby said no teams had major problems. He credited the diligence of race teams for that.

"For the first time out of the box, I'm amazed. I really am. I'm very impressed," he said.

Roy McCauley, crew chief for the No. 2 Dodge of driver Kurt Busch, said that despite the grumbling about how long the overall process took for most teams, no one should be too upset. Not yet, anyway.

"I don't think you can judge from [Thursday] because it was the first time it was done," he said. "I don't care what it is that you do for the first time. The first time is always going to be the hard one, so to speak, no matter what you do. Whether you're inspecting a racecar, building a racecar, or putting an engine on the dyno, the first time is always going to be the hardest.

"I think next week at Martinsville will be a little clearer judge of where things are at. I don't think people should overreact to what they saw [Thursday]."