BRISTOL, Tenn. -- When a driver steps out of the winning racecar and starts ripping the vehicle that he drove to Victory Lane, it doesn't appear to bode well for that new style of racecar.

But the success or failure of NASCAR's much-anticipated Car of Tomorrow depended on who was talking in the wake of Sunday's Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. While race winner Kyle Busch clearly -- and repeatedly -- stated that he hates the COT, other drivers said that it wasn't that big of a deal and most added that it's too soon to judge one way or another.

"I didn't feel like my car handled as good as what we've had here in the past," said Jeff Gordon, who wrestled with his No. 24 Chevrolet all day before driving it to a third-place finish behind Busch and second-place finisher Jeff Burton. "I was just really was having a problem getting it to turn through the middle. Certainly I think we made improvements from the test [at the same track last month] and I think we will continue to make improvements. But we're limited. We're so limited in what we can do to fix some of the issues we have with the car.

"We're going to learn and get smarter about what we can do. ... But there are some things we might not be able to fix."

The basic idea behind the COT is that it is a safer racecar and teams work with the same chassis, so there are limited adjustments that can be made to the machine -- especially during a race. It also looks and handles differently because of slightly wider and taller dimensions, and because it has a "front splitter" and rear wing that the older cars do not have.

But Burton said that it doesn't really matter what the drivers think of the new car and how it looks or handles. He said that it is apparent that NASCAR is committed to it, so everyone needs to adjust to the car, and not so much the other way around.

"I think the media is trying to make so much about the Car of Tomorrow," Burton said. "We think about it as our job to make it work. We don't have any choice. I mean, what choice do we have? We can complain about it, or we can love it. But at the end of the day, they're going to pay us points and they're going to pay us money based on how we finish. (Continued)