COT implementation has teams on new timetable

Motivated by close finishes in the first few Car of Tomorrow races and spurred on by team owners who'd rather not spend money to operate two programs at one time, NASCAR has scrapped its planned three-year rollout and will fully implement the new, winged vehicle next season. (Full story.)

That wasn't supposed to happen until 2009 under the original plan, which gradually phased in the COT from short tracks to superspeedways. Now, after just five COT events -- none of them on tracks larger than 1.3 miles in length -- NASCAR has decided to run the boxier vehicle with the rear wing and the front splitter for the entire '08 schedule.

Car of Tomorrow

• Cost Management
• Driver Safety
• Improved Competition
• A New Era

That seems just fine with team owners. Right now they're spending money to develop and race the COT as well as the standard car, which will become obsolete after this year's season finale.

"It's very difficult for teams to run both the Car of Tomorrow and the current car simultaneously," said J.D. Gibbs, president of Joe Gibbs Racing. "Across the board, most everyone's feeling in the sport is that we've come out of the box and had some good experiences with [the COT], so let's just implement it full-time in 2008. We're on board with that, and for us, it makes a lot of sense."

Three of the five COT races run this season were on short tracks. NASCAR is scheduled to use the vehicle in 16 events this year, the next coming June 3 at Dover International Speedway. The scheduled rollout had the COT being used primarily this season at tracks shorter than 1.5 miles in length, with the exception of events at Talladega Superspeedway and on road courses. The plan would then add intermediate tracks, such as 1.5-mile Lowe's Motor Speedway, next year.

But NASCAR liked the average margin of victory in COT races, which is .505 seconds compared to 1.286 seconds with the standard car. And team owners seem ready to unburden themselves of an older vehicle that's only becoming a drain on money and resources.

"We definitely think this is a good thing," said Jay Frye, general manager of Ginn Motorsports. "This is going to allow us to put more of our resources in that direction, and be even more prepared for next season." (Continued)