Drivers to put COT through first road test at Infineon

Nextel Cup Series drivers will be put to the test again this week as the Car of Tomorrow goes road-course racing for the first time.

Sunday's Toyota/Save Mart 350 (3:30 p.m. ET, TNT) at Infineon Raceway will mark the COTs seventh race of the season, but first away from an oval.

"The original design of the Car of Tomorrow has many characteristics of the current road-course car," said Brett Bodine, NASCAR director of cost research. "Particularly in the fact that both are more symmetric than the oval track current cars."

Having raced in the COT six times previously, drivers are beginning to become accustomed to its characteristics and expect more of the same this week.

"I think they are going to be a challenge to drive," Harvick said. "The forward bite is not as good as the other cars. The cars are also a little slower and hard to handle."

Tony Stewart felt very much the same way after testing the COT on the road course at Virginia International Raceway.

"Well, it crashes the same. I went off track twice and tore up a lot of stuff," Stewart said. "It's just slower. It doesn't drive as well, obviously. It's been top-heavy everywhere we've been, so we're kind of used to it. It'll be the same on a road course."

Much talk has been made of the front-end splitter, one of the defining characteristics of the COT.

"I think the splitter is not as big of an issue as we believed it would be. The splitter has proven to be an extremely durable piece of material," Jeff Burton said. "I could be proven wrong but when we tested at VIR last month, the curves were pretty aggressive, and I don't think it's going to be that big of an issue. Certainly it's potentially an issue but I don't think the splitter is going to be that big of an issue in and of itself."

With that said, Burton warned:

"It's a lower grip car and it doesn't make as much grip as the cars we are running today and on a road course, it will make a big difference. They're heavier and the CG [center of gravity] is higher. There are a lot of things that work against the car driving well and that will show up on a road course." (Continued)