Drivers still have concerns as COT goes full time in '08

The Car of Tomorrow is dead! Long live the NASCAR racecar!

It's simply a matter of nomenclature, because the vehicle formerly known as the Car of Tomorrow will be the full-time NASCAR racecar in 2008 -- rear wing, front splitter and all.

Other than a test at Atlanta in October, drivers don't have much experience in the new car on intermediate speedways, but Tony Stewart, for one, isn't making dire predictions about NASCAR's full-time racing machine.

"I don't think [the transition is] going to be huge, because we do have laps with it now, and we have laps at Atlanta with it, which is a tough place," Stewart said. "So I think it'll fall right in line.

"Obviously, NASCAR is a smart group of people, and you look at the races this year with the COT cars, they've been pretty exciting, so to sit there and think there's going to be a big train wreck taking these cars to mile-and-a-half and two-mile tracks -- I don't think it's going to happen. After we went through the Atlanta test, I think we all had a lot higher comfort level in knowing these cars are going to be OK."

It's true that most drivers would prefer to have the car turn more easily through the corners. It's also true that most drivers are ready and willing to deal with whatever challenges the car presents in 2008.

Kyle Busch, who won the first COT race at Bristol in March, remains one of the car's most vocal detractors, but he's in a small minority at this point.

What would he do to get the new car to drive better? Busch was asked.

"Go back to the old car," answered Busch, who will team with Stewart and Denny Hamlin in a trio of Joe Gibbs Racing Camrys next season. Because of the tight limitations in the rules governing the construction of the new cars, Busch says he doesn't believe the cars will be "racy."

Others had more realistic suggestions. Hamlin argued for more front suspension travel, a sentiment shared by Daytona 500 winner Kevin Harvick.

"I think that might help it a little bit," Harvick said. "But it doesn't seem like the car is as aero-dependent as the other car seemed to be. Maybe we look at the tires and try to make them a little bit better and matched up with the car a little bit better. We've done some tire tests, and it's not just putting softer tires on, or softer sidewalls or anything like that. It's just a combination that fits the car on that particular racetrack."

Dodge driver Kurt Busch looks at the transition as an opportunity as well as a venture into the unknown. Though teams won't have to build two distinctly different types of cars in 2008, Busch says the full-time use of the new car will present its own set of challenges.

"We tested it at Atlanta last year, and we've got [tests at] Daytona coming up, California, Vegas," he said. "We raced at Bristol and Martinsville. So that gets us through the first seven races, and that's a good point to sit down and see how we've done, analyze what we need to change. So we're making changes right now, during the offseason, as far as the engineering process and what ideas can we bring to the table. Quite a bit of testing and more fresh ideas is what we need.

"It's definitely going to be more difficult, because what it does is it creates that environment where you feel like you're a rookie, going to all these racetracks with a car that you don't know how it's going to drive. It's exciting in one sense and difficult in another."

To Jeff Burton, alternating the new car with the old car in 2007 provided something of a security blanket. That's gone now, and he views the transition to the full-time use of the new car as a mixed bag.

"The fact that we get to focus on one type of car makes it easier," Burton said. "The fact that this car is very difficult for the drivers and the teams makes it harder. Last year when we worked with the Car of Tomorrow, we knew there was a normal car race coming -- an old car race coming -- and we could kind of fall back on that.

"But next year [the new car is] everything. In some ways, that makes it harder. There's a lot of talk about the Car of Tomorrow, and some criticism about the Car of Tomorrow. I don't think we should judge that thing just yet. I think its best days are ahead of it. It's going to be fine. It's going to work out, and the races are going to be good.

"They don't drive as good -- don't get me wrong -- but when you get through six months of only driving that car, you're going to forget how your other car drove, and you're not going to have those conversations anymore. The conversation's going to be, 'I got beat because of this,' rather than the Car of Tomorrow."