If safety prevails, then COT is worth the fuss

Yes, it has that funny-looking splitter in front, and that rear wing that sends stock-car purists into fits of angry protestation. Sure, it further standardizes vehicles that would be almost indistinguishable if not for the model names scrolled across their front fenders. Granted, it may take teams all day to get through inspection three weeks from now at Bristol Motor Speedway, and drivers longer than that to master its nuances on the racetrack.

Get over it. Because if the Car of Tomorrow truly is the great leap forward in driver safety that NASCAR makes it out to be, then all the competition headaches are worth it.

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Remember when drivers were reluctant to wear the Head and Neck Support (HANS) device because they thought it was too uncomfortable in the car? Remember initial concerns about how the Steel and Foam Energy-Reduction (SAFER) barrier might affect the racing at certain tracks? All of it turned out to be unwarranted. Today, the HANS device and SAFER barrier stand as the two most important safety advances of the past decade, and are as standard in the Nextel Cup Series as tires and fuel.

The Car of Tomorrow holds the same revolutionary potential. This week's test at Bristol, where the COT will debut March 25, was dominated by questions about how the vehicle is inspected, how it handles on the racetrack, and how it may perform at different venues. They're all pertinent issues -- after all, fans buy tickets to see cars race. But they also want to see their favorite drivers walk away from crashes, something the Car of Tomorrow is inherently designed to do.

The splitter and the rear wing get all the attention. But there's also a reinforced driver's side, which can hold energy-absorbing materials and provide more protection from the devastating "T-bone" hit which has injured so many drivers through the years. There's a strengthened, reinforced fuel cell to reduce the chance of fires. And there's a larger cockpit which provides the driver with more than 2 inches of additional headroom, and seats him closer to the center of the car.

Drivers have noticed. "Absolutely, I really do feel safer," Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. "The car has a lot of room in it."

In NASCAR, safety measures are usually implemented reactively and begrudgingly. Even after the death of Dale Earnhardt in 2001, the sanctioning body was slow to accept the HANS device for the life-saving tool that it is. Drivers who kicked and screamed and complained now wouldn't think about getting into their cars without it. The Car of Tomorrow is remarkable because it is a truly proactive safety initiative implemented during one of the safest stretches in NASCAR history.

Blessedly, NASCAR's national divisions have been without a catastrophic accident since the pre-SAFER barrier wreck at Richmond International Raceway that ended Jerry Nadeau's career in 2003. But David Reutimann's horrific crash last weekend at California Speedway -- complete with frightening in-car camera footage of him slumped over and unresponsive -- is a stark reminder that risk in auto racing can never be completely eliminated.

We like to think that it can. We like to think that devices like the HANS and SAFER barrier will prevent another dark episode like that which unfolded on the final lap at Daytona six years ago. We like to think that the sight of drivers walking away from terrible accidents -- Reutimann at California, Tony Stewart in the Daytona 500, Kasey Kahne at Indianapolis last season -- means that complete safety has been achieved.

It hasn't. Safe periods like the one NASCAR is enjoying now tend to breed complacency, which in auto racing is the greatest killer of them all. NASCAR, to its credit, isn't sitting by. Rather, a sanctioning body that once had to be force-fed safety advances has developed a new vehicle that promises to take driver safety to new heights.

So go ahead, gripe about how the rear wing makes the stocks look too much like sports cars. Fret about how the new vehicle may affect the product on the racetrack. And then applaud when a driver walks away from a serious accident, after the Car of Tomorrow has done its most important job.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.