Win the race, then rip on the COT? Enough already

Well, that didn't take long.

No sooner had Kyle Busch thanked Jeff Burton and Jeff Gordon on national TV for racing him clean during the closing laps of Sunday's Food City 500, did he offer up his verdict of the Car of Tomorrow: "I can't stand to drive them. They suck."

Nice.

After hearing variations on that theme in so many post-race interviews, I too have reached a conclusion on this whole Car of Tomorrow thing: Listening to the toughest drivers in all of motorsports complain like that gets old fast.

Yes, no, maybe so

Some drivers loved it. Race winner Kyle Busch ripped it immediately in Victory Lane. But for the most part, the jury is out on the COT.

• Complete story, click here

Yes, we know it was harder to pass than it's been in the past. We know the car skates up the track instead of rotating through the middle of the turn. We know it wasn't fun out there. We hear you. We've heard you since COT testing began.

For Kyle, Sunday's victory was the culmination of a self-fulfilled prophecy.

"I told Alan [Gustafson, crew chief] as early as the test that I just can't stand to drive this thing," he said. "It's terrible and I hope we can just go out there and win the race and then tell everybody how terrible it is. I'm glad we were able to do it. I'm serious. I told him that."

Oh please. This was the car's first race. Nobody was ever going to have a handle on the car like they wanted. Just take what you learned about finding mechanical grip Sunday and file it away in the same folder next to this Sunday's Martinsville notes.

No amount of public complaining will change anything at this point. Tell it to your engineers. They're the only people who can help.

And let's all move on.

In post-race inspections, the ride-height of Greg Biffle's car was found to be below the minimum. NASCAR has taken the car to its R&D Center in Concord, N.C., for further evaluation.

This should be interesting. There's a lot riding on what Robin Pemberton's lasers, micrometers and RFIDs find. A 2007 precedent of sorts has already been set with regards to ride-height violations. So whatever punishment (if any) is meted out against the 16 team, the world will immediately compare it against Jeff Gordon's relatively minor punishment for an "unintentional" ride-height violation following the Gatorade 150s at Daytona.

If there is even a hint of enforcement inconsistency, you can be sure the "favorable treatment" conspiracy theories will be swirling about like so many black helicopters. I'm certain we've all heard enough of that kind of talk already as well.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.