Give and take can be an artful concept in NASCAR

Attention Deficit Disorder didn't exist when I was a kid.

Had it, some well-meaning school counselor would have certainly diagnosed me with it. My portfolio of 20-some-odd started-but-never-completed paint-by-number dogs, mountain valleys and national monuments is all anyone would need to label me with it for life. (Trust me, there are more examples.)

There's something about the way paint-by-numbers turned out -- or didn't turn out -- that opened the door for the nearest bright, shiny object to distract me and draw me away.

It wasn't until after I spent the weekend thinking about how fans, drivers and teams have begun to wrestle with the reality of the Car of Tomorrow that I understood why I bailed out on all those paintings.

It's all those lines. You can paint within them and create a pretty enough picture, but it'll never be art. For art to happen, you need inspiration, discipline and the courage to paint outside the lines every now and again.

That process is already well underway within NASCAR. And I'm encouraged.

A spec COT chassis will never, in and of itself, be mistaken for art either. That's where the inspiration within the teams comes into play. Translating testing data and decades-old track notes into a solid short-track setup has already brought out the Albrecht Dürer in some crew chiefs. Alan Gustafson and Steve Letarte immediately come to mind.

NASCAR also got in on the act by moving the lines around a bit. At a news conference held Friday, NASCAR announced that minimum ride heights will soon be written into the books. This comes as a result of Greg Biffle's car being found "too low" during post-race inspection.

Technically, the car wasn't too low. According to the rulebook, there is no post-race ride-height minimum for Bristol. In fact, the only tracks that have a post-race ride-height minimum are Daytona and Talladega. There is a pre-race ride height minimum for all tracks, and Biffle's car met that spec at Bristol. So despite it settling below that pre-race minimum, the No. 16 car was never in violation of any rule.

Acknowledging that some degree of chassis settling will occur during a given race, NASCAR has stated that it will work with teams to determine a realistic post-race ride-height minimum for all tracks.

Nice give and take.

At that same news conference, the issue of burning energy-absorbing foam was brought up. It was NASCAR's determination that teams with burning issues either installed the foam incorrectly or didn't install a false floor, as allowed by the rules, to serve as a heat shield. Given Kevin Harvick's fire at the end of the Goody's Cool Orange 500, it's clear that more lines are going to have to move.

Whatever ADD symptoms I had growing up were finally overcome after extensive "Concentrate, or learn to flip McBurgers" therapy. Thankfully, all up and down pit road, I see NASCAR and its teams are pursuing the same treatment.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.