Coming to grips with COT not easy, but can we try?

We're all creatures of habit. I certainly am. You are too. We all like certain things certain ways. But in this line of business, I've learned to accept change as a fact of life. After all, racing is as good an example there is of how change is both inevitable and ultimately welcome.

Change is the very reason why we race. Every time there's a race, there's a chance for a driver, a car or a team to change the status quo. Competition and the drive to improve our position are what make us all better than we once were.

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In the wake of the race in Phoenix on Saturday night, we're all coming to grips with the emerging realities of the Car of Tomorrow. Tops on the list is the fact that the COT is not the same kind of hot rod that the current car is. Pole times are a couple of tenths slower this year compared to last. And they're harder to drive.

You can hear the frustration in the drivers' voices as they describe how the COT behaves and how it's different than the current car. The primary criticism seems to revolve around how it's simply too tight and won't rotate through the middle of the turns -- the result of fundamental front-end geometry and suspension changes.

Given their druthers, drivers will always prefer the current car's ability to dial-in different handling characteristics for the various critical points within a single turn. They're hard wired to tweak cars that way. After all, speed is the key to victory, and drivers are paid handsomely to risk life and limb in pursuit of both.

But here's the rub: The current cars are freaks. Beautiful, asymmetrical, offset freaks that go very, very fast but make side-by-side racing at the front of the field the exception, not the rule. It's been handed down from on high that the time is right for a change. And they very well may be right.

You know where I'm going with this, right?

In three COT races, the margin of victory has been 0.826 seconds. That's not each race, that's all three races combined. Say what you will about the players involved, these races have all been nail-biters with no margin for error for the victor.

Throughout the field, front to back, the COT races have also shown us that these cars can bang on each other without sending one car or the other into the wall. Again, this is a result of the car's inherently tight handling characteristics (as well as the car's flat flanks and vertical wing-shaped endplates on the rear wing).

An understeering (tight) car is a more stable car -- it doesn't change direction or swap ends without a lot of coaxing. This trait gives the COT the ability to race side-by-side at the limit, bang fenders and escape relatively unscathed.

Conversely, an oversteering (loose) car is not stable. It's prone to change direction with little provocation. In the right dose, that's a good thing. The whole notion of rotating through the middle of the turn is a measured function of oversteer, a feat the COT has proven reluctant to perform.

By luck or design, Gary Nelson and the other evil geniuses at NASCAR have developed a car that, to date, produces closer racing and fantastic finishes. The marketing guy in me says that's a solid way to keep current fans happy, and attract new ones. That is, if we embrace change as a good thing.

But making that change comes at the expense of drivers (and teams), the most visible and vocal ambassadors of the sport. Whether or not it's a good idea to make drivers shoulder that burden has yet to fully play itself out. I suspect that as long as they keep cashing those paychecks, drivers will learn to live with the confounded frustration of it all.

Another big change that emerged from Phoenix was Jeff Gordon's historic 76th Nextel Cup race victory. When it comes to rewriting the NASCAR record book, change doesn't come easy. And this one has significant meaning as it pulls Gordon into a sixth-place tie with the great Dale Earnhardt for career victories.

Apparently, this didn't sit well with a number of fans.

Knowing full well his was a double-edged achievement, Gordon did what we all wish we could one day do: drive a victory lap and fly the black 3 in tribute to Dale (watch video). But because he's Jeff Gordon, he became the target of dozens of beer bombs hurled from the grandstands and countless insults launched on message boards and call-in shows on radio and television.

Shameful.

Don't get me wrong, I have my driver prejudices too. But by hating in that context, those people did a far greater dishonor to Dale than they ever did to Jeff.

Class act that he is, leave it to Dale Earnhardt Jr. to be the first in Victory Lane to congratulate Jeff on his accomplishment and to sincerely thank him for the gesture. The truth is a powerful thing.

So is change. We can't stop it. We're lucky to delay it. But it's upon us now and we'll all do ourselves a great service by accepting it as it comes. The sooner we do, the sooner we can measure the greatness of men and machines that have come before, and the sooner we can look forward to the promise of great things to come.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.