New car's durability factors into the competition level

Imagine yourself on a tight interstate loop for 500 miles, motoring around at 75 mph, bumping and banging into and off the cars around you.

At the end of your trip, do you think your sense of humor would be in tact?

Aric Almirola's certainly was after 500 miles on the Martinsville Speedway last weekend where the No. 8 Chevrolet endured and doled out more than his fair share of hits.

Of the 18 cautions that flew during the Sprint Cup event, Almirola was involved in four of them.

"I felt like Cole Trickle out there," said Almirola, making reference to the lead character in the stock-car movie Days of Thunder. "The only thing that didn't hit us or I didn't hit was the pace car. It seemed like every time we had something going we got knocked back and had to battle our way through the field."

But the notable achievement is that he did just that, at least for awhile.

Though his car was hit from every direction during Sunday's bump-and-bang fest, the No. 8 was able to stay on the lead lap and run in the top 15 most of the day until a final hit late in the race punctured his radiator, sending the Dale Earnhardt Inc. driver in a cloud of smoke and back to the garage for good.

Until that moment, he was holding his own; more importantly, so did his car.

Built to battle, the new car's durability is rivaling that of Rubbermaid.

As a result, the days of merely "riding around" the track are over. Simply finishing the race and keeping your nose clean is no longer acceptable, because more cars are finishing despite taking substantial hits on the track.

Statistics from NASCAR show DNFs are decreasing.

In six races this season, only 10 cars have been taken out of a race due to accidents and unable to finish whereas in 2005, in the first six races with the old car, 26 accidents forced cars off the track rendering them unable to return.

"As far as running into things, these new cars are somewhat like tanks, you can run into stuff. Cosmetically, you'll tear the car up, but not to the point where you can't drive it," Almirola said. "Like Martinsville, we didn't spin out or run into the wall, but people were constantly running into the back of our car and forcing me into the car in front of me. ... I felt like I was playing the NASCAR video game out there."

Aric Almirola

Fewer DNFs

More cars have been running at the finish through the first six races of this season than the previous two seasons at the same point.

2008 - 238 total cars running at finish

2007 - 226 total cars running at finish

2006 - 227 total cars running at finish

A comparison of the four tracks at which the new car has raced for the first time this season (Daytona, Fontana, Las Vegas and Atlanta).

2008 - 157 total cars running at finish

2007 - 146 total cars running at finish

• Almirola: Community

The new car is more equipped to take a hit, but also the design of the car, with the bumpers now aligned, plays a role in minimizing the chances of it spinning out when there is car-to-car contact on the track. We've seen this on a number of occasions; the ability of a driver to control his car seems to be enhanced with the aerodynamic features it has.

"Before, with the old car you could get under them and pick up their back tires and spin them out, this car doesn't do that," Almirola said.

Safety features, NASCAR says, such as the strengthened roll cage, larger greenhouse area, and energy management materials in the door panels, have helped make the car safer, sturdier and more durable.

But Almirola said fans may be seeing less carnage because teams are still working out the kinks of the new car.

"There are still a lot of unknowns and I think drivers are still tip-toeing around the track at times," he added.

Perhaps, but the new car has escalated the competition. Before, inexperienced drivers such as Almirola were told to go out and log laps, concentrate on finishing the race, finishing being the focus. That isn't going to cut it in today's game and Almirola and others in his shoes are becoming more aware of that fact.

"Anymore these days if you cross the finish line at the end of the race and you're on the lead lap, you've had a competitive day because it's really easy to get a lap down in these races," said Almirola, who is splitting his season with Cup veteran Mark Martin. "We run green for so much in these races now. That's our goal, to run competitive and run all the laps every week. Not just run all the laps, we don't want to log laps. We want to run competitive, so that's important for us."

Furthering the durability point, last season at the second New Hampshire race with the new car, all 43 cars were running at the finish, a first since 1998. And at the Bristol race last month, 42 cars finished the race -- the most in the history of Bristol Motor Speedway.

The new car debuts at Texas this weekend, where the speeds are faster averaging 145 mph. Teams that lack prior experience in the new car and how it runs will be looking to notes and setups from similar tracks and make adjustments accordingly.

So, it will be interesting to see who feels like Cole Trickle by the end of the race this time around. It won't be Almirola, though. Martin is driving the 8 this week.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.