DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Gary Nelson, one of the "fathers" of NASCAR's new car currently used in the Cup Series, and Jeff Gordon are among those who think the decision to abandon the car's rear-mounted wing in favor of a traditional flat-blade spoiler is no big deal.

NASCAR issued a bulletin to Cup team owners Friday. On next week's Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour, NASCAR is expected to announce possible changes to bump-drafting and out-of-bounds rules at Daytona and Talladega and possibly a larger restrictor plate for Speedweeks, but right now the spoiler is a given.

Wing go

An open test at Charlotte Motor Speedway has been scheduled as part of a transition from a rear wing to a rear spoiler.

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"I don't really expect any big revelations," Gordon said. "I mean, I don't think it's going to like be night and day, but I might be wrong. I think that their goal is to meet the downforce levels that we have now. I'm sure they've done some wind tunnel testing, as well, to figure that out."

Nelson was the Cup Series director until the end of the 2001 season before stepping into a research and development role that including working daily with the former Car of Tomorrow that began its phase-in in 2007 and has been in use full time since 2008.

"We designed the car originally to go either way, so either the spoiler or the wing would bolt onto the exact same spot," Nelson said. "We brought a couple cars to Daytona and tested both ways, and the drivers chose the wing. We said, 'OK, let's go with it, but always be able to go back if we need to, without having to redesign the car -- it's just a bolt-on piece either way.'

"It's that simple, so to me, I don't really know how big of a news item it is."

Gordon was one of several drivers who said that, with NASCAR's overall ban on testing, he couldn't imagine doing more than the March 23-24 test at the 1.5-mile Charlotte Motor Speedway.

"The first thing that I've heard from our engineers is that a rear spoiler should add total downforce to the car, which might change the balance and give it a little more front [downforce] to it, which I think would be a great thing -- but everybody has different theories," Gordon said. "Until we get out there on the track -- and the wind tunnel is not always the most accurate way to test these things -- but we need more front downforce.

"Every weekend, every team out there is complaining the car won't turn in the middle, won't turn in the middle, won't turn in the middle. I'm up for anything that would get the car to turn in the middle."

But, as Carl Edwards said last weekend at Sprint's Sound & Speed in Nashville, Tenn., Gordon said he'd be in favor of less overall downforce rather than more, putting performance back in the hands of the drivers.

"I don't think we should be adding downforce to the car to be honest with you," Gordon said. "I think that if we really want to make the racing better, we need to take some downforce away. But this car's high [center of gravity] and all the right-side weight and all that stuff, maybe it does need more downforce."

Kurt Busch, who pushed his then-Penske Racing teammate Ryan Newman to the 2008 Daytona 500 victory, wasn't involved with the initial development of the new car. But he said if downforce with the spoiler is equal to the wing, the former might create a big difference, particularly at Speedweeks.

"From what I can gather, they're talking about trying to make a change with this rear spoiler that is very close to the rear wing as far as downforce," Busch said. "That's the big concern. If we're going to get a big shift in downforce, that's going to throw all the teams for a loop. I don't think NASCAR is looking for that.

"One thing I've always pushed for is to get the spoiler back on the car to get that side draft. That happens at mile-and-a-halfs, it happens at 2-mile tracks and it primarily happens at the restrictor-plate tracks where two cars are side by side and they have a tough time breaking away from each other because you can side draft more prominently with a spoiler on the car than you can with a wing.

"The air can escape underneath the wing whereas with a spoiler, it can't. It creates a bigger hole, other cars can stay closer together [so] it creates tighter racing, bigger packs."

Mark Martin also said he had nothing to do with the initial call for a wing, but was more emphatic, calling the decision "not a world changer, just the right move."

"The spoiler is going to look like a traditional stock car," Martin said. "And I think that is huge. I think that's big for us all, everyone -- fans, competitors and all.

"The performance of the spoiler may be a little bit different, but that configuration isn't, I don't think, completely defined yet."

NASCAR said as much in its bulletin and also said, as was the case with the wings, that they would be supplied by NASCAR rather than fabricated by the teams.

"So in the end the performance of the spoiler should be similar to what we have with the wing with a much more traditional look," Martin said. "And the effects on the race track will be continued great racing with improvement going forward all the time."

But defending Daytona 500 winner Matt Kenseth said he did have one concern in going from the wing configuration, with its end plates that provided some side force that was more forgiving to race cars in yaw, to a spoiler.

"I assume it's because of the wing this car has always been so forgiving," Kenseth said. "There's never really been a penalty for making a mistake, and there's never really been a reward for keeping it off the wall all day, because you can slam them into the wall so hard and they still run the same speed. You can get them sideways 45 degrees and almost anybody can catch them.

"They're so forgiving with that wing and everything. I think this is going to get it back to being a little more like what we had before, maybe a little less forgiving and make qualifying a little bit more exciting, where some people might get over the edge and not be able to catch it, type of thing. I don't know what it'll do, but I think it'll make it a little bit more difficult."

Newman raised the obvious point that's recently been ignored, namely the fact that the new cars seem more apt to take off and fly when they get backwards with the wings versus spoilers. But ironically, unlike Busch, he thinks the wings helped the racing.

"I always said personally I like the looks of the spoiler over the wing," Newman said. "I think that the wing has had some benefits and it's had some drawbacks. The benefits, I think, were the way the cars race side by side together. I think the side force -- the biggest problem with the Truck Series in my opinion is when a truck gets inside another truck, it gets really loose -- and I think that the wing made our side-by-side racing better.

"But I think with our problems that we've seen at the fast race tracks, and fortunately we haven't seen it outside the restrictor-plate tracks; when a car gets spun around, it's typically going to go for a ride. At places like Texas and Atlanta and Charlotte, I don't remember seeing a car getting spun around to the point that it could get airborne, so I think that that wing that creates that downforce going forward also creates lift going backwards.

"And I think that secondly, it also blocks some of the air, in layman's terms from the roof flaps, which in turn are designed to keep the car down. I don't know how much testing was done when the wing was put in place in respect to all these things, but I think in the end NASCAR is doing a lot of work and doing a lot of great things to do what's best.

"I think having a test like [in March] is great. I've been a very big advocate of no testing, but I think this is a good thing for the sport, and I think it's a great race track to test at in respect to what we can learn with a spoiler versus a wing for all race tracks."

Nelson even said he could see the wings and spoilers being used interchangeably, depending on the facility, though the bulletin NASCAR sent to its Cup teams on Friday didn't indicate that course.

"In simple terms, you could do a track here [with a spoiler] and a wing at a different track," Nelson said. "The guys change brakes, they change engines and they change suspensions based on what track they're going to and the needs of that track. In that regard, when you think about it, a wing may be the best thing at one track and a spoiler may be better at another.

"But you don't get that experience until you get some time with it. But we put [the wing] on there because we had data that said it was better, so anyone who's saying one or the other would be better, should have something to prove that.

"But things change. Maybe if we did the test again drivers would pick the spoiler this time. To me, it's not a something that a guy in the stands or a guy standing on pit road could say 'it would be better if it was this way or that way.'

"It got that way because back-to-back testing said it was better [then]. But when you look at it now, maybe the whole package of power and tires and the way that the aero is and the bump stops -- all of those things that make up a lap on a race car -- maybe it's time to change. But either way it's not a big deal."

Clint Bowyer said keeping the fans in mind was paramount and this change addressed that.

"I think as a fan of this sport, that's what we need -- we need to create a positive change that keeps people tuned in to what we all love in this sport and make racing good, keep racing as strong as it's been over the years," Bowyer said. "And I think this is a change that people can see at home on TV and even in the grandstands.

"You know, they've made a lot of changes to this car, there's no question. They've made several changes to this car since its inception, but they haven't made a big change, and I think this is a big change and it's going to keep people tuned in to what we do."

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