The highly anticipated Car of Tomorrow (COT) made its debut at Bristol Motor Speedway in late March and has two events under its belt after last week's Goody's Cool Orange 500 at Martinsville Speedway. Up until the race at Bristol, teams had only become acquainted with the car through a NASCAR-mandated test session, individual tests and the wind tunnel. Armed with actual race data, teams will go back to the drawing board to analyze where they stand in regard to progress with their respective COT programs.
The COT program has been a subject of controversy, especially since NASCAR announced last year that the Nextel Cup Series would begin to phase the car into full-time competition during the 2007 season, with 2009 being the season that the car would be raced exclusively. Rumors have started to circulate that NASCAR may make the COT the exclusive car for the Nextel Cup Series as early as next season. The car will be raced at all short tracks such as Bristol, Martinsville and Richmond, as well as one-mile tracks like Phoenix, Dover and Darlington. The COT will makes its superspeedway debut at Talladega this season when the Nextel Cup Series visits the 2.66-mile track in October.
Dale Jarrett and the #44 UPS Racing Team have made great strides in developing the COT program considering this is a brand new race team. Jarrett said the COT cars are basically like any other race cars that have been introduced to Nextel Cup Racing during the last several years.
"It's like any other car - you have to find what makes each particular kind work," Jarrett explained. "You're never happy with them until you find that, no matter what type of car it is - speedway, short track car or Car of Tomorrow. You're just not happy with them until you get them to work."
While the COT cars are dramatically different looking than the cars that are currently raced at the down force tracks, Jarrett said that the UPS Team has learned that the factors that make COT cars run well are not all that different.
"You still have to make the front-end work in these cars," Jarrett explained. "Because of the bump-stomps and the splitter on the front of these cars, that makes things totally different as to how you go about making the car travel and work. You obviously have to keep the splitter on and not hit the bump-stomp to the point that you are going to tear them up."
Although the 2007 NASCAR season has been a bit of a struggle for the three Michael Waltrip Racing teams, the UPS Team appears to have a decent handle on their COT program. While the UPS Team has had limited time in competition with their COT cars as a result of the accident in Bristol, Jarrett said the short-track program is in better shape than other parts of the team's program.
"The car was actually good in the little racing we've been able to do," Jarrett said. "One of the concerns about these cars has been the potential for an aero-push but I don't think we'll be able to see how that may affect the cars until we get to tracks like Phoenix and Richmond, where aerodynamics come into play."
The one aspect of the car that has received excellent marks is in respect to safety. Jarrett endured one of the hardest hits of the first two races with his accident at Bristol.
"The car did its job," Jarrett said. "As far as safety goes, and I thought the racing was pretty good, but there's still work to be done and NASCAR will probably get a little tougher in the inspection process than they were these first couple races but it should be interesting to see how this plays out through the course of the season and what teams may try to do at future races."
Teams will not have long to massage their COT programs, as its next scheduled race is the upcoming Subway 500 at Phoenix International Raceway this month. While all teams in the Nextel Cup Series are on the same page as far as experience with the COT cars, Jarrett said he suspects the larger teams will continue to be the ones that find success first with the new cars.
"I still think the teams that have been working on the car will have the edge, no matter what experience the driver has or what has happened in these first few races," Jarrett said. "The teams that have found out what the car likes and what it takes will go to the front. It makes no difference how much experience the driver has or the team has."
