It's good to be ON PIT ROW.
On the March 6, 2007 episode of our show, Steve, J.P. and I were fortunate to be joined by our friend and regular guest, Jeff Hammond, from Fox Sports and the Speed Channel. Jeff always has great insight into whatever is happening in the NASCAR world. Whether he is answering another Daryl Waltrip question or clearing up a technical issue for us, his sincerity and his passion for the sport are always evident.
One of our Fast Lap segment questions was on how similar, sort of, the new Car of Tomorrow is, to the cars of the late seventies and early eighties. We brought this up to Jeff, thinking he would laugh us off, and he actually thinks that there are many similarities and went on to list several. He also told us that many of the teams, during testing, are finding that old notes on setups for the cars from years past are proving to be valuable in setting up the COT. The following is a bit of Jeff's blog on the subject.
At Daytona, Kyle Petty told me that the COT's handling characteristics were similar to cars that he's had experience with in the past. He's pulling out old notes to try to understand something that's totally new here. Petty may have the right approach, and having the history that they have in the sport could help him. more...
There has been too much grousing about this new car. Just shut up and drive.
Picture credit Getty Images.
One other thing that Jeff said about the COT was, "Stop calling it the car of tomorrow. The sooner it becomes just, the racecar, the better off we'll be." I think NASCAR set this whole thing up for the grousing and complaining by phasing it in over 2 years (originally 3 years). If NASCAR would have said that they were going to the COT to start the 2008 season, everyone would have been working toward that end with much less controversy.
When NASCAR bought the Rolex Grand-Am sports car series, they designed and implemented the "Daytona Prototype". This car is much like the COT in that it is a spec racecar, which after a slow start, has led to some great racing in that series. I believe, by mid season 2008, everyone will have stopped the complaining about the COT and will be enjoying better racing. After all, "Normal is, what normal is."
Posted by: Steve | March 08, 2007 at 09:31 AM