By Lee Spencer
Lee Spencer is a senior NASCAR writer for FOXSports.com.

The Car of Tomorrow is the Car of Now. End of discussion.

NASCAR's new full-time race car held up well during preseason tests at Daytona International Speedway, but how will it perform when a full field of 43 cars takes to the track on Feb. 17 for the much hyped 50th Daytona 500? Will all the fanfare surrounding the Great American Race be all for naught? Will the new car live up to NASCAR's expectations and stimulate side-by-side racing or will it have fans begging for a return to the good old days, and the good old car?

In NASCAR's State of the Sport speech last month in Concord, N.C., Chairman and CEO Brian France said the sanctioning body is "committed and convinced" that the new car will be competitive.

"Based on what we've seen in the events last year and what we're seeing today, we're very comfortable that that car is one we can build around for a long, long time," France said.

The jury is still out on whether the car will be competitive at the larger tracks. Although Cup teams raced the car at Talladega Superspeedway last season, the 2.66-miler is not a handling track like Daytona International Speedway.

Kevin Harvick, winner of last year's Daytona 500, compared the ride of his Chevrolet Impala SS at Talladega to the positive feeling of "driving a Cadillac." But Harvick is quick to add that the aged surface at Daytona will provide a much different complexion than 'Dega, with less big packs and more breakaway racing. Although the new car makes it easier to push competitors, drivers will be more reliant on the cars behind them.

"I think the racetrack kind of dictates the type of racing that it is," Harvick said. "But (Daytona's) also very rough and the asphalt's worn out. In the past, we really haven't had those big packs at Daytona. We've had them at Talladega.

"I think the handling comes into effect. I think that's what you have to concentrate on at Daytona. You're still going to have the packs. The way that the cars draft, there is more pushing and shoving than there probably has been at Daytona in the past. It's always been there at Talladega.

Harvick added that the cars were "very easy to drive side-by-side." Teams worked feverishly over the final weeks of the off-season, zeroing on handling and attempting to make the cars as comfortable for the drivers as possible in order to maneuver in and out of traffic.

Two-time defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson was still searching for his comfort zone before Speedweeks.

"As far as the cars on the track, I think what I saw in our test session, it's gonna be a handful," said Johnson, the 2006 Daytona 500 winner. "Typically, the cars end up tight there. (For me and my teammates), once you were three or four cars back in line the car was really loose and really uncomfortable to drive.

"So I think there could be a lot of crashes. There could be a lot of ill-handling cars. Daytona always does challenge us over like Talladega. It's just such a different animal. So I do expect it to be its typical Daytona — difficult and tough."

Certainly, the single-digit drafting packs at Daytona testing were not a clear indication as to what competitors can expect in the 500. However, the Budweiser Shootout and Gatorade Duels will offer a better precursor of how things will shape up for the Great American Race.

"The fact that the cars were so loose there in the test session had me a little nervous," Johnson said. "I look forward to the shootout and also to drafting practice when we have more cars out there to really see what they're going to do.

"I hope that they're better. I don't think it will be. I'd be foolish thinking that. Once we all get out there in the big pack, we'll learn more. I expect the car is really difficult to drive."

While Johnson and the other Sprint Cup veterans had acclimated to the old style car, newcomers like AJ Allmendinger and rookie Patrick Carpentier welcome a single style model. Allmendinger said that a good portion of his growing pains in 2007 stemmed from transitioning to both cars during his freshman season.

"It just helps me in that I just have to worry about one car," Allmendinger said. "I actually enjoy driving this car more than I drove the standard car. To focus on one car and know that's the only thing we have to keep getting better each weekend, it's a lot better."

For Carpentier, whose career centered in open-wheel racing, he feels the new car is more representative of what he's used to competing in. Still, the brutality of Daytona and the subsequent effects to the cars concern him.

"To me, it's closer to what I'm used to," Carpentier said. "We're used to having a lot of guys working with data acquisition and stuff. We won't have it in the car race weekend.

"I just like the car, I like the way it feels. The thing I didn't like about it, I did some bump-drafting at Daytona, the front end is easily damaged. After it was damaged I couldn't stay in the draft. It's fragile. You've got to be careful with it in that sense."

Nevertheless, the Daytona 500 will set the tone for the rest of the season. If the 500 is a flop, where does the sport go from here with the new car?

"The competition part will come," said NASCAR president Mike Helton. "Down the road, there might be another generation of a racecar in NASCAR racing because that's what we do is try to stay ahead of the game.

"But this car is real. It's easy to adjust once the full cycle of development has taken place, which is wide open right now because this is the only car the Sprint Cup teams have to work with in 2008. There's no question in my mind that this car will be as good or a better racecar than what we saw in 2005 or 2006."

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Ryan Newman, Daytona 500 Champion!!
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Maybe I'm just young at heart but......
I like the new look with the wing and all.
Makes the cars look pretty "tough" IMHO

But then again there is the old school side of me....
These new cars are fabercated metal art galleries zoom'in round the track.
I miss the old days when the gutted a factory car and raced it.
Now those were real "Stock" cars!!
Gezzz anyone remember race on Sunday buy on Monday?
Seems that NASCAR got away from that concept long ago.

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The JACK CREW!!!

A year later, NASCAR’s new car still running under caution, drivers say

DAVID POOLE
The Charlotte Observer
Thursday, Mar. 20, 2008

NASCAR’s car of tomorrow came full cycle with Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, completing its first year of competition in the Sprint Cup Series.

The car has been used in 21 races – 16 of last year’s 36 events and the first five races of its first full season. So as the Cup Series takes its first weekend off of 2008, it seems like a good time to take stock of where the car is and where it might be headed.

“There’s been a lot of progress with the new car,” said Kyle Busch, who won the car’s inaugural race at Bristol on March 25, 2007 and then complained about it in his Victory Lane interview.

“It’s still an animal to drive,” said Busch, who is one of only four drivers to win more than one race in the new car. “It’s definitely making us earn our pay. That’s what we’re here for and that’s why we’re the professionals and the best in the world, supposedly.”

Jimmie Johnson won five times last year in the car and is second only to Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon in points scored in it. But Johnson is off to a slow start in 2008 as the car moves to the circuit’s bigger tracks.

“On the easier tracks where grip is not all that difficult, the short tracks where aero (dynamics) is not all that important, the racing has stayed very similar,” Johnson said. “When you get on the bigger tracks it really puts everything to the test.

“Darlington, I remember last year was just a pain to drive and it was ridiculous how slow we had to go to stay on course. I think at tracks like Darlington, Atlanta, Michigan, Pocono, you’re going to hear a lot complaining. It’s going to be a tough, tough process to get the car right.”

Cup teams continue to work with shock absorbers, springs and the handful of other things NASCAR allows them to adjust on the car.

The car is still evolving, but the question lingers how much change NASCAR will allow and how fast it will allow that to come.

“There are a lot of things about it that still need some work and hopefully the window is still cracked open for some slow change,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said.

“Maybe there will be some slow, methodical evolution for this car over the next two to three years because it is obviously here to stay.

“I would hate to think that this is exactly how this car is going to be three years from now. Hopefully we aren’t too bullheaded to not want to build them the right way.”

But Gordon said NASCAR’s reluctance to change the car’s basic package has been a good move.

“The thing I really give NASCAR a lot of credit on is that a lot of teams and drivers said, ‘We need to change this, we need to change that, we need to do this, we need to do that,’ ” Gordon said.

“Everybody was giving their opinions on what needed to happen with this car and NASCAR stuck to its guns. They believed the more time that the teams spend in competition and testing and all those things that they are going to get this car to do what they need it to do.

“I think that we’ve gotten about 80, 90 percent of that out of it. That they were right on that. But there’s that other 10 or 20 percent.

“I think the racing has been surprisingly good because I thought this car aerodynamically wouldn’t really be able to make as many passes. The first time I drove this car at Michigan I was like, ‘Oh boy, we got our hands full here.’

“Just by working on the car, driving the car more we’ve made big improvements so hopefully we can continue down that same path and continue to make this car what it needs to be. All I care about is putting good racing on out there.”

“If it drives great, doesn’t drive great, if we’re putting good racing on and we’re competitive that’s what matters most to me.”

Kevin Harvick drives for Richard Childress Racing, which put all three of its Cup cars in the Chase last year and has all three – Harvick, Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer – in the top nine so far this year.

“We have had a very open mind to it,” Harvick said. “It has taken all three teams to help progress things faster. We have worked hard as an organization and still have a lot of work to do to continue going forward.

“That is the hard thing about it. You can’t stop working because it is going to be a constant progression for a long time.”

After struggling last year with the car, Kasey Kahne has four top-10 finishes in five races so far this year.

“I’ve figured how to drive it much better, I think I do a better job with the car,” Kahne said. “As far as the team, they’ve done an excellent job figuring what that car likes as compared to where we started.

“We’re still not the best car by any means – but we’ve figured out a lot about what that car likes and how that makes me feel and how I drive it.

“We’ve come a long way and still have a way to go.”

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Ryan Newman, Daytona 500 Champion!!
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DAVID POOLE
The Charlotte Observer
Thursday, Mar. 20, 2008

The 20 drivers who’ve scored the most points in the 21 races in which NASCAR’s new car have been used so far:

1. Jeff Gordon, 3,056

2. Jimmie Johnson, 2,987

3. Kyle Busch, 2,953

4. Tony Stewart, 2,941

5. Denny Hamlin, 2,839

6. Clint Bowyer, 2,752

7. Ryan Newman, 2,710

8. Greg Biffle, 2,708

9. Kevin Harvick, 2,694

10. Jeff Burton, 2,633

11. Matt Kenseth, 2,600

12. Carl Edwards, 2,576

13. Martin Truex Jr., 2,477

14. Dale Earnhardt Jr., 2,396

15. Kurt Busch, 2,283

16. Kasey Kahne, 2,254

17. Juan Pablo Montoya, 2,103

18. Bobby Labonte, 2,091

19. Casey Mears, 2,064

20. Jamie McMurray, 2,009

Winners with the new car

Jimmie Johnson, 5

Carl Edwards, 4

Jeff Gordon, 3

Kyle Busch, 2

Clint Bowyer, 1

Jeff Burton, 1

Denny Hamlin, 1

Juan Montoya, 1

Ryan Newman, 1

Tony Stewart, 1

Martin Truex Jr., 1

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