NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow Does More Harm Than Good

When NASCAR designed the Car of Tomorrow, which has become the Car of Today, they wanted a vehicle that would be safer for the drivers and put everyone on a level playing field in terms of cost. They also hoped that their new development would produce better, more exciting racing in the long run.

In terms of safety NASCAR deserves an A+, a C in cost, and an F in hoping for better racing.

The new car has done a wonderful job in keeping the drivers safe—just ask Jeff Gordon about his Vegas crash or Michael McDowell about his Texas tumble.

However, it's hard to say if it's hurt or helped the car owner save money only because the American economy is hurting everyone. Exhibit A—if NASCAR's most popular driver is struggling to keep a sponsorship, everyone else should also be scared.

As for the racing, there have been some spectacular races last season and this year, but it appears that they are few and far between.

Look at last season's Martinsville race between teammates Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson. The last half of the race we watched as Gordon repeatedly beat on Johnson's back bumper as he tried to perform the short track bump-and-run. However, no matter how hard Gordon hit or how smashed his nose became, Johnson's car never budged and his bumper never bent.

Robin Pemberton explained, "When they used to hit nose-to-tail,the front of the car would put the rear wheels up in the air. Now, it [the COT] won't left the wheels up."

The problem this year seems to be drivers hitting an invisible wall of air everytime they try to pull out and pass the car in front of them or, more likely, getting stuck in the dirty air behind the other car.

That's been the case numerous times this season when a driver just could not close the gap and challenge for position. Then in a post-race interview we would hear about how hard it is to pass with the new car.

Most recently it occurred at Indianapolis when Jimmie Johnson, the fastest car in the field, could not gain any time on leader Denny Hamlin.

The car in the lead was destined to win the race, and Johnson would later prove that when he was ahead of Carl Edwards who found himself playing follow the leader.

"Carl put about as much pressure on us as he could. I knew from chasing Denny the run before that, even if he was a little bit faster, he couldn't get by us," Johnson said.

This past weekend at Pocono we saw Mark Martin struggle to make up the lost ground he had from two bad pit stops, and at the time Martin was the fastest car in the field.

It does need to be said that we have had great races this year, but the fear is that soon we may be seeing a long train of cars around the race track because it's become very difficult to maneuver this car.

And it's well documented how the drivers feel about the car, many saying that it just doesn't drive well and is much heavier than the old car. That could be part of the cause for the horrible race that occurred last week at Indianapolis. More weight puts more stress on the tires,—the result is the Bore-yard 400.

However, NASCAR doesn't want to hear what the drivers say—they had a closed door meeting earlier this year and told them to keep their mouth shut about the new car.

So if the drivers can't say it, I will: I truly fear that soon we may be seeing more of a driver just logging laps while leading and all the exciting side-by-side may soon become as extinct as the old car.