The impression I get when I watch the Car of Tomorrow is that we're getting the parity NASCAR so hoped we'd see, but that it may not stick around long once green flags fly.To wit: Dave Blaney won the pole for the COT race at New Hampshire, and guys like Johnny Sauter and Reed Sorensen ripped off A-1 qualifying laps that same afternoon; when it came time to race, however, it was Hendrick Motorsports, Dale Earnhardt Inc. and the Joe Gibbs No. 11 bunch showing up front and center -- again.
Right now, there are only a half-dozen teams that have a handle on this thing, and it's painfully obvious in the single-file racing that's on the track.
We all know that when teams are struggling to find handling, they're going to struggle to race -- and that means they'll struggle to pass. If you don't feel like the car has any grip in the corners, you're going to be a lot less inclined to pitch it onto the apron and try to make it stick as you go in underneath someone. Instead, you'll take the conservative route and follow the leader for a few laps, waiting to capitalize on someone else's mistake instead of forcing the issue.
From the beginning, we believed whole-heartedly that we wouldn't see the true, desired results of the COT for a couple of seasons. Halfway through this one, though it's natural to start being impatient, it's as obvious as ever that we're still in the waiting mode. We may be eager to see better racing right now, but it's just not realistic.
Teams need more tests, more races, more time -- time to sort through everything and come up with some notes they can use going forward.
2 comments:
Was starting to worry that you went into hiding or something or maybe Ward's boy got to you.
The desired results of the COT are delusional, because the design of the car can never produce good racing. It's based on numerous myths - that you get good racing by cutting downforce; that you get good racing by making the roofline top-heavy; that a wing instead of a large spoiler will reduce aeropush; that the flush airdam design was too aero-sensitive and that a gapped airdam with a thin splitter will deter teams from running ultra-soft setup packages and thus make better racing.
None of this is even remotely capable of making better racing. Downforce and hard tires are not why the racing suffered - the racing suffered because of the weakness of the draft (solvable with a simple, inexpensive bolt-on roof wicker and wicker on the rear spoiler) and the comparative lack of downforce. NASCAR took away bump stops and limited sway bars, then cut downforce and went with soft tires, and now has the COT; the racing got worse and worse and now the aeropush with the COT is the worst it's been with any model of car, and the design failings of the COT ensure it won't get better.
NASCAR sold itself a bill of goods and it's reaping the results with shrinking attendence, ratings, and sponsor interest.
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