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The thought of A NASCAR camry absolutly disgusts me.  I cannot believe that they would let a puppiesenese car into NASCAR.

 I'm still a pretty big fan and I can understand how others are turned away by the lack of "stock" cars racing, but puppiesenese cars in a uniquly american sport is a sin.  This includes the craftsman truck series vehicals too.

The thought of A NASCAR camry absolutly disgusts me.  I cannot believe that they would let a puppiesenese car into NASCAR.

 

Next thing you know, when an asian guy races in NASCAR, people will start rioting.

NASCAR Sets "Car of Tomorrow" Launch for 2007

While the news that Toyota will be joining NASCAR's Nextel Cup and Busch series in 2007 got the majority of ink on Monday's first day of the annual NASCAR Media Tour in Charlotte, another announcement was made that will have a much larger impact on the sport.

For five years, NASCAR has been working on the development of a new specification of chassis that it calls the "Car of Tomorrow." NASCAR announced on Monday that the CoT will be phased into competition over a three-year period starting in 2007, and the new car will obsolete the millions of dollars' worth of rolling stock that currently occupy racing team garages. It is, simply, the biggest change in NASCAR's hardware in 40 years, since the move from unibody stock cars to tube-frame chassis.

Without overwhelming you with a plethora of details, suffice it to say that the CoT is bigger, boxier and safer. The driver will sit three inches further back and four inches further toward the center of the car, reducing the possibility of injury from side impacts. The car is four inches wider and two inches taller than the current car, and more "crushability" is built into the sides of the car, offering further protection.

The car is designed to be less aerodynamic than the current model, with a more-upright windshield that increases drag and a larger and boxier front bumper that catches rather than deflects air.

NASCAR says that, after the initial expense of building new cars, teams will save money in the long run because the CoT is designed to be flexible in its application on the different types of tracks. Currently the top teams require about 17 different cars to run a season, with unique chassis for superspeedways, intermediate, short, and road-course tracks, and further specialization in some cases for particular tracks (i.e., a "Bristol" car, a "Darlington" car). With the CoT, NASCAR says that a team can downsize its inventory to about ten cars per year. The CoT is designed to have very adjustable aerodynamics with a rear wing and bolt-on/-off front splitters and the frame rail locations are exactly specified, which will allow a single car to be used at a variety of tracks by adjusting the wing and splitters.

Another benefit of the CoT, according to NASCAR, will be closer competition. Current-day cars suffer from "aero push" on the longer ovals due to their slick aerodynamics, making passing difficult. The CoT is designed to minimize "aero push," and will hopefully bring back the door-to-door racing and slingshot passing maneuver that were so popular in the 1970s.

The plan is for the CoT to be required in 16 events during 2007, at Bristol, Phoenix, Martinsville, Richmond, Dover, New Hampshire, Darlington, the fall race at Talladega (the last restrictor-plate race of the season) and road-course races at Infineon Raceway and Watkins Glen. In 2008 26 events will be added, including both races at Daytona, California, Pocono, Michigan, the spring event at Talladega and Indianapolis. Teams will run the entire 2009 schedule with the CoT, adding both events at Atlanta, Lowe's Motor Speedway and Texas, plus events at Chicagoland, Kansas, Las Vegas, and Homestead. The three-year rollout is designed to somewhat minimize the financial impact to the teams by allowing them to "use up" their existing chassis.

If you follow the sport at all, you know that NASCAR machinery has moved closer and closer to a "spec" car over recent years and that they have almost nothing in common with their street-car counterparts other than headlight and taillight decals and grille treatment. All NASCAR cars have carburetors and rear-wheel drive while their street-car counterparts are fuel-injected with front-wheel drive, and all NASCAR cars resemble two-door coupes, while the Ford Fusion and Dodge Charger are available only as four-door sedans. The switch to the CoT will do nothing to change this, and the manufacturers will have to be content with the same small amount of branding identification, or perhaps a little less, as they have today for their estimated $75-million annual contribution to the sport. Whether that is enough to keep their interest (and funding) remains to be seen.

The bottom line is that it will probably make little difference to the millions of fans who pack the grandstands and tune in on television. Oh sure, there will be grumbling from the old-timers and "purists," just as there always has been when changes have been introduced, and the teams will no doubt be unhappy with garages full of obsolete cars and having to build all-new rolling stock, but if in fact the cars are safer, racing is closer and long-term expense is less, this will all be just another milestone in the history of the sport. -John F. Gardner

If there was ever any doubt that the France family is hell-bent for absolute control of the sport, this should erase it. The official homogenization/neutering of NASCAR has begun.