Tomorrow is already here

BROOKLYN, Mich. -- At first glance, the differences may not be perceptible. Except, that is, for the adjustable wing on the rear deck lid and the adjustable splitter beneath the front bumper.

But the casual NASCAR fan who turns out for Sunday's Lenox Industrial Tools 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway is not likely to be able to tell the difference between the lame-duck "current car" -- as it's known in the NASCAR garage area -- and the new and improved Car of Tomorrow.

But to the more experienced observer of Nextel Cup Series racing, the differences are night and day. After all, wasn't the Car of Tomorrow, a project seven years in the making, designed to be different?

It is supposed to be safer for drivers, result in better racing for fans, and help owners curb the spiraling cost of building and running a fleet of track-specific cars, an expensive practice the Car of Tomorrow's versatility will make obsolete.

In seven appearances in its phased introduction this season, beginning with a March 25 debut at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, the Car of Tomorrow has lived up to that promise of offering a better future for safety-minded drivers, cost-conscious owners, and rabid fans, who have witnessed some pretty competitive COT races.

"Being quite candid about it, the first six races, really, the [COT] hasn't been the story; the race has been the story," said NASCAR director of cost research Brett Bodine, a former owner-driver who helped develop the COT at NASCAR's Research and Development Center in Concord, N.C. "Other than one little hiccup with the foam with Kevin Harvick at Martinsville [Va.], the Car of Tomorrow has been very robust. We've had more cars finish, more cars on the lead lap, more passes, tighter fields in qualifying. It seems on the competition side, it's been spot-on also."

In point of fact, the first five COT races -- all won by Hendrick Motorsports drivers -- were determined by an average margin of victory of 0.5054 seconds.

While teammate Kyle Busch climbed out of his winning car at the COT's debut in Bristol and expressed his disdain in no uncertain terms, Jeff Gordon was a little more diplomatic.

Although he expressed his misgivings about the car's handling during initial test sessions, Gordon seemed to change his tune after he outdueled Tony Stewart to win the Subway Fresh Fit 500 April 21 at Phoenix International Raceway by .697 seconds.

"I've warmed up to it a little bit because as a team, I think we've found a little bit of the ingredients as to what this car needs to feel good," said Gordon.

As for Busch? He wasn't changing his tune. "I am not in favor of the car," he said four weeks ago before a COT race at Dover, Del. "But, you know, we have got to work on it and make it better."

In essence, that was the mandate of the designers, who went through four prototypes and crash-tested so many component parts it produced a mountainous heap of scrap metal. Safety was priority No. 1.

"That was the biggest thing, the safety," said Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Ford fielded by Roush Fenway Racing. "I know some people enjoy the wrecks, but nobody enjoys seeing somebody get hurt. I feel the way the cockpit is built in this Car of Tomorrow, and the way they've done everything, it's a little bit safer. That's a really good thing."

COT designers achieved their objectives by enlarging the greenhouse for the driver by raising the roof 2 1/2 inches, which increased the car's height from 51 inches (minimum) to 53 1/2 inches; widening the cockpit 4 inches, making for a larger protective cocoon; strengthening the steel floorboard beneath the driver; and by constructing a double frame rail on the driver's side with steel plating on the outside of the roll cage to prevent any cockpit intrusion in the event of a driver-side impact.

Energy-absorbing foam also was installed between the roll cage door bars and the door panels to enhance the COT's ability to withstand side impacts. Energy-absorbing material also was used to envelop the 18-gallon fuel cell, which had a strengthened bladder and thicker container.

"Once we started to zero in on the safety initiatives, competition and cost were brought in," Bodine said. "That's where the standardization of the frame rails and the roll cage [came into play], so there's no advantage to building a track-specific racecar. The gridded template, where all the templates are locked together, make sure that the same body configuration that will be run at Loudon is the same body configuration that will be run at Daytona next year.

"So track-specific cars, we hope, will be a thing of the past in 2008."

That, no doubt, was music to the ears of car owners of teams large and small, who realized the enormous cost savings of switching full time to the COT next season and overwhelmingly approved NASCAR's decision to fully implement the COT for 2008.

"From a cost and operations perspective, the move to the Car of Tomorrow in 2008 will benefit all the teams," said car owner Roger Penske, who currently fields Dodges for drivers Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman.

Said Robby Gordon, an independent owner-driver, "I think it makes sense what NASCAR is doing. We've got so many racecars that are too specialized for certain racetracks, now we'll have similar racecars where all you do is change the brakes, change the suspension parts, and go racing again . . . The move next year [to the COT] will make my move to [add] a second car easier."

When Bodine was an independent owner-driver, he estimated it cost him $100,000 to build a track-specific car, meaning his shop had to be stocked with 18 in order to compete in NASCAR's grueling 36-race Cup season. "It drove me crazy to have to build a car for a racetrack and then leave it sitting and not race it again until we went back to that racetrack," he said. "That's not very efficient. It's a huge investment in a piece of equipment and it's just sitting there, but to try and be as competitive as possible, that's what you had to do."

By eliminating the need to build track-specific cars, Bodine estimates teams will be able to halve their fleet of cars at a savings of almost $1 million.

No one seemed to better illustrate the versatility of the new design than Harvick, driver of the No. 29 Chevrolet Impala SS, who ran the same car -- except for minor brake and suspension modifications -- in all seven COT races, whether it was the road-course race at Infineon Raceway last Sunday or Bristol's half-mile bullring of an oval.

"The No. 29 has used the same car at every single [COT] race," marveled Bodine. "That's unheard of, it's unprecedented in the current Cup series. Does the process work? Boy, it appears like it has an opportunity to [work]."

But will fans at NHIS, in getting their first glimpse of the COT, recognize the difference?

"I think the new car will look different [to the fans] -- it's growing on me," Edwards said.

"I think the fans will enjoy a little bit different styling and that's cool. But the race is going to be good there [in Loudon] no matter what we race."

Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com.