Tomorrow comes today
The way some drivers and owners have talked about the Car of Tomorrow, you would think that a motorized monstrosity akin to Godzilla is about to be unleashed onto NASCAR Nation. The stock car chassis of the future finally makes its much-hyped debut this weekend at the Bristol Motor Speedway's Food City 500 (Sun., 1:30 p.m., Ch. 25) and despite extensive COT testing at the half-mile track over the winter, the machine remains a mystery to many wheelmen on the circuit. All those drivers know is that, to them, it's ugly, it's jacking up the cost of racing short-term, and it sure won't bring single-car outfits like Morgan-McClure Motorsports (No. 4 with driver Ward Burton) up to par with the mighty Hendricks and Roush-Fenways of the world.
To which I say: Be quiet and take your medicine.
We've known about the Car of Tomorrow for several years now and this date has been earmarked for some time. Yes, there are plenty of questions. How will the new rear wing and front bumper splitter hold up for 500 miles at a high-banked blender of a track that's known for twisted metal and short tempers? How will the boxy machine handle in traffic and in the draft? This race may very well go down as the most glorified test session that American motorsports will ever see. So why do I say be quiet and take your medicine?
Simple. To hear the NASCAR spinsters say it, these guys are "the world's best drivers." We all know that until NASCAR decides to throw in some more road courses -- at least one in the Chase for the Nextel Cup -- that this notion is debatable. They are the most popular drivers, but the best? I say, prove it. It's a new car with new tricks and secrets to discover, no different from when open-wheelers have tried stock cars and vice-versa. This COT project has been around for almost a decade, so prep time is not a problem. Don't tell me that the "world's best drivers" are scared of this, lest NASCAR wants another black eye after its Daytona cheat-fest.
I remember going to the doctor when I was a kid and I'd always take that nasty Robitussin and get my arm pricked by booster shots. Those are facts of life and we need to take these things to be healthy. But while the Car of Tomorrow's potential as NASCAR's future is still in doubt, it is now a fact of life and it can at least guarantee short-term health (i.e. a Nextel Cup title).
Open your mouth, NASCAR. Here comes the medicine. Hold your nose if you must.
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Sunday afternoon belongs to NASCAR, but Saturday night belongs to the IndyCar Series as it begin its 2007 campaign at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Those that will tune in to the XM Satellite Radio Indy 300 (Sat., 8 p.m., ESPN2) will be keen on seeing if the new year brings better competition than one year ago, when the Team Penske and Target Chip Ganassi Racing teams turned the championship battle into a two-team, four-car affair.
The Penske bunch of defending Indy 500/series champion Sam Hornish Jr. and two-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves remained strong throughout winter testing at Homestead and on the Daytona International Speedway's road course. The TCGR team of '05 Indy 500/series champion Dan Wheldon and 2003 series champion Scott Dixon were also at the top of the charts. But the winter also revealed that Andretti-Green Racing has peeled itself off the canvas after a dismal 2006.
After dominating the series with titles from Tony Kanaan in 2004 and Wheldon in 2005, AGR suffered as its powerplant advantage from Honda became moot when the Japanese manufacturer became sole engine supplier to the series. Their only two wins in 2006 came on a road course (Marco Andretti at Sonoma, Calif.) and on a short oval (Tony Kanaan at Milwaukee), but Andretti, Kanaan, Dario Franchitti and newcomer Danica Patrick look poised to contend on the all-important superspeedways once again. The evolution of the 20-year-old Andretti into a championship contender and Patrick's quest for her first IndyCar victory will be major storylines; Kanaan and Franchitti are hungry veterans and they, too, will be forces.
Another team to keep an eye on is the Panther Racing group with drivers Vitor Meira and Kosuke Matsuura. After finishing fifth in the points last season with Meira as a single-car team with no primary sponsor, Panther has expanded to two cars. Meira now has Delphi sponsorship and Matsuura's familiar Panasonic colors now grace the team in a second machine. The big story, though, will be on Meira as he attempts to win his first race in 59 IndyCar starts. It's not for lack of trying. The man once called "the best kept secret in American motorsports" by noted open-wheel scribe Robin Miller has had seven second-place finishes in his career -- three of them came last year.
Dreyer and Reinbold Racing looks set to ascend in the standings with the addition of 2004 Indy 500 champ Buddy Rice and the full-time return of the IndyCar Series' first female star in Sarah Fisher after a two-year sojourn in the stock car world. Vision Racing, which improved tremendously in 2006, will expand to three cars this season for drivers Tomas Scheckter, Ed Carpenter and new guy A.J. Foyt IV, grandson of the four-time Indy 500 winner A.J. Foyt.
Foyt, a car owner in the series, will attempt to resurrect his mediocre operation in this, his 50th year of Indy-car racing. He has British pilot Darren Manning in his No. 14 machine this year, a combination that one Milwaukee reporter says "[goes] together like tea and Cheetos." Meanwhile, Boston College grad Jeff Simmons gets a mentor in 39-year-old veteran Scott Sharp at a two-car Rahal Letterman Racing group.
Joining the series in a part-time capacity beginning this weekend is Toronto racer Marty Roth and former IndyCar driver Alex Barron, who starts on Saturday for owner Greg Beck. There's also been reports that a third female driver, Venezuelan sports car pilot Milka Duno, will join the IndyCars later in the year, as will Davey Hamilton, who hasn't raced since 2001.
UPDATE: Duno announced this morning that she will contest 10 IndyCar Series races in 2007, starting with the Kansas City round in late April. Her schedule also includes the Indianapolis 500.
