The Car of Tomorrow was introduced in the NASCAR Cup Series back in 2007 with hopes to see improved safety and general progress toward a modern era of racing. However, instead of being welcomed by the fans, teams, and drivers, the CoT was one of the most hated things to be ever introduced in NASCAR. But why was this the case?
Advertisement
Well, the most common reason could have been that the development of the car felt rushed. Surely the safety improvements to stop driver fatalities from ever happening again were a massive improvement from the previous generation of cars. But it was the drivability of the cars, and the hideous looks, along with other technical issues that plagued the CoT. It perhaps could have benefited from additional testing runs before being implemented.
Older iterations of the car had problems with the protective foam material igniting during a wreck, there was also the issue of a front splitter that would cut the tires of the cars it came in contact with, thus ruining their races. The CoT also looked vastly different from the previous generations, mostly because of the addition of several aerodynamic components to improve the drag coefficient and general stability of the cars racing in close proximity to one another.
What did the drivers think about the Car of Tomorrow?
There was a famous interview with Kyle Busch after winning the 2007 race at Bristol Motor Speedway. The then Hendrick Motorsports driver despite having won the event with the CoT, criticized the cars heavily. He told the press, “It’s terrible… It’s hard to drive and hard to set up.”
Even the four-time Cup Series champion, Jeff Gordon partially agreed with Busch. He mentioned, “It’s not comfortable to drive like the old car. We’re taking a step backwards in a lot of ways. But if it makes for better racing, I’m all for it.” The main focus behind the CoT was to improve the driver safety standards and it did that job perfectly, but the racing side of it didn’t quite impress the drivers as much as it would have hoped to.
Throughout its use in NASCAR between the 2007 and the 2012 season, the car did have its fair share of issues. Sure NASCAR worked to improve the car with future iterations, but ultimately it did not aid much in drivability. After the end of the 2012 season, NASCAR replaced the CoT with the Gen 6 cars, which essentially featured cosmetic changes to make the cars look more like their production counterparts along with several other key changes.
