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During a wild practice session this weekend, we saw how fast the closing rate with the new cars is. Clint Bowyer got a run on Ryan Newman and could not get out of the gas fast enough, sending Newman spinning and collecting Johnson, Gordon, Elliott and others. That sent them all into back up cars.

A little later, Stewart got a run on Kurt Busch and went to the outside to pass him. Busch either did not see him or chose to block him causing Stewart to clip the rear of the Blue Deuce sending it into the wall while Stewart brushed with teammate Hamlin down onto the apron. That move, and the ensuing post wreck activity, sent Kurt Busch into a back up car.

Through the miracle of instant news, we immediately heard crew chiefs talk about how the back up cars were being sent from Charlotte and that they were cars being prepared for short tracks like Martinsville.

NEWS FLASH!!!!

With that news, on-air pundits were quick to point out how the new car was supposed to be able to run on any track. One of the main reasons for the Car of Tomorrow was cost containment. Instead of having to build separate super speedway cars and short track cars and road course cars, the new cars were supposed to provide teams with a more cost-effective platform able to run any track.

Sitting at home, I had to agree with David Poole. As much as NASCAR promised cost containment, it appears that teams are building separate cars anyway.

As the Bud Shootout got underway, Johnson and Gordon trailed the draft considerably in their back up cars. It appeared that running a short track car at Daytona was not going to work.

But after the mandatory caution period, something magical occurred in the Hendrick pits. When the race restarted, the 24 and 48 were right in the thick of things. They were drafting well and if they wanted, they could pull out and pass.

And at the end, it was the 48 that bumped the 88 forward and that was all the 88 needed to get past and stay ahead of the 20 for the win.

Now the on-air media was praising the new car and the genius of NASCAR for building a car that allowed teams to take a short track car and run it successfully and competitively on a super speedway.

Within 24 hours, the TV news crews went from a feeding frenzy to a tent revival meeting.

What they are forgetting is that we’ve only run one race in the new car. And while there was great side-by-side racing and spectacular passing, it was only one race. It was also arguably two of the best teams from the best stable. – Hendrick Motorsports. We have seen both Gordon and Johnson take back up cars and run competitively and win, so it should not be surprising that they were back up front in those cars.

To me, the jury is still out on the new car. Last year, the car struggled to race well in all of its races. Driver complained mightily on often.

So we’re to believe that suddenly the car is fixed and will race better than all of last year? I would love to see that but I need more proof. Only two of the races are run at Daytona so good races there and lousy races at the other 34…well, that is not a successful season.

For years people have complained that we need to put the race back in the drivers hands, that the cars were too good and a monkey could drive them. Now we have a car that is just that – a handful to drive, which certainly puts it back in the driver’s hands, especially at a handling track like Daytona. If the car continues to be a handful to drive, the quicker the driver adapts to that, the better that team will be.

In addition to all that, Toyota proved to be especially strong with Blaney and Stewart running well in the Bud Shootout and Michael Waltrip sitting on the outside pole for the 500. Now, if he can just keep his carburetor clean, he should be in a lot better shape for the race than last year.

Let me know your thoughts on all this. Bring on the season!

Drive fast, turn left and keep the shiny side up.
Feel free to send Chuck your thoughts on this and other race topics at chucka@turnleftracing.com. The blog at www.turnleftracing.com is down now due to spammers. We will have that back up as soon as we can.