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NASCAR Issues Early Approval For Car of Tomorrowby Capt. Herb Emory ~ May 24th, 2007. Filed under: Captain's Corner. |
The green flag is waving for the “Car of Tomorrow” to run all races in the 2008 NASCAR racing season. The announcement to speed up the plan to ease the new racing machine into fulltime competition signals NASCAR management’s confidence in the performance of their new mandates for building racecars.
“We are proud of how the new car has performed at multiple tracks,” said NASCAR’s Robin Pemberton. “NASCAR, with the support of team owners, agreed that the new car is ready to compete at all NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series events in 2008.”
The new design of the “generic” car to be used by all teams is said to be a much safer piece of equipment than the car drivers have used in the past.
The original transition program had the new car running 16 races this year and 26, of the 36, races in 2008. The 2009 season was to be the first full year of competition for the new car. So far this season, the COT has run five times – at Bristol, Martinsville, Phoenix, Richmond and Darlington.
NASCAR’s leaders say they are happy with the “close competition on the track and the safety and durability features of the car” demonstrated in the races where the COT have run so far.
The numbers gathered by NASCAR’s COT team seem to indicate the new car is saving race teams some money. “There have been six fewer DNFs (did not finish) through this same race sequence from 2006. Additionally, 13 teams have used the same chassis for three of the five races; four teams have run the same chassis in four of the five races; and one team has run the same chassis in all five Car of Tomorrow races,” read the announcement of the rollout change.
There are 11 COT events left on this season’s schedule. Under the original plan the speedways in Atlanta, Charlotte, Las Vegas, Texas, Chicago, Kansas and Homestead would not have run a COT race until the 2009 season.
Charlotte: The old-style racecar will be featured in Sunday’s Coca-Cola World 600 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Part of the thrill of the Memorial Day weekend speed contest has been the endurance aspect of running 100 more miles than any other event of the year.
I can remember paying extra attention as a kid listening to final laps of the 600 waiting to see if your favorites would make it to that final lap. Blown engines were the norm for the closing laps of the race.
That part of the competition seems to be fading now. I was amazed how long Jeff Gordon’s over-heating racecar was able to run in Darlington and he still had enough coolant left to do burn outs too.
Jimmie Johnson has the best marks among active drivers at the 1.5-mile speedway at Charlotte. Johnson has won five of the last eight races at Charlotte. He swept both Charlotte races in 2004 and 2005.
Johnson’s teammate, Jeff Gordon, has four Charlotte wins. Gordon’s victories were in 1999, 1998, 1997 and 1994.
Mark Martin has also accumulated four wins at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Martin’s checkered flags were in 2002, 1998, 1995 and 1992.
Dale Jarrett has registered three Charlotte wins in 1994, 1996 and 1997.
The two-time winners at Charlotte include Jeff Burton, Bill Elliott, Kasey Kahne and Bobby Labonte.
Tony Stewart (2003), Jamie McMurray (2002), Sterling Marlin (2001), Matt Kenseth (2000), Ken Schrader (1989) and Kyle Petty (1987) are the one-time winners at Charlotte.
The top-five finishers of the 2006 Coca-Cola World 600 were Kasey Kahne, Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards, Mark Martin and Matt Kenseth. Kahne led 158 of the 400 laps run. He was the only driver to lead more than 100 laps of the race.
Sixteen drivers traded the lead 37 times. The driver leading more than one lap in the race were Scott Riggs (90), Denny Hamlin (25), Jimmie Johnson (24), Mark Martin (20), Greg Biffle (20), Jeff Gordon (18), Jeff Green (16), Jeff Burton (12) and Carl Edwards (11).
There were 15 caution flag incidents (five for debris) and it took just over four hours and 39 minutes to complete.
Scott Riggs was the Bud pole Award winner for the 2006 race with a qualifying speed of 187.865 miles-an-hour in his Ray Evernham-owned Dodge.
Georgia Boys: Bill Elliott will return to some behind-the-wheel NASCAR work for the first time this year in Charlotte. The Dawsonville native is scheduled to run the Busch and Nextel Cup races in Charlotte this weekend.
Elliott, the 1988 Winston Cup Champion, has entered to drive a No. 32 Toyota in the Saturday Busch race and the No. 21 Ford owned by the Wood Brothers in the Sunday event.
Georgia drivers David Ragan and Reed Sorenson are entered in both events at Charlotte as well.
Ragan and Sorenson crashed during the Nextel Open last weekend and failed to advance into the All-Star race. Ragan finished 22nd and Sorenson 23rd.
Bill Lester posted the best finish for the Georgia drivers in the Craftsman Truck Series race at Charlotte. Lester started 17th and finished 19th and he is ranked 19th in the truck points.
Joey Clanton was out of the truck race early due to a crash and finished 31st.
There was another Georgia boy creating a special memory in his life scrapbook at Charlotte. A Monroe teenager was called to do a job he had training for and hoping to do for years.
“The dream is really turning into reality,” said Timmy Hutson. He was commenting after his debut performance as flagman at Lowe’s Motor Speedway for the Nextel Cup All-Star events.
Hutson has been the official flagman for Legends Series races at Atlanta Motor Speedway for a few years now. You might have spotted Timmy as a youngster standing on the ground at the bottom of the AMS flag stand practicing for the day he would climb the ladder and take control of the flags officially.
Saturday’s Allan Vigil Ford 120 will air from 2:00 p.m. until 4:00 p.m. on Newstalk 750 WSB Radio and www.wsbradio.com. For more race information visit our Fastcar Newsdesk at www.captainherb.net.
