by DJ DeSpain

During the media interviews at Michigan this past weekend, Dale Earnhardt Jr. said that the sport of racing isn’t where it should be, and NASCAR needs to improve upon the sport, particularly with making changes to the Car Of Tomorrow (COT). Earnhardt did note that adding double-file restarts after cautions is a good start but NASCAR needs to do more. “The double-file restarts give us the opportunity to be exciting for only a moment, and we need to figure out how we can maintain that throughout the entire race,” Earnhardt said. He was particularly critical that NASCAR really needs to do better at improving the COT.

The new car was introduced in 2007 to improve on safety, and to save teams money by going with a consistent format for a car. Since its introduction, the COT has been criticized by several drivers, in particular that the car is too slow and unyielding to perform well in a consistent manner.

NASCAR president Mike Helton had this to say regarding the need to make changes to the car:

“As you talk to the principals in the garage area, the team owners, the crew chiefs, the car chiefs, there seems to be in all these conversations a consensus around ‘don’t make any major changes right now because we don’t want to tackle those, we’ve spent a long time now understanding this car, and don’t throw a wrench in all of that by making us start over.’ “

I am sure one of the people in the garage area Helton’s been talking to is Tony Stewart. These days Tony Stewart isn’t quite as vocal against the car as he once was, and for obvious reasons, as he’s currently at the top of the point standings. His team has the car figured out enough to do what he needs to do, so I would expect that Tony would be firmly on the side of no changes.  Funny how success calms a person down, isn’t it?

Greg Biffle is in favor of making changes to the COT, but he was a bit more specific than Earnhardt.  Biffle suggested that NASCAR look at shifting weight inside the car. Cars must weigh at least 3,450 pounds, but the weight ratio has to be no more than 52 percent on the left side of the car. Several teams said they would like to see the ratio go from 52 percent on the left to 55 percent.

“When you build a car, there are two basic fundamentals: low and left,” Biffle said. “You want as much weight low and left on these cars. That hasn’t changed since they built the first race car. We’ve got to do something to get more weight on the left tires. Right now, they really don’t do much when we’re in the turns. The magic number, I think, would be 55 percent on the left. If we did that, it would create mechanical grip, not aerodynamic grip. Mechanical grip won’t change when you get in traffic, I promise.”

However, if NASCAR isn’t going to change the car, what other improvements can be made to the sport?

Some have suggested getting rid of the Lucky Dog rule now that the double-file restart is in effect. Instead of putting the first lapped car on the end of the lead lap, bring him to the front alongside the leader and earn his place back on the lead lap on the restart. Imagine Jimmie Johnson having to fight that battle three times at Pocono, instead of calmly working his way up through the field on restarts.

Other grumblings from the fans are the late start times of the races. An adverse affect of the late times, is that rain showers happen often in the afternoons due to heat buildup, usually right before a race starts and more probably during a race. I do not believe that the late start times on east coast tracks, to accommodate west coast fans, are beneficial to television/radio ratings. I suspect that ratings would increase overall, as well as track attendance, if start times were earlier to guarantee that at least half a race would get in.

Another solution to the late start times problem is to have more night races. There is not much in the way of original programming these days anyway, with all the so-called reality shows or game shows on prime-time TV viewing. Talladega at night would be a spectacular race, although it would be costly to put up lights around the track. But if Daytona can do it, why can’t Talladega? The season finale race should certainly be a night race, and Homestead does have lights there. The season ending race for the Camping World Truck Series will be held at Homestead, November 20 at 7:30 PM.

Finally, can we do away with the top 35 rule? Qualify on time and get in just like everyone else. It’s not bringing in more fans, and I doubt those fans that bought tickets 6 months prior to a race date are not going to show up just because their favorite driver did not make the field. Gone are the days of 50 cars showing up to qualify for a race. Partly the reason for that is the top 35 rule discourages small teams from coming if they think they are going to be bumped by a top 35 team. Only 44 cars showed up to qualify at Michigan this past weekend.

Earnhardt Jr. is right that there are several ways to improve the sport. But look elsewhere for changes, instead of hoping that the IROC car, I meant the COT, will get changes any time soon.

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