Full Throttle

That’s the description Michael Waltrip has given as the new Toyota Camry, in Car of Tomorrow configuration, made its first laps at MIS Monday.

“It’s all new,” said Waltrip, who will continue his testing tour tomorrow at Kentucky Speedway, along with Jeremy Mayfield. “New engine. New Camry. It’s a big day for the team — a big day for Toyota and NASCAR. “It’s a good thing we don’t have to worry about racing (the Toyotas) this year, too. Our focus needs to be on building cars, taking them to the wind tunnel and then validating what we learn by testing. We’ve still got a ways to go.”

A long ways to go in my opinion. Not a “big day” for the Toyota engine development team apparently, they used the current NCTS powerplants in Monday’s test.

Here are some other quotes from Monday’s test session:

Jeff Gordon: “We can get more rear downforce in this car than we could in our old car; the problem is you can’t do a lot in the front of the car,” said four-time champion Jeff Gordon. “The front of the car has a lot less downforce, but you can’t move the splitter. It has to be flat. NASCAR is dictating how far off the ground it is, so the thing for the team is to make sure it’s in its optimal ride height.”

“It doesn’t drive bad,” said Gordon, whose major complaint was with the car’s aesthetic appeal. “My only concern is the way it’s going to race, whether or not we can make passes, get up behind the guy and be able to turn and go or get to the outside.

“What this car is really meant to be is a car that puts on a better race. That’s what I want to see.”

There seems to be a misunderstanding of what the splitter can and can’t do. According to Scene Daily and NASCAR’s Pat Wall “teams can change the front downforce of the car by adjusting how far out the shelf extends.”

And what does this Gordon quote sound like, “aero-push?

“You’re going to get in behind another car and you’re going to push, and it’s going to draft good,” he added. “The thing should suck up really good down the straightaways, but we’ll see.

At 6-foot-5, Michael Waltrip has always felt as if he were “racing in a Volkswagen Beetle” - “This feels like a racecar,” Waltrip said following the first test session at Michigan International Speedway. “I had lots of room in the cockpit, and I felt a lot safer. That’s just a wonderful feeling, that you’re not all crunched down in there.”

Kurt Busch: - “I thought it would have a night-and-day difference from what we have right now, and to my surprise, it was very comparable with the way it drove and reacted,” Busch said. “To sit there and look at the car, we can point out some of the positives it brings, which is the safety aspect with the bigger greenhouse, as well as the coolness factor of a wing.

“I was surprised how well the rear downforce made the car stick to the track, and that’s all attributed to the wing. “It opens up a new chapter,” he said. “What drivers and crew chiefs are going to have to communicate with one another is the aspect of drag versus down force.”

There were fourteen drivers from 11 teams testing Monday and this is about the extent of the quotes. Maybe there are more to come. Or maybe someone has lowered Maxwell Smart’s Cone of Silence over many of those involved.

Or maybe there’s nothing good or bad to say.

Any design changes submitted by the teams are due Monday. NASCAR’s next test tentatively is scheduled this fall at Talladega Superspeedway.

UPDATE: Dave has a “colorful” description of the CoT’s appearance. I can’t say I disagree.

NASCAR, NEXTEL Cup, Car of the Future, Car of Tomorrow, Sports, Auto Racing, Motorsports, Full Throttle