Full Throttle

WANTED: Automotive body repairer with supervisory ability may advance to shop supervisor, Sheet metal fabricators and welders. Experts in race car construction. Please apply at any of the following locations: DEI, RCR, Robert Yates Racing, Gibbs Racing, Hendrick Racing, Evernham Motorsports.

Please submit a complete resume and certified statement saying you are willing to forgo any and all family life (divorce is suggested) until November 2009. (Date subject to change if Staten Island, Kentucky, Bremerton Wa., Mexico, Canada (Toronto and Calgary), and the dark side of the moon are awarded NEXTEL Something Cup dates.)

WANTED: NASCAR Technical Inspector Officials. Responsibilities include learning, understanding, and enforcing the NASCAR Rulebook in a consistent, timely, and professional manner as it applies to inspection and race procedures. Will maintain proper communication with assigned Crew Chiefs and/or Race Control. (Hold all laughter until the end)

Requirements: Must be an expert in multi-tasking. Must have the demonstrated ability to juggle no less than two NASCAR Rulebooks with only the slightest amount of confusion. (Jim Hunter will be trotted out to “clear up” any that may result) Potential inspectors must have the ability to distinguish between templates for the Car of Tommorow and all variants to include: short track templates, medium track templates, tracks of 2 mile in length, and “restrictor plate” tracks. NOTE: The above requirements are “times two.” Technical Inspectors also must perform the same functions, from one week to the next while insuring all cars meet templates for the current body designs. (If an image of a circus performer juggling spinning plates on a stick comes to mind you get the idea.)

Well… now that that is out of my system on with what prompted it. Nextel Cup Series director John Darby has layed out the schedule for the official competitive debut for the Car of Tomorrow. (formerly known as the Car of the Future)

Darby confirmed that plans are to use the car, which is approximately 2 inches taller and 4 inches wider than cars currently used in Cup competition, at short tracks and road courses in 2007, then at the circuit’s largest tracks of 2 miles or longer in 2008, and finally at intermediate tracks in 2009.

But, Darby said, he expects to see teams “accelerate” that schedule once the phase-in begins, figuring they’ll want to see the new car used at more intermediate tracks sooner.

Ya gotta love the “accelerate” part of that quote. In essence he is saying the large multi-car teams will be given to OK to roll out the CoT for “intermediate tracks,” for example, a year or more earlier. Is that what HWSBO means when he says he desires to level the playing field? Remember the CoT in it’s present form is 3-5mph slower than the current car. What are the odds of that happening when the likelihood of the R. Gordons and Cal Wells types in all probability not being able to start at an early date? The odds say it would level the playing field, they also say it’s never gonna happen.

However there is a larger issue at stake here. Robin Pemberton, NASCAR