NASCAR’s CoT: What’s the Status Gladys?
Damned if I know, you better keep asking “Gladys.” In sifting through various reports I don’t have a friggin’ clue. Most Associated Press reports are full of NASCAR boilerplate; These quotes from Tuesday’s test session at LMS for example.
“I think there’s definitely something to work with here,” Ryan Newman said. “It’s aesthetically not pleasing to me, but that’s not the point. It’s all about the racing.”
Jeff Burton commenting on the CoT’s appearance:
“It’s my take that people come to races to watch races … not to see a car ride around a race track,” Burton said. “They want to see good competitive races. Nobody didn’t come to Talladega when we had wickers on the roof and Gurney lips on the spoilers. They came to see a race, and I think they’ll do the same thing with this car with the wing on it.”
“It’s a good car,” Casey Mears said. “I don’t feel like it’s much off of what we ran this weekend. The rear of the car feels a good bit more stable than what I had this weekend.”
Well that sounds good, and to give the development team credit, this test went off without any spins or crashes. What’s more encouraging is the test was conducted in the heat of the day when the track offers the least amount of adhesion. It should also be noted this test followed testing done in a wind tunnel the first week of May. (Can we assume they solved the problem of transporters being too small to hold the CoT?)
Competition director Robin Pemberton reflecting on how close the CoT was to it’s final version had this to say: “It’s pretty much it,” he said. “There might be some (changed) details, but if all the manufacturers work through and get their noses submitted, then we’ll be close. It’s ongoing, but we got some good feedback today from the teams.”
“Changed details” is an interesting way to put it. Enter NASCAR’s resident crumudgen (not counting myself) Jack Roush. Jack in the Hat’s Mongol Hoard wasn’t part of this test along with the remaining Ford teams and Toyota.
Jack’s reasoning for missing the test seems sound and calls into question what Pemberton’s definition of “changed details” is.
Roush said he wasn
The COT is a complete disaster. Fans come not just to see the race or driver they come to see their cars win. I guess I just asked some fans what they thought. That is apparently too hard for NASCAR. Watch attendance and TV ratings flop.