NASCAR tested several cars at Atlanta earlier in the year, and the results weren’t as positive. The cars had difficulty passing each other in traffic, a scenario that was much different at Lowe’s.
“I think there’s definitely something to work with here,” Ryan Newman said, according to the Associated Press. “It’s aesthetically not pleasing to me, but that’s not the point. It’s all about the racing.”
The test results were a needed step in the right direction for the Car of Tomorrow. After the less-than-glowing reviews at the Atlanta test, along with the constant complaints of Roush and others, the COT became a project that no one (except NASCAR) wanted.
The new car is scheduled to make its debut at next year’s spring race at Bristol and run 15 more events in 2007. The number jumps to 26 races in ’08 before full implementation in 2009.
Only Chevy and Dodge teams participated in the Lowe’s test, as Ford is awaiting NASCAR approval on its design and Toyota has fallen behind on its plans to build a model, according to the AP. The next test is on Aug. 21 at Michigan.
That may seem a long way off, but it’s not very long at all for a project that’s been five years in the making, according to NASCAR. The COT project has been marked by trouble spots since its inception, but on Tuesday, it finally made some positive headlines.

Kahne’s comments still speak volumes about the state of racing in America. Though only in recent years has the IRL begun to make inroads against far more popular NASCAR, the Indianapolis 500 is still the biggest race in the country; bigger than Daytona or the 600.
Sure, Kahne has experience in open-wheel racing, so it’s natural that he’d want a shot at the biggest race on that stage as well. And it’s hard to imagine Nextel Cup’s other drivers with open-wheel experience — Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Robby Gordon, Casey Mears — not wanting a chance to put their face on the Borg-Warner Trophy. (Those five drivers were all among a recent SI.com story that listed the top 10 Cup drivers who could thrive in open-wheel racing.)
Getting a Cup driver into Indy is more difficult now than it once was. The most obvious problem, of course, is that the Indy 500 starts later than it used to; as a result, there’s no possible way a driver could complete the 500 and make it in time to start the 600 in Charlotte, more than 600 miles away.
Less obvious is the time needed to prepare for the Indy 500. The IRL schedule takes a full month off to get ready for their biggest race; prior to Sunday, the series’ last race was on April 22 at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan.
Practice, Bump Day and Carb Day all occur throughout the month of May and, obviously, not all of those events are free of conflict with the Cup schedule.
The Cup series, meanwhile, ran five events in May this year: Talladega, Richmond, Darlington and two events at Charlotte. For a driver to do both would be nearly impossible; it would take a commitment on the part of an owner (or owners) that would have jets at the ready nearly every day. Take into account that some Indy practice and qualifying would surely cut into appearances and other off-track events, and running the 500 — from the first day of practice to the checkered flag — would challenge even the most in-shape driver.
And there wouldn’t be any time to rest, either. After two weeks at home, the Cup series is back on the road again, heading to Dover this weekend.
Kahne may dream about making the field of 33. But for all of his dreams, it may just not be worth the trouble.

With four laps to go, the announcers exclaimed that father and son — 19-year old Marco Andretti — were running one-two in the closing laps of the Indy 500.
I flashed back to a few months ago, when several IRL drivers visited D.C. to promote the race and the upcoming SunTrust Challenge at Richmond. The big story of the day, of course, was Mi-chael’s return to Indy and joining his son on the grid.
Marco was in D.C. too, and I asked him — half-jokingly — if he was second behind his dad in the closing laps at Indy, would he bump him out of the way for a win?
For a kid under 20, Marco dodged the question pretty deftly.
“No pressure,” he said with a laugh then. “That would obviously be a fairy tale, and it would be awesome. It would definitely be a dream come true.
“I would not be handing him the race, that’s not how he would want it. It’d be like yeah, we’re teammates, but we’re going to go try to win the race for both of us. And like I said, he wouldn’t want to take a win like that.”
It was a fairy tale scenario, but the ending wasn’t meant to be. Marco didn’t hand the race to his dad, passing with just a handful of laps to go. He seemed to have the race in hand, leading by seven car-lengths (according to the radio announcers) when he exited turn two.
Sam Hornish Jr. somehow made up the deficit and passed Marco on the final straightaway to win the race by .0635 seconds.
A fantastic finish to be sure, but one that will leave the Andrettis hurting.
I was pulling for either of Michael or Marco. I grew up in the same region where they live (though about 15 miles north of Nazareth and a couple of tax brackets south of the family). They are easily the area’s most famous celebrities.
So it’s disappointing to see both come up empty-handed, especially when both were so very close. And so, for another year, the family leaves the Brickyard with just one victory among it — patri-arch Mario’s win in 1969.
There’s promise in that Michael already has an Indy 500 win as an owner, and Marco’s career is long before its peak.
But for this year, there’s only disappointment, for the family and their fans.

For some drivers, the race was an unmitigated disaster, most notably Tony Stewart. He entered the race second in Nextel Cup points, but after his second bone-jarring crash in as many nights, he dropped in fourth.
Stewart was taken to a local hospital and released with a broken bone in his shoulder.
Other big names were out early, including Kurt Busch, Ryan Newman and Jeff Gordon; but for Busch and Newman, the race simply continues a forgettable season.
Kasey Kahne was the one who came through, winning the event, ending Jimmie Johnson’s stranglehold on Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
Johnson was a clear favorite going into the race and he finished second, so he was hardly a non-factor.
I must admit that last week I did think about an entry explaining why Johnson wouldn’t win. He had too much hype and too much build-up going into the race; if the conditions are right, these situations are particularly perceptible before an NFL game.
On a week-to-week basis, Johnson has a far smaller chance of winning than any NFL team, since Johnson competes against 42 other drivers. But the build-up heading to the race seemed just right — or just wrong, in Johnson’s case.
Yeah well. If I could predict the future that accurately all the time, I’d be a far richer man. 

Lowe’s Motor Speedway’s new surface and Goodyear’s new hard tire compound made life difficult in last week’s All-Star Challenge, as evidenced by the many wrecks and the less-than-flattering comments afterwards.
This week, the challenges will be even greater. In the All-Star event, Cup teams have had some practice and 90 miles of racing on the tire and track combo. For the 600, however, they’ll have to deal with plenty of track changes as well.
The Weather Channel is calling for temperatures to reach into the low 90s on Sunday afternoon. That means that the new Lowe’s pavement will have all day to soak up that beautiful sunshine.
The downside, of course, is that tires hold less grip when the track surface is hot. At places like Richmond, where qualifying is held as the sun goes down, drivers prefer to run later because the track surface will have cooled down and provide more grip.
Maintaining any sort of grip during the early stages of the race will be paramount.
Then, crews and drivers will have to adjust their cars as the track cools off and becomes more manageable come nighttime.
Remember, most of Cup’s top drivers didn’t run the preliminary Nextel Open; they had pre-qualified into the All-Star Challenge. The event was delayed by rain as well.
So if the complained about the grip under those conditions — cool, damn, night weather — Sun-day afternoon will make for some poor racing.
And none of it will be the fault of the drivers.