Submitted by NASCAR Ranting and Raving Blog

This two day race in California proved one thing, the CoT (Car of Today) is living up to it’s expectations. Maybe not as much as people would hope, but it is still better than the old car.

The CoT reminds me of the cars from the 70’s and early 80’s where you could rub up against the wall and still keep going and not have to come in for major repairs. I like that.

The drivers can control the thing better too. I don’t think you would have seen Kyle Busch go “three-wide by himself” (thanks DW) in the the old CoY (Car of Yesterday) like he did at Daytona this year.

Speaking of control did you see Jamie McMurray get sideways near the end of Sunday/Monday’s race? If he were in the CoY he would have lost it, pure and simple.

Let’s talk about hitting the wall and still being able to drive the thing as evident by many drivers over the last two days, including Jeff Burton. Jeff hit the wall hard enough to scrub off the yellow “Goodyear Eagles” raised letters on the side of his tires which resulted in the toe-out being off a little bit, but he was still able to run the car around at a competitive speed.

No matter how you slice it, the CoT is an improvement over the CoY. Not only does the CoT keep the driver safer while driving it but also allows for better competition by putting more emphasis on the individual driving the car and not on the areo-package they have developed.

Surely the CoT hasn’t lived up to everyone’s expectations, but it is still in it’s infancy - give it time, it will improve.

I’ll talk more about the race tomorrow - I feel a bit of a rant coming on!

Visit 1800blogger to see all of our industry leading blogs.