Dale Jr. complaining about Car of Tommorow

[e2mtt]

Article: http://www.sportsline.com/autoracing/story/10170949

"It's going to take some time to figure it out, but right now it's about the most frustrating thing I've had to deal with in this sport, and I've had to deal with some pretty frustrating things," Earnhardt said Monday.

"Everyone is struggling with getting the cars to turn. Even when you're running in second or third position, you're just the best of the worst cars out there," Earnhardt said. "Nobody's cars were that fun to drive. You're just trying to be the guy with the least amount of problems when it comes to handling and that seems to get you toward the front."

The COT will be used again next weekend at Darlington, a track known to tear up tires. Junior hopes he doesn't tear up the car.

"I'll be just trying to keep it off the fence. I think it'll be hard not to hit the wall," Earnhardt said. "The way these things get tight, it'll be hard and slow, real slow. Very, very frustrating. Really, really, really frustrating."

Tough to say whether it this is him just complaining, or it is a real problem. They also quote Biffle;

"...But it is a difficult car, to get to what do you want it to do. It's hard to influence the car to do stuff."

Did NASCAR mess up, or will the teams work it out? It is one thing to make a car that creates close racing, and quite another thing to mandate a lousy racecar and call it "competitive".

[Lee Roy]

sniff . . . sniff

[trumperZ06]

BruHaahaa....

NA$CAR does it again !!!

After they "Spec'ed" the Grand Am cars... Family France was surprised to find that the C-5 Z06 was faster than their "boy racers"...

when Justin Bell out-qualified all the Grand Sham cross-over drivers driving NA$CAR's spec designed Daytona Prototypes.

Back then... the governing guys decided that the DP cars would line up first.... before the GT's, even though they had slower qualifying times.

The only team owner to get the COT.... less wrong is Hendrick's, everyone else seems to be struggling... with the new... (only to NA$CAR)... fangled splitters & rear wings.

Being a Corvette driver.... I'm not totally unhappy with current results.

[harvick#1]

Jr. complaining, theres nothin new :

some teams have had a handle on the CoT, the #11, 20, and 29 all are just as good as the 5,24,48 but they've all had bad luck. the Penske boys are getting back up to the front.

the car will take some time and in time will be a car that will be just like the old one. even DW was saying when the new smaller car came out, the drivers were complaining about the same crap, but it evolved

[Hayden Fan]

Bwah! Bwah! Somebody has to hate it, but because it is the guy who is the face of NASCAR, they make a big deal about it.

[e2mtt]

My point is: Is it possible that the basic design of the CoT makes a lousy race car? Being as it is a NASCAR mandated design, the teams can't just scrap it the way they would if it turned out to be an dead-end design.

If everybody's cars are tight and plow like houseboats, nobody wins, especially not the fans. The harder the car is to set up, the fewer teams will get it right on any given Sunday. It seems like the correct baseline would have been to create a car with lots of drag, that handled and turned wonderfully.

I haven't really had an opinion on the CoT, other then that they reminded me of the ugly big-top Daytona Spec "Grand Am" cars. However, this could turn out like the early IRL-spec Indycars, that were committee designed with too much weight in the back. They had a very nasty habit of backing into the outside wall at high speeds.

[trumperZ06]

PI$$ POOR Design... incorperating features that are new to NA$CAR !!!

Given time... the teams will encourage NA$CAR to make the changes necessary to get it right.

Kinda reminds one of the story...

" A Camel is just a horse that was designed by a comittee " !!!

[blakebeatty]

well, maybe Jr. will prefer the Hendrick car of tomorrow that he may soon be driving...

Dale Jr. leans toward Hendrick? The efforts to sign #8-Dale Earnhardt Jr. to a NASCAR driving contract for 2008 and beyond has reached a critical point, and the top two teams on Earnhardt’s list are the Chevrolet teams owned by Richard Childress and Rick Hendrick, according to men familiar with the negotiations. Earnhardt today is leaning toward a deal with Hendrick [NOTE: where would Earnhardt go? HMS has four Cup teams and all three drivers signed for a couple more years, unless some sort of deal with Haas CNC Racing or Ginn Racing would be worked out], largely because of Hendrick’s very strong engine program, sources here said yesterday. Earnhardt and veteran crew chief Tony Eury Jr., his cousin and close confidante as well as the man who has led him to many of his 17 Cup victories, have talked with both the Hendrick and Childress camps in recent weeks about the positives and negatives each team owner would have to offer, sources said yesterday. And Eury will have a major voice in the decision, because Earnhardt’s primary goal now, at age 32, is to win a championship.

[Haulin'AssAndTurnin Left]

If he wants to win a championship he should go to hendrick, if he want to do the popular thing he will go to RCR. If i was him i would go to Hendrick.

[harvick#1]

so Hendrick will then get rid of Mears I presume. cause in 09 all teams (only Roush) are forced to have only 4 teams