Drivers Divided on Car of Tomorrow

Kyle Busch celebrates at the finish line after winning the NASCAR Nextel Cup Food City 500 auto race in Bristol, Tenn., Sunday, March 25, 2007. (AP Photo/John Russell) (John Russell - AP)

"I thought the COT handled poorly enough that the guys actually didn't run over each other because they didn't have good control of their car," Martin said. "It was a cleaner race than what we normally see because the cars were so hard to control, they weren't able to get in there and mix it up.

"It's hard for me to understand how they are ever going to get this car to race well consistently."

But opinions differed across the garage.

"I may be wrong," Burton said, "but from my point of view, it seemed like just another race at Bristol."

And noted COT critic Jeff Gordon had softened his stance after a third-place finish.

"There were positives," he said. "We made passes on the outside I was surprised by. I'm still not crazy about this thing, but it's growing on me."

But Gordon also explained that his main beef with the COT is that it's different from what he's used to. Chevrolet rolled out an Impala SS for the COT, which will be phased into competition over the next year, and Gordon prefers his old Monte Carlo.

"The current car drives better, it's got more downforce, it's got more grip, it has better feel," he said. "So if you compare (the COT) to that car, you're not going to like it.

"But if NASCAR sees the results that they want to see on the race track, then we need to get rid of the Monte Carlo and just go to this thing because you're never going to like it compared to the car that we have."

NASCAR seemed pleased after the race. Competition director Robin Pemberton praised the way the COT held up in accidents and helped midlevel teams compete.

"Probably 99 percent of the time, you have really good races here. From the tower, I thought it was a good race," he said. "We had a couple of hard impacts, and the car did what it was supposed to do and absorbed energy."

The COT now goes to Martinsville Speedway, another short track that will make it difficult to determine the car's impact. So it will take at least another month, when the car goes to Phoenix and Darlington Raceway, to understand this new era of NASCAR.

Until then, everyone will just have to try his best to get comfortable with the new car.