Smokey Yunick brought his Chevy to Daytona in 1968, the year after his little ol’ Chevelle beat the mighty factory teams of Chrysler and Ford to the pole for the 500...
Improved safety, lower cost and better racing because of changes in aerodynamics were the primary goals of NASCAR's COT. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
From the Monday Morning Crew Chief:
When Smokey Yunick brought his Chevy to Daytona in 1968, the year after his little ol’ Chevelle beat the mighty factory teams of Chrysler and Ford to the pole for the 500, he ran into some opposition from Bill Gazaway, the director of the NASCAR garage.
After an extensive inspection, Gazaway called Yunick into his office and gave him a long list of changes before his car would be declared legal. When Yunick protested, Gazaway’s answer was brief.
Fix it, he said.
An angry Yunick then stormed back into the garage, jumped into the Chevelle, fired it up and drove his racing machine out of the track through the tunnel under Turn 4. According to legend, Yunick drove his race car all the way down Volusia Boulevard and back to his garage near the Halifax River without any fuel in a tank drained by inspectors.
Perhaps what goes around comes around. Over the past several months and on New Year’s wish lists, the officials of NASCAR have been hearing much the same message from fans and the media about its COT chassis that Yunick heard that day in Daytona.
Fix it.
If only there was an easy list of things that can be done to change the COT for the better.
You won’t find a soul who believes the COT is a good-looking car, because of a front splitter held in place by brackets, a 2-inch-taller greenhouse, a short front overhang and a long rear overhang that carries a wing. But appearance wasn’t at the top of the list of criteria established by NASCAR. Improved safety, lower cost and better racing because of changes in aerodynamics were the primary goals.
Is the COT certifiably safer? Yes.
Has it saved money for teams with smaller budgets? Yes. (But there’s an asterisk here. Most of the teams in the back of the pack have “used cars” from the major teams, who continue to churn out new chassis in an effort to get weight lower down in the top-heavy COT.)
Has the COT produced better racing than its predecessor?
That’s the tough question.
There are no longer any “cars of yesterday” in Cup competition to which to compare the COT, now entering its third full year. In some key respects, though, the COT has proven to be a better car.
The reign of the COT’s immediate predecessor included relatively few last-lap passes at Daytona or Talladega, for instance. On the intermediate speedways, there was a constant situation of a faster car catching the leader and then not being able to pass because of “aero push.” From the perspective of drivers, the old cars were finicky when it came to mid-race adjustments, because of the use of coil-bound front springs that made the cars so dependent on aerodynamics in the corners.
The COT has resolved the problem of overtaking on the superspeedways, at least. In 2009, three of the four races at Daytona and Talladega were decided by last-lap passes under green while the last race at Talladega ended under caution. If anything, the chief complaint now is that it’s too easy to pass, which allows drivers to hang at the rear to avoid wrecks. Another complaint is that the COT’s ability to bump-draft so effectively has been curtailed by NASCAR.
On the intermediate speedways, there’s also been some improvement. You don’t hear drivers complain about not being able to pass because of “aero push.” Now that the asphalt has cured at places like Charlotte, Chicago and Kansas City, high and low grooves have created more side-by-side racing at those facilities with the COT as well.
The biggest problems with the COT remain the same as with its predecessor. If one team hits the combination correctly, then it’s tough for anybody else to catch the leader, much less pass him. The other problem: difficulty in making chassis adjustments on the pit road while maintaining track position, which reinforces the first problem.
