The car of the future
According to Dustin Long, it doesn't look much like a car.
NASCAR is testing the COF at Atlanta today, and Dustin stuck around to take a look. The COF is the larger, safer, less aerodynamic car that NASCAR wants to roll out (supposedly) at next year's Talladega race and then run full time in 2007.
Dustin's reaction: "It doesn't look like a car. I'm not a car guy, but it doesn't look like a car. It looks like a sports car, one of those Grand Am cars ... it looks weird."
That's Dustin's take via cell phone. And, it's true, Dustin's not a car guy. (Neither am I, for that matter.) So keep in mind that if Dustin notices something different about the NASCAR car, it's different.
More when I hear something.
Update #1 (1:20 p.m.): We can confirm that the Car of the Future does have roof flaps.
Dustin called to report that Jeff Burton, one of six drivers testing the COF today at Atlanta, spun coming out of Turn 4 and went through the grass. Burton's explanation: The car got tight and went around.
The future, and Burton, were unhurt.
Carl Edwards, yesterday's winner, reports over the radio that he's having fun, but he nearly brought out the second COF (caution of the future) when he got a little too close to the wall.
Due to recent automated spamming attacks on our blogs, we are temporarily requiring commenters to authenticate themselves via TypeKey® before posting comments to any News & Record blog in order to prevent denials of service. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.