New cars may run full time in 2008

NASCAR is seriously considering mandating its Car of Tomorrow for all Nextel Cup races next season, a year ahead of schedule. But its winningest active driver, Jeff Gordon, has misgivings.

And cutting-edge team owner Ray Evernham wants to wait and see how the COT develops in the 16 races in which it will be required this season.

NASCAR originally planned to phase in the radical new design -- taller, wider, boxier, with adjustable aerodynamic wings fore and aft and enhanced safety features -- over three years, with 26 races in 2008 and all 36 in 2009.

But Nextel Cup director John Darby said during a two-day test session that ended here Thursday, “We’ve had a couple of car owners approach us and say, ‘Look, giddy-up, let’s go.’ ”

That is, get the phase-in over with next year.

“Whether we would expand the Car of Tomorrow schedule for 2007 is probably not likely,” Darby told a group of reporters at Bristol Motor Speedway. “But could we be all-in for 2008? I think that is very possible.”

Gordon, however, who admittedly had a terrible time adapting to the new cars during the tests here, said, “I think it’s too early to commit to that. I think there might be a lot of changes that may need to happen.”

Said Evernham, who fields Dodges for Kasey Kahne, Elliott Sadler and Scott Riggs, “It really depends on what happens in the 16 races this year. But if we don’t have a lot of problems, then certainly, because it’s very expensive and very time-consuming to try to do two programs [the COT and the current Cup car design] at the same time.”

The phase-in schedule was at the behest of team owners who feared they couldn’t build enough of the new cars fast enough.

“What has come to light is that this car is much easier to build, much faster, than the current cars we’re running,” Darby said.

Darby said that even with a consensus of owners, NASCAR still would have a lot of details to work out, such as whether parts vendors for the new cars would have adequate inventories for a full plunge by all teams in 2008.

Ed Hinton covers auto racing for Tribune newspapers.