NASCAR has introduced a new program to develop a universal car for Nextel Cup series in the coming years. Loosly based on existing designs, the new vehicle is meant to increase safety and provide teams with a common design that will help to reduce costs and provide closer racing.


Car of Tomorrow

Brett Bodine who is a former driver/owner and now is NASCAR's director of cost research took one of the prototype cars out on the track at Daytona for some testing. According to Bodine, current teams have built 11-12 prototypes for testing. He would like to see 5 or 6 of those cars to show up next week for more testing, to include drafting pratice to evaluate the performance versus the current cars.

The first laps taken by Bodine in the new car were a 48.19 at 186.760 mph using a 1.25 inch restrictor plate. He found the car to be stable at speed but is looking forward to the performance in the draft. 2007 is going to be the transition year to the new car. However, it is not clear at this time if these cars will manufacturer specific in powerplant only or if there will be other differences or if even the powerplants will even be different. Obviously a lot of questions are left to be answered before the car is introduced for next season.