Car of Tomorrow
The Car of Tomorrow was the common name used for the chassis of the NASCAR Cup Series and Xfinity Series race cars. The car was part of a five-year project to create a safer vehicle following several deaths in competition, particularly the crash at the 2001 Daytona 500 that killed Dale Earnhardt.
Used as the fifth generation car style for the Cup Series, the original Car of Tomorrow body design was larger and boxier than the design it replaced, and criticized for its generic appearance and poor handling characteristics. The CoT, however, implemented dramatic safety improvements, cost less to maintain, and was intended to make for closer competition.
The car was introduced in the 2007 Cup Series season at the Food City 500 on March 25 and ran a partial schedule of 16 races. The plan was to require all teams to use the new car in 2009, but NASCAR officials moved the date up to the 2008 season as a cost-saving measure. The Car of Tomorrow body style was retired by NASCAR after the 2012 Ford EcoBoost 400. The sixth-generation car, which featured the additional chassis safety improvements as well as improved body designs, debuted in 2013; many teams simply removed the CoT car bodies, added the new chassis safety improvements, and installed a sixth-generation car body. The chassis was used until the end of the 2021 season before eventually replaced with the Next Gen car in 2022.
In 2010, the Xfinity Series debuted its own version of the CoT in a partial schedule, using the same chassis but different bodies and a shorter wheelbase; teams could take old Sprint Cup cars, change the bodies, and run them in the Nationwide Series, provided they passed recertification. The car was required for full-time competition in 2011. No deaths have occurred in NASCAR Cup Series competition since the Car of Tomorrow was introduced.
Design
On January 11, 2006, NASCAR revealed the Car of Tomorrow, also referred to as the "Car of the Future" during its development, after a five-year design program sparked mainly by the death of Dale Earnhardt Sr. in a final-lap crash during the 2001 Daytona 500. During the prior season, three drivers had perished in on-track accidents. The then-current cars were based on a design by Holman Moody first used for the 1966 Ford Fairlane. The primary design considerations for the new car were "safety innovations, performance and competition, and cost efficiency for teams."The CoT incorporated several safety improvements in comparison to the older car. The driver's seat was moved four inches toward the center, and the roll cage shifted three inches to the rear, while the car was designed two inches taller and four inches wider. Larger crumple zones, designed to absorb impact energy, and impact absorbing foam were built into the car on both sides. Replacing the front valance was an adjustable splitter, a piece of fiber-reinforced plastic used on the bottom front of the car to produce downforce. The car's exhaust exits on the right side, which diverts heat from the driver. The fuel cell was strengthened using thicker material, with a smaller capacity, down from, which as of 2007 had become standard in all cars.
Image:Auto Show 067.jpg|thumb|left|A Car of Tomorrow body with Toyota Camry decals
NASCAR officials initially claimed the car was less dependent on aerodynamics, comparing its performance to the trucks of the Craftsman Truck Series. It initially featured a detached wing, which had not been used since the Dodge Charger Daytona and Plymouth Superbird in 1970, in place of a rear spoiler. The windshield was more upright to prevent collapse in the event of a rollover, with the added effect of increased drag. The radiator air intake was placed below the front bumper of the car, to reduce overheating caused by debris-clogged grilles. The front bumper itself was more box-like and the front airdam was gapped, as opposed to being a flush piece on the older cars, to reduce aerodynamics and slow down the cars.
All cars were required to fit the same set of templates, using a laser inspection system device nicknamed "the claw" that was designed to fit over the new cars. In the first two races at Bristol and Martinsville Speedway, the garages were opened one day early and the inspections took up to 10 hours so that everyone could get a better grip on the new unified template. NASCAR's old rules had a different set of templates for each manufacturer. During the CoT era, NASCAR attempted to eliminate "gray area" and ambiguity within the rule book, and frequently adjusted the rules to ensure that different car manufacturers have relatively equal cars; one such instance of rule book changes against gray areas occurred after the 2008 Sprint All-Star Challenge, in which Sam Hornish, Jr. ran a car with skewed setup to finish second in the Showdown and advance to the All-Star Race, as well in 2012 after Hendrick Motorsports' teams ran with skewed sway bars to win five races during the spring portion of the season. With the transition to the Generation 6 car, the claw continues to be used along with manufacturer-specific templates until 2018, when both was replaced by the laser-based Optical Scanning System.
On January 15, 2010, Cup Series director John Darby informed teams that NASCAR would transition back to the spoiler, to increase downforce and prevent airborne accidents the rear wing was believed to cause.
Car models
Although initially branded as the Monte Carlo SS, Chevrolet's Car of Tomorrow debuted as the Impala SS. After using the Charger name on the old car since 2005, Dodge utilized the Avenger name on the CoT, coinciding with the model's reintroduction into the production market. However, for 2008 the Charger name returned for use on the CoT due to popular demand. Ford continued to use the Fusion model while Toyota continued to use the Camry.Dimensions
This chart lists the CoT's dimensions compared with the dimensions of their production car counterparts.| Model | Length | Width | Height | Wheelbase | Weight* |
| Ford Fusion | |||||
| Chevrolet Monte Carlo | |||||
| Chevrolet Impala SS | |||||
| Dodge Charger | |||||
| Dodge Avenger | |||||
| Toyota Camry | |||||
| Holden Commodore SS-V Redline | |||||
| NASCAR CoT | excluding driver, fuel, fluids and seats; including driver, fuel, fluids and seats |
Testing
The Car of Tomorrow was first tested in December 2005 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Next it tested at the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway, then on NASCAR's two shortest tracks, Bristol and Martinsville, the 1.5-mile Charlotte Motor Speedway, the 2.66 mile Talladega Superspeedway, and 2.0-mile Michigan International Speedway. Former NASCAR driver, and former Cup Series pace car driver and Director of Cost Research Brett Bodine also tested the prototype car against cars prepared by current NASCAR teams.Drivers tested the CoT concurrently with the old car at some NASCAR tests and at special NASCAR-authorized sessions. Other testing sessions occurred at the half-mile Greenville-Pickens Speedway, Caraway Speedway in Asheboro, NC, and the one-mile North Carolina Speedway, none of which were Cup Series tracks at the time, and therefore did not fall under NASCAR's restrictions.
Implementation
The Car of Tomorrow was first raced at the 2007 Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, the season's fifth race. The tracks that saw the CoT twice in 2007 besides Bristol and Martinsville International Speedway were Phoenix Raceway, Richmond Raceway, Dover International Speedway, and New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Other than Talladega, Darlington Raceway and the road course races at Sonoma Raceway and Watkins Glen International ran the CoT once each in 2007.Original implementation plans called for the CoT to be used at 26 events in 2008, starting with both races at Daytona, including the season-opening Daytona 500 and related events, the spring race at Talladega and Michigan, both races at Auto Club Speedway, Pocono Raceway and the event at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Based on the success of the February 28 test at Bristol, NASCAR considered requiring the CoT for the full schedule in 2008 in order to avoid applying two sets of rules, adding all three events at Charlotte Motor Speedway, as well as both races at Atlanta and Texas Motor Speedway, and single races at Chicagoland Speedway, Kansas Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway one year earlier than scheduled. This was confirmed on Tuesday, May 22, 2007, by NASCAR. Had NASCAR continued with the original schedule of implication, the other tracks would have been added in 2009. Apparently 2008 was not going to be when the CoT would make its debut. It was initially going to debut in mid to late 2005, and possibly 2004 according to NASCAR's R&D at the time. But the tests with this version plus negative driver comments led to the creation of the splitter and the wing, thus delaying implementation until 2007.
Debut
On March 25, 2007, the CoT debuted in its first NASCAR-sanctioned race. Kyle Busch won the race, the first win for the Chevrolet Impala since Wendell Scott's historic race in 1963.Reactions to the CoT's performance were mixed. Dale Earnhardt Jr., after finishing 7th, said, "It wasn't a disaster like everybody anticipated. It worked out, I reckon. Racing was about the same." Drivers were also impressed with the car's ability to bump other competitors without causing a spin, and NASCAR officials were pleased with the improvements in safety.
Image:Sterling Marlin 2008 Miccosukee Chevy Impala.jpg|thumb|left|Profile view of CoT, driven by Sterling Marlin, at Daytona International Speedway
Several drivers and pundits expressed distaste for the car and what they perceived as a less exciting style of racing created by it. Kyle Busch, despite winning at Bristol, commented that "they suck" during his victory lane interview. Retired driver and TV analyst Rusty Wallace stated on ESPN that the car created a boring, single-file racing environment with little of the passing, action, or crashing that has made NASCAR popular, though after NASCAR announced the CoT would run the full schedule, he stated that it was "one of the best decisions NASCAR had ever made." Drivers who placed well at Bristol, Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton, claimed that the car allowed the use of a second passing lane not usually present at Bristol.
A major problem with the car's initial race was its front splitter. One car's splitter running into the tire of another car beside it sometimes punctured the second car's tire. There were no problems with the splitter causing tire failure at the car's second race.
Another major problem was that the safety foam used in the side of the car would catch fire, engulfing the driver's cockpit with smoke. NASCAR decided to make modifications before the April 21 Subway Fresh Fit 500 in Avondale, Arizona. An additional side effect of the foam occurred during side-impacts, as Brian Vickers experienced at Watkins Glen, when the foam would be sheared out of the car leaving debris on the racetrack.
During the 2007 UAW-Ford 500, the CoT's debut on a superspeedway track at Talladega, NASCAR assigned a restrictor plate to allow the engines to run at around 8,800 RPM due to the less aerodynamic design of the CoT. The previous generation car's engine would normally run around 7,000 RPM with a plate. This was the most open restrictor plate to race at Talladega since 1988.