Report: Nationwide COT to be used full time in ‘09
Quote selected text Published January 28th, 2008 in NASCAR News
Work continues on the Nationwide car of tomorrow program, with the four manufacturers helping to push up the timeline for development of the new car, Nationwide Series Director Joe Balash says.
Another wind tunnel test is planned, Balash said, after the four manufacturers in the series - Chevrolet, Ford, Dodge and Toyota - have constructed “identity” pieces for the car. The chassis is based on the Sprint Cup COT, but the body is all new and likely to be based on “heritage” cars for each manufacturer - though Toyota will likely be the only car maker to stick with the same model as in Sprint Cup.
“They’re all anxious to speed the process up, so we’re actually shortening the timeline that helps us get closer to locking some other things down that lets us move ahead with the rule book,” Balash said. “They all had pieces, gathered information and had to go back and do some work. They’ve done that work. They’re saying, ‘We can come back sooner than what we thought.’”
Balash said NASCAR’s plan is still to have the new car run the entire 2009 season, but officials from the sanctioning body have not formally announced the rollout.
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[Editor's Note: Oh well...so much for the rumors that the Busch/Nationwide Series might use Pony cars (Mustangs, Camaros, etc...to differentiate itself from Sprint Cup]
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What next a TOT (Truck of tomorrow) i thought the cot was to give a identity to the cup series if they wanted to go this route they should have started with the whatever series first and not cup
haha, i think someone should take the stickers from the truck series, put it on the COT and call it a “Ford F150″.
In response to Daqvid Jr. The COT’s Purpose was never to really give the cup cars their own identity. Yeah thats the way it turned out, yeah it was great, but they also want the Busch cars, sorry, Nationwide, to be safe to the drivers also. Personally, I hate the idea. The Nationwide cars are less stable then the cup cars so its a great car to learn how to not over drive and its perfect for a “Minor League” for NASCAR’s Cup series.
Daqvid Jr wrote:
Ummm the TOT was put in place during the 06 season and ran full time during the 07 season.
As far as the official announcement and pics of the cars, expect it to be around either the All-Star race weekend, or around the July 4th race weekend in Daytona.
Well so much for the different series having different cars. They could not let the jr. series be a learning series for the newbies, they have to go and make a COT for BUSCH. That way the big boys will be able to come
DOWN and again dominate the series that should be for the new kids on the block. I bet that a few of the owners 9 one or two most likely) and a few of the drivers ( again one or two) pressured NASCAR (I like the defination my kids gave me for NASCAR, Noncontact Athelitic Sport Centered Around Rednecks) to speed up the introduction of the NEW car so they could still get info and more practice on the tracks. I say, run Nationwide in CA. on Sat night, NASCAR on Sunday and make it more difficult for the top tier drivers from being in both races or at least seperate them so there is no advantage to the multi car teams running in the Sprint series…………Again, make the Cup race points for each lap be the points the drivers get each lap. You will see the best running in front because they could not overcome running in 30th for say 150 laps, just to come up and win in the last few. After 3 or 4 races, they’d be so far out of the points race, they could never overcome the differents……Just a thought…….
You do realize that along with being a body based off of the stock car (Camaro, Mustang, Challenger, Toyota???) The Nationwide COTs will also not have the Splitter or the Upside down Wing. Also the only thing they will share car wise is the Chassis, which I am all for 1 standard chassis because that not only helps out lower budget teams, but it also helps out all the parts suppliers.
Also on the topic of the points, lets get rid of them all together. The Champion is the person with the most wins, if there is a tie in that number at the end of the season they go to 2nd place finishes and so on…
all that this is going to do is open it back up to the cup teams to do more testing. just like they used it for years.
to all those saying, “i thought the nationwide series was getting its own identity,”if you all read it, it said that the manufacturers would use “heritage cars,” except for toyota which will use the cup model. now think dodge, chevy and ford, and what do heritage cars mean to you. now if that hasnt sank in, try replacing the word “heritage” with the word “pony” and you should get it then.
well they couldnt have the second tier outrunning the first tier could they lets face it the former busch series cars are faster then the cot
Fisha695 wrote:
Do you honestly believe throwing away your whole inventory of cars and chassis saves money? most low budget startup teams just buy used race cars. where are they going to get a good used cot? btw the front splitter will only last one race at a short track. how much is one of those? sorry i fail to see your logic.
A front splitter would cost about the same as a set of tires. It’s not a big deal, especially compared to engine costs. Also, buying one or two new COT’s will cost a lot less than buying 10 or 15 used cars. Beyond that, if the Nationwide cars are the same as the Cup cars, then by the end of 2008 there should be a reasonable amount of them on the market.
For the safer chassis features alone, it’s a good move.
I agree with JRT. Heritage = Pony.
I have no problems with them using the same chassis design in Cup and Nationwide. Safety is important for them too. Make sure the bodies are different from Cup and leave the wheel base different so its not an extra practice for Cup guys still.
1 Standard chassis helps out because they will not have to have their chassis custom made for each type of track, and the fact that they will not have to have custom parts made because they got some odd-ball 5 year old chassis.
And at least in my area Scrap prices are up, I could get a lot of money for a racecar going to the scrapyard
Also about the splitters, You must have missed the second sentence where I said that the Nationwide COTs will not have the splitter which NASCAR has already confirmed, Also go back to the races last year, the Splitters are pretty strong, so strong in fact that IRL/CCWS/F1 cars chassis is made of the same material.
So it looks like we’re in for bad racing in 2009 for the Nationwide series.
whether or not its a good move or not its still gonna put alot of single car teams out because they barely make it to the races half the time an dont have the money to buy used cot chassis. an wat theyre prolly gonna end up doin if they want to continue racin is sell the bare chassis to some of the late model guys an maybe a few to the east series. but theyll prolly have top sell three chassis to buy one cot chassis. we’ll see but i think were just gonna end up wit a mini cup series all over again.
IDK the COTs at Vegas testing were running faster then the old car… Maybe the racing will be better.