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CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - NASCAR will use the Car of Tomorrow exclusively in 2008, a year earlier than planned.
The COT was scheduled to run 16 races this season and be phased into competition during the next two years. But costs skyrocketed while car owners tried to maintain two programs - the current car, and the COT - and NASCAR said Wednesday it will move up the date if teams agreed.
"The majority of car owners actually came to us and said 'Now that we are up and running the car, it doesn't make sense to have two parallel programs moving forward,"' competition director Robin Pemberton said. "It seems to us that everyone is working on the Car of Tomorrow now and ready to use it exclusively."
The COT was a seven-year project by NASCAR to design a universal car that is safer, less expensive and better for racing. It's been used in five events this season, all won by drivers for Hendrick Motorsports. The next COT race is June 3 in Dover, Del.
Drivers have been critical of the COT, complaining about its handling and calling it difficult to drive.
"I don't like doing two different cars - it's one or the other," Dale Earnhardt Jr. said this month. "I'd go full time to the COT right now. Why not? We're all struggling with it. We might as well get all the time we can with it week in and week out, even if it drives us all crazy."
But Jeff Gordon, winner of two COT races, is hesitant because the car has yet to race on a 1.5-mile track.
"Without being on a mile-and-a-half track, I don't see how we can just go completely forward with it," Gordon said. "I'm pretty optimistic about the way things are going right now. Obviously we're running good with it. But I still think there are things that need to evolve with this car that are not there yet."
NASCAR has been pleased with the car through its first five events and cites an average margin of victory of .505 seconds - compared with 1.286 seconds in the same five races last season - as proof the car has improved racing.
NASCAR also says there have been six fewer did-not-finish results through the same race sequence, and 13 teams have used the same chassis for three of the five races.
NASCAR also recognizes the car is a work in progress. Series officials had hoped teams would want to use the COT full time in 2008 because more use produces more information on how to make improvements.
"We feel like making this decision now gives teams an idea of what is coming and lets them put more resources into the new car," Pemberton said. "Teams can work on program for next year and everyone will be able to get a better grasp on the entire project."
The Toyota teams have been the loudest proponents for going strictly to the COT because focusing on one program could alleviate many of the manufacturer's struggles. Toyota's teams have struggled to make races this season, the automaker's first in the Nextel Cup Series.
"It will help us tremendously because we're a startup organization and it would help us streamline our efforts," said Michael Waltrip, who is running a three-car team. "It will save everybody money. It will be more competitive going forward and I look forward to it being all-in right away."
The COT was scheduled to run 16 races this season and be phased into competition during the next two years. But costs skyrocketed while car owners tried to maintain two programs - the current car, and the COT - and NASCAR said Wednesday it will move up the date if teams agreed.
"The majority of car owners actually came to us and said 'Now that we are up and running the car, it doesn't make sense to have two parallel programs moving forward,"' competition director Robin Pemberton said. "It seems to us that everyone is working on the Car of Tomorrow now and ready to use it exclusively."
The COT was a seven-year project by NASCAR to design a universal car that is safer, less expensive and better for racing. It's been used in five events this season, all won by drivers for Hendrick Motorsports. The next COT race is June 3 in Dover, Del.
Drivers have been critical of the COT, complaining about its handling and calling it difficult to drive.
"I don't like doing two different cars - it's one or the other," Dale Earnhardt Jr. said this month. "I'd go full time to the COT right now. Why not? We're all struggling with it. We might as well get all the time we can with it week in and week out, even if it drives us all crazy."
But Jeff Gordon, winner of two COT races, is hesitant because the car has yet to race on a 1.5-mile track.
"Without being on a mile-and-a-half track, I don't see how we can just go completely forward with it," Gordon said. "I'm pretty optimistic about the way things are going right now. Obviously we're running good with it. But I still think there are things that need to evolve with this car that are not there yet."
NASCAR has been pleased with the car through its first five events and cites an average margin of victory of .505 seconds - compared with 1.286 seconds in the same five races last season - as proof the car has improved racing.
NASCAR also says there have been six fewer did-not-finish results through the same race sequence, and 13 teams have used the same chassis for three of the five races.
NASCAR also recognizes the car is a work in progress. Series officials had hoped teams would want to use the COT full time in 2008 because more use produces more information on how to make improvements.
"We feel like making this decision now gives teams an idea of what is coming and lets them put more resources into the new car," Pemberton said. "Teams can work on program for next year and everyone will be able to get a better grasp on the entire project."
The Toyota teams have been the loudest proponents for going strictly to the COT because focusing on one program could alleviate many of the manufacturer's struggles. Toyota's teams have struggled to make races this season, the automaker's first in the Nextel Cup Series.
"It will help us tremendously because we're a startup organization and it would help us streamline our efforts," said Michael Waltrip, who is running a three-car team. "It will save everybody money. It will be more competitive going forward and I look forward to it being all-in right away."
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