Mon Feb 18 11:41:30 2008

Comment | Email | Print

It's a new world in Sprint Cup plate racing

---

Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - The new Car of Tomorrow has certainly appeared to change the landscape of restrictor-plate racing.

In 2007, Chevrolet finished one-two in three of the four "plate" races. Only a Jamie McMurray victory in the No.26 Ford at the July Pepsi 400 race prevented a clean sweep for the "bowtie."

Fast forward to 2008. Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch led a one-two finish for Dodge and gave Roger Penske his first Daytona 500 victory to go along with his 14 Indianapolis 500 wins. In fact, six Dodges finished in the top-10.

Meanwhile, Toyota-powered cars were the most dominant throughout the event, leading a total of 138 of 200 laps. In particular, Joe Gibbs Racing's Kyle Busch (86 laps led), Denny Hamlin (32) and Tony Stewart (16) showed the world that the team's switch from Chevrolet power to Toyota power will not keep them from competing for wins right away.

It also appears that the COT has made passing easier. There were a total of 42 lead changes among 16 drivers on Sunday and that doesn't include all the lead changes that didn't occur at the start/finish line. Compare that to 13 lead changes among nine drivers in 2007, 32 among 18 in 2006 and 22 among 12 in 2005.

Although Newman's winning pass took place with the help of teammate Kurt Busch, the single-car "slingshot" pass worked for most of the weekend. The maneuverability of the COT in traffic was obvious, as despite three-wide and even some four-wide racing, there were no "big" accidents. Most of the problems were two or at most three-car incidents that the field managed to avoid.

Congratulations to NASCAR for making restrictor-place racing fun to watch again. No more single-file, follow-the-leader racing with drivers scared to pull out of line for fear of sliding back in the pack. The pass is back at Daytona and as a fan, I'm grateful.

One note: don't expect the failure of Hendrick Motorsports to be a year-long situation. This was a restrictor-plate race where strange things happen more often than not. Jeff Gordon finished 39th with a unusual suspension failure, and two-time defending series champion Jimmie Johnson had a rare pit-road problem and then got involved in an accident. That isn't likely to happen very often.

The series is now off to the California Speedway, where Gordon and Johnson finished second and third, respectively in the spring race, and Johnson won the Labor Day event.