FanHouse BrettBodine

Sunday afternoon, the Sprint Cup Series makes its 15th trip back to the place where they said stock cars will never race, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. All this week, FanHouse will relive the best moments we've seen at the Brickyard.

On Monday, we watched as Jeff Gordon took his No. 24 Chevrolet Lumina (Talk about a throwback...) to victory lane at the legendary speedway in the inaugural running of the Brickyard 400. It was a great moment for NASCAR and its fans in the mid-west.

That same race, though, hosted another moment that will live in NASCAR lore for a long, long time. For Geoffrey Bodine its a memory he'd like to just forget:



Ah, Indianapolis. The city of non-brotherly love.

That didn't take long.

NASCAR confirmed Sunday morning at Atlanta Motor Speedway that they will switch to the new generation race car in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. The new car (I'm tired of calling it the Car of Tomorrow when its here today) will be raced full-time in the top NASCAR series next season.

"We're working on an '09 [Nationwide] car," Bodine said. "[Having it ready for] '09 is tentative. It's not set in stone but we're working on it. We've informed some of the Busch owners and we've got a prototype at the R&D center."

"There will be a different body style and different aerodynamic package," Bodine said. "We're working on all that stuff. We're just not there yet, still working through all that process.

Sporting several new safety features, a rear wing, and a front splitter, the next generation chassis and body style brought hope that NASCAR would finally apply some clarity and definition between the Sprint Cup Series and the Nationwide Series.

Instead, NASCAR will revert back to the old thinking of running two series that are hardly different, which will continue to lead to insane amounts of Cup regulars parading the Nationwide Series (formerly Busch).

The safety additions are without a doubt a good idea, but let's hope Bodine is right in that they will use a different body style and aerodynamics.

What happened to this fun idea?

One of the designs of the NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow project that has seemingly stayed under the radar has already played a large role in the outcome of at least one race for this new design.

Jeff Gordon banged, slammed, and brushed Jimmie Johnson's rear bumper in nearly every corner Sunday with about ten laps to go. One would have expected Johnson to eventually slide up the track and Gordon to slide right on by for the victory. But he didn't, and Gordon didn't.

The CoT is sporting a newly designed front end and almost fits with the rear end of another car like matching puzzle pieces. The front bumper is flatter and taller, allowing it to bump the car in front of it -- not lift it up.

Brett Bodine, a former driver and now NASCAR's Director of Cost Management, couldn't be happier with the design.

"The thing that's really impressing me is that with the bumpers being lined up, cars aren't spinning each other out when there is nose-to-tail contact. That's what the whole bumper design was about."

Jimmie Johnson sure benefited from the design Sunday at Martinsville. He feels its going to improve racing.

"The guy behind you can't just go in there and knock him out of the way. You've actually got to drive the car past him."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. had the same comments last week at Bristol, saying "it was kinda cool" that "when you hit them, it just throws them forward".

The CoT has now passed the short track test except for a few issues with foam padding and tailpipes. Those will be fixed and are relatively minor. However, the true test lies with Phoenix and beyond, as the cars start to hit speedways with more speed. For now, though? This car has run well, raced well, produced nothing drastically surprising, and things are only looking up.

Count me in as one of those CoT fans.