Drivers, teams face host of significant changes in '07

	Though unloved to this point by drivers, the Car of Tomorrow will play a major role in determining who wins this year's Nextel Cup. Streeter Lecka/Getty Images for NASCAR

What are the significant areas of change for the Nextel Cup Series in 2007, and equally important, will they make any difference?

1. The Car of Tomorrow

Level of Impact: High.

The COT will become a reality in the Nextel Cup at Bristol in the fifth race of the season on March 25 and is scheduled for 15 more races in 2007. It is a landmark change for NASCAR, a car with its adjustable front splitter and rear wing and driver sitting in the middle that will be visually different for race fans, a new engineering challenge for teams and an adjustment period for drivers to learn the handling characteristics.

How will it be accepted in the grandstands? How will it drive?

This much is certain: The COT is the most significant change in NASCAR this year and the most important since the Chase format began in '04.

As the moment of truth approaches, the criticism of the COT by drivers has subsided -- a little -- into a wait-and-see attitude. But what choice do they have? NASCAR is committed to the COT, citing improved safety, contained costs and better racing. Nonethless, drivers such as Tony Stewart have found it hard to see anything positive in the car, as he said on his SIRIUS radio show: "I did get a chance to drive the Car of Tomorrow finally. Oh, what a basket of junk. I was not impressed with it. I ran it at Lakeland, Florida on a short track. I can't wait to get that sled on a big track and see how it drives.

"It drives like a station wagon, an old station wagon, like an old Oldsmobile station wagon, green with wood panel trim on the sides. Granted, I know we were on harder tires than what they would run there but, boy, it didn't feel good. You know, it's like anything else, though. I'm sure the more we'll run it the better we'll get the setups and all that."

A couple of weeks later, at Daytona, Stewart made this reassessment: "We ran it at Lakeland for 40 laps and a lot of the guys were running on the Hoosier bias-ply tires; the compound was comparable to what you run. We ran there with radial tires, which is what we're going to run on but it was a harder compound -- too hard for that track. I'm not sure what we learned. From my standpoint, I'm not sure that I got a real good feel of it because we didn't have the right tires. Ask me after Bristol and I should be better able to comment on it."

Stewart, of course, is not alone in his uncertainty.

Last season, all five of Kevin Harvick's Cup victories were on tracks that will use the COT this season. Like everybody else, the No. 29 Childress team can toss those setups into the trash.

Harvick has taken the change in stride.