The Case for Keeping the COT

I got this from Mike Smith, who does great cartoons on NASCAR. I like Mike's perspective on not going back to "stock" cars, and knowing what I know from being in the sport, I think he makes some cogent arguments, particularly about safety.

A stock car can’t come from the showroom floor
By Mike Smith

As Ronald Reagan said in a presidential debate with Jimmy Carter: “There you go again.” Those are exactly the words that come to my mind when I hear a NASCAR fan say that the sport should return to using cars that are in their stock configuration. Time and time again I have heard and read this ridiculous comment from fans of Sprint Cup racing who are convinced the sport would improve if it turned the clock back to the days when drivers raced the same car they drove to the grocery store every week. Competing in cars taken from the showroom floor makes about as much sense as adding a row of seats to the Wright brother’s plane and calling it a commercial jetliner.

Pretend for a moment that the cars we drive on the street were used in NASCAR. How exciting would it be to watch a pack of front-wheel-drive cars with six-cylinder engines huff and puff their way around the high banks of Talladega? (The Impala SS is the only model sold with a V8)

Frankly, I’m not sure these cars could maintain enough speed to create the centrifugal force needed to keep the cars from sliding down the banking. And since the engines and transmissions of these cars aren’t engineered to withstand the sustained high RPMs we see in Sprint Cup racing, there wouldn’t be a single car capable of finishing 50 laps let alone 500. If you think the racing is boring now, imagine what a snoozer this race would be.

And what about safety? It would be absurd for anyone to suggest that welding in a roll cage and bolting in a racing seat to a car straight off of the showroom floor is enough to protect a driver.
I’ve read a few comments from racing fans suggesting that the stock bodies should be applied to the current racecars. Assuming this is possible, how would NASCAR insure that one manufacturer didn’t have an aerodynamic advantage? The sport’s pursuit of parity on the racetrack would die.

I don’t think the COT is perfect. I can understand the frustrations many fans have regarding the cookie-cutter look of the COT and I think there has to be a balance between trying to achieve parity and allowing for some individuality in the design area. But going back to racing cars from a car dealer’s showroom floor is an option that makes no sense.