Has The CoT Leveled The Playing Field?

Yesterday, I was all set to talk about how Chevy is kicking everybody's ass with the car of tomorrow. Ford driver Greg Biffle and the stats would even back me up.

Despite putting down the fastest COT test lap in Richmond on Tuesday, Biffle says Chevy is dominating:

"We were probably the best in 2005 as a manufacturer, and then in '06 and '07 Chevrolet is back up top where they've been most of the time. And it's not really a surprise to us to see that they're running as well as they are. They've got a bunch of great teams – Gibbs, Hendrick, Childress just off the top are very, very strong race teams. Technically, there's one of us, if you will. We have Roush and Yates over in the Ford camp. If you were to say we had three Roush conglomerates all running Fords, then the tables might be balanced a little different, but they've got three strong, strong teams and three strong teams with good drivers driving Chevys. That's something we know we have to battle. They've been a little bit better at it and, let's face it, you take Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin and all those guys and feeding a little bit of information back to Chevrolet, it'll trickle around to those teams a little bit faster. But in our organization all we have is us – we have our five teams to gather that information and use it within ourselves. It's tough to beat the odds. The odds are there are more Chevrolet teams and better cars."

The race stats definitely speak to that:

The Impalas ran the show at Bristol, leading 487 of 504 laps and finishing with eight cars in the Top 10 positions. It was more of the same in Martinsville where the Chevys led 489 of 500 laps and took the top seven positions.

But testing headlines don't tell a story of dominance:

Busch fastest in final Richmond test session (Dodge)
Sorenson ends fastest at Richmond (Dodge)
Biffle fastest in Richmond CoT test (Ford)
Kenny Wallace paces Richmond evening test (Chevy) -- Go Herman!

Even Toyota made a decent showing in testing with two cars in the Top 10 in three out of four sessions, including Dave Blaney (4th, 4th and 9th) and Michael Waltrip (7th, 9th). Johnny Benson, who hasn't raced a Cup car in a year and a half, tested 2nd Tuesday afternoon in a team that hasn't even attempted to qualify this season.

Does this mean that NASCAR has successfully leveled the playing field despite their promise that the car of tomorrow would improve competition?

I have to agree with Alan Gustafson, crew chief for the #5 Chevy, who said, "The chassis stuff, I'm okay with. That's for safety. But the body stuff, that's definitely not a safety issue. That's just to try to level the field out."

Of course it is.

Who remembers industrial arts class where you had to build your own car out of a block of wood? It was all about the aero. Aero's a huge part a part of racing--but NASCAR doesn't want it to be. NASCAR wants to keep all teams competitive and hang on to sponsors.

If NASCAR was actually trying to improve competition, they'd start by tossing the restrictor plates.