Pemberton: No 2008 COT Rule Changes

NASCAR officials apparently took the night off Saturday night in Charlotte after judging the comments made the sport's vice president of competition.

Robin Pemberton told the NASCAR Scene Monday that NASCAR is "staying the course" with the current rules package on the now-full time Car of Tomorrow package:

"We're going to remain firm on our rules," Pemberton said. "There's no rule changes coming along."

Pemberton said NASCAR usually talks with teams about the following season's rules from mid-August to early September. Talks this year indicated teams wanted the rules to remain constant from year to year.

"We're pleased with the progress teams have made," Pemberton said. "As the teams have made their improvements, maybe early on they were looking for rule changes, but as they found things to get their drivers and teams competitive, they have come back and said, 'OK, let's stay the course on the rules and regulations, and we'll get another year under their belt.'"

I've gotta say, after watching Saturday night's race at Lowe's Motor Speedway -- a track that bears similarities to a good portion of the tracks on the Sprint Cup schedule -- this is a complete mistake, even if the teams were supposedly on board with it.

And I say supposedly because nearly every driver who led Saturday night's race and later found themselves in traffic complained bitterly about how horrible the cars drove when they didn't have the clean air advantage that the leader has.

That, apparently, is what NASCAR wants more of, and I frankly just don't get it.

Is there really no engineer out there who could come up with some minute changes that increase mechanical grip in the car? Does this sport really have to pander to the race leader?

If you look at the stats, this season is showing a high number of lead changes in most events. For example, Saturday night's race boasted 26 lead changes, though I'd be sure hard-fought to remember them all despite sitting in the grandstands.

Did those lead changes happen between two race leaders contending for the top spot during a green flag run? Not too often.

Instead, NASCAR had the benefit of at least two rounds of green flag pit stops that boost the number of leaders as cars hit pit road. And thanks to the smaller 18-gallon fuel cell in the Car of Tomorrow chassis, teams have to pit more -- leading to inflated stats versus when the series ran a 22-gallon tank.

I suppose NASCAR has a big, delicate plan about 2008 (say hello debris cautions!) or is anticipating teams will find that mechanical grip over the off-season in the mouse-sized box teams have to play around in, but I don't see how the racing will improve.

The new car is great for short tracks and superspeedways, but when it comes to being racy on the majority of tracks I give it quite a low grade, and NASCAR's insistence on leaving the rules alone with the expectation of teams finding better ways to race it isn't a good policy.