The NASCAR Of Tomorrow

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But after fretting over safety, the NASCAR design team got to thinking about a more competitive race car. In the past decade, teams have spent big on making their cars aerodynamically efficient. One consequence, though, is that these cars create incredibly turbulent wakes at the longer and faster tracks. In other words, the aerodynamics have become more important than the cars, drivers and engines, and passing has become especially difficult.

The solution, the one that literally sticks out, is the addition of a wing to the rear deck of all cars to replace the spoiler now in use, which is what racing outfits like Formula 1 have been doing for years. The wing retains the aerodynamics of a lead car, but the difference is that trailing cars get to play in smooth air and get the opportunity to make high-speed passes.

A side benefit to all this safety and speed is that the Car of Tomorrow is cheaper to run. That's because it can be adjusted to race on different kinds of tracks, which means that a single team doesn't have to enter different cars in different races. Right now, the No. 16 car that Craig Biffle drives at the .526-mile Martinsville Speedway, for instance, isn't the vehicle he drives at the 2.66-mile Talladega. The new design, however, is more generic, allowing cars to adjust for tracks by adjusting the rear wing and the front splitter. "For the price of a wing, you can change the entire feel of the race car," says Pemberton.

Of course, crew chiefs will still be tinkering like mad with suspensions, sway bars and other mechanical issues that can give them that small edge. In fact, they may be more necessary than ever. The new car has a redesigned fuel bladder that will carry four to five fewer gallons of gasoline, which will add to the number of pit stops and complicate the chess game of refueling and tire changes that crew chiefs in every race have to play.

Despite the modifications, NASCAR race cars will remain what they are at heart: hand-built, exquisitely tuned, 850-h.p. machines--concert grands on fat tires. And the Car of Tomorrow will pay homage to the kind of deft driving that launched the sport 58 years ago and has made it the hot sports property it is today. That's because by downplaying the aerodynamics, the design will reward racers like Stewart and Jeff Gordon, who are known for their racing skills. "It will take the sport back to where we were 10 or 12 years ago when we saw more two-wide [side-by-side] racing," says Petty. "If you enjoyed watching the Dale Seniors and Darrell Waltrips do that, this is for you." WING This aerodynamic part can be adjusted so the car's handling can be tailored to different tracks EXHAUST For safety, the pipe runs through the body and out the right side, drawing heat away from the driver A BOXIER BODY The new prototype is squarer in shape than today's car and therefore less aerodynamic. As a result, the driver's skills become more important in winning a race

Prototype

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